World War I No. 1 Squadron was established as a unit of the
Australian Flying Corps (AFC) at
Point Cook, Victoria, in January 1916 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Edgar Reynolds. With a complement of 28 officers, 195 airmen, no aircraft and little training, it sailed for Egypt in mid-March 1916, arriving at
Suez a month later. There it came under the control of the
5th Wing of the
Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Major Foster Rutledge, an Australian serving in the RFC, took command on 1 June. After training in England and Egypt, the unit was declared operational at its new headquarters in
Heliopolis on 12 June, when it took over aircraft belonging to
No. 17 Squadron RFC. Its three
flights were, however, operating in isolation at different bases in the
Sinai Desert, and the squadron did not reunite until December. Flying primitive and poorly armed
Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 two-seat biplanes, its primary roles during this period of the
Sinai campaign were reconnaissance—including aerial photography—and artillery spotting for the
British Army. No. 1 Squadron pilots attached to
No. 14 Squadron RFC took part in the
Battle of Romani in July and August. In September and October, B and C Flights, led by Captains
Oswald Watt and
Richard Williams respectively, undertook bombing and reconnaissance missions in support of the
Australian Light Horse in northern Sinai. , Egypt, 1917|alt=Full-length outdoor portrait of six men in military uniforms in front of a military biplane with a machine gun mounted on the upper wing On 12 September 1916, the British began to refer to No. 1 Squadron as
No. 67 (Australian) Squadron RFC. This practice continued until January 1918, when the unit officially became known as No. 1 Squadron AFC. The unit received the first of several
Martinsyde G.100 single-seat fighters to augment the B.E.2s on 16 October; although considered obsolete, the "Tinsyde" was substantially faster than the B.E.2, and armed with forward-firing machine guns. Shortly before the squadron took part in a bombing raid against
Beersheba on 11 November, Lieutenant
Lawrence Wackett managed to fix a machine gun to the top plane of one of the B.E.2s, using a mount he designed himself. Each flight was also assigned a
Bristol Scout beginning in December, but it too was obsolete and under-powered, and the squadron ceased operating the type within three months. Other older models issued to the unit included the
Airco DH.6, Martinsyde G.102 and
Nieuport 17. March 1917 saw the heaviest bombing campaign carried out by the squadron to date; short of its regular ordnance, the pilots improvised by dropping
howitzer shells on Turkish forces along the
Gaza–Beersheba line. During one such mission on 20 March, Lieutenant
Frank McNamara earned the
Victoria Cross for landing his Martinsyde in the desert under enemy fire and rescuing a fellow pilot whose B.E.2 had been forced down. On 26 March, No. 1 Squadron took part in the
First Battle of Gaza; it suffered its first combat death the next day, when one of its B.E.2s was attacked by a German
Rumpler. The unit participated in the
Second Battle of Gaza on 19 April; like its predecessor, the attack was a failure for the Allies. Williams, later known as the "Father of the RAAF", assumed command of the squadron in May. Two B.E.12s were delivered the same month; like the Martinsydes, they were armed with a forward-firing machine gun and employed as escorts for the B.E.2s. By June, mechanical issues caused by hot summer weather and the threat from new German
Albatros scouts were rendering the B.E.2s largely ineffective, and Williams urgently requested newer models. Modern aircraft were eventually delivered, first the
Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 in October, and then the
Bristol F.2 Fighter in December. No. 1 Squadron joined the
40th (Army) Wing of the RFC's
Palestine Brigade on 5 October 1917. On 22 and 24 November, the squadron bombed Bireh village during the
Battle of Jerusalem. The first of its 29 confirmed aerial victories, over an Albatros, occurred on 3 January 1918. The squadron supported the
Capture of Jericho in February 1918. It carried out air raids and reconnoitred prior to the
First Transjordan attack on Amman in March and prior to the
Second Transjordan attack on Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt a month later; it also flew reconnaissance missions during the advance to and fighting near Es Salt and
Jisr ed Damieh. By the end of March, it was equipped with 18 Bristol Fighters, which had replaced all the other types. Williams relinquished command in June to take over 40th Wing. Beginning in August 1918, members of No. 1 Squadron, including one of its
aces, Lieutenant
Ross Smith, were attached to Colonel
T.E. Lawrence's Arab army to protect it against German bombing. In September, the squadron began operating a
Handley Page O/400, the only Allied heavy bomber in the Middle East and the only twin-engined aircraft flown by the AFC. By October, the Bristol Fighters had moved forward from Ramleh to
Haifa and by the middle of the month were required to patrol and reconnoitre an exceptionally wide area of country, sometimes between , flying over
Rayak,
Homs,
Beirut,
Tripoli,
Hama,
Aleppo,
Killis and
Alexandretta. They bombed the German aerodromes at Rayak, where 32 German machines had been either abandoned or burnt, on 2 October. On 19 October, the first German aircraft was seen in the air since fighting over
Deraa in mid-September, just prior to the
Battle of Sharon. Smith and another pilot forced a
DFW two-seater to land, and destroyed it on the ground by firing a
Very light into the aircraft after the German pilot and observer had moved to safety. In the wake of the 31 October armistice with Turkey, the squadron relocated to Ramleh in December, and then in February 1919 to
Kantara. There its members were personally farewelled by General
Sir Edmund Allenby, who congratulated them for achieving "absolute supremacy of the air ... a factor of paramount importance" to the Allied campaign.
Inter-war years No. 1 Squadron returned to Australia on 5 March 1919, and was disbanded. Its planned strength, approved by the
Air Board in December 1921, was three officers and five airmen, operating four
Airco DH.9s. Funding problems for the fledgling Air Force resulted in the disbandment on 1 July of No. 1 Squadron and other units established at the same time, their aircraft and personnel instead forming a single squadron of six flights under the control of
No. 1 Flying Training School (No. 1 FTS) at Point Cook. No. 1 Squadron was reactivated as an operational unit of the RAAF reserve, known as the
Citizen Air Force (CAF), at Point Cook on 1 July 1925. Its commanding officer was Flight Lieutenant
Harry Cobby. A third of the squadron's complement of 27 officers and 169 airmen was Permanent Air Force (PAF), and the rest CAF. No. 1 Squadron relocated from Point Cook to nearby
RAAF Laverton on 1 January 1928. The RAAF retired its S.E.5s the same year, and in 1929 took delivery of
Westland Wapiti general-purpose aircraft to replace its DH.9s and DH.9As. Through the inter-war years, No. 1 Squadron undertook a range of tasks including civil aid, flood and bushfire relief, search and rescue, aerial surveys, and air show demonstrations. In October 1930, a
de Havilland DH.60 Moth attached to the unit conducted Australia's first crop-dusting operation, at the behest of the Victorian Forestry Commission. RAAF squadrons began adopting specialised roles in the early 1930s, No. 1 Squadron becoming No. 1 Single-Engined Bomber Squadron. By November 1935 it was made up of two flights of newly delivered
Hawker Demon fighter-bombers, and one of Wapitis. In December 1935 it was augmented by No. 1 FTS's Fighter Squadron and its six
Bristol Bulldogs, which were redesignated fighter-bombers.
Nos. 21 and
22 (Cadre) Squadrons were formed on 20 April 1936 at Laverton and Richmond, respectively, absorbing the CAF personnel of Nos. 1 and 3 Squadrons, which became PAF units. The same day, No. 1 Squadron was renamed No. 1 (Fighter Bomber) Squadron. This reorganisation temporarily denuded No. 1 Squadron of most of its aircraft, leaving only A Flight, with four Bulldogs and a Wapiti, in operation. The Wapiti was transferred to No. 1 FTS in July, and by the end of the month the squadron's complement of aircraft stood at four Bulldogs and one Moth. No. 1 Squadron began receiving new Demons in November 1936. In January 1937, it relinquished its Bulldogs to No. 21 Squadron, which was to hold them until they could be transferred to the soon-to-be-formed
No. 2 Squadron. By the end of February, No. 1 Squadron's strength was 12 Demons and one Moth, 11 officers and 108 airmen. The unit was redesignated No. 1 (Bomber) Squadron in August 1937. No. 1 Squadron received the RAAF's first three
CAC Wirraways on 10 July 1939. As the likelihood of war increased, the squadron's role was altered to incorporate reconnaissance as well as bombing, resulting in the transfer out of all Demons and Wirraways and the transfer in from other units of nine
Avro Ansons on 28–29 August 1939; at the end of the month its personnel comprised nine officers and 122 airmen.
World War II Following the
outbreak of World War II, No. 1 Squadron's Ansons were tasked with maritime patrol and convoy escort duties. In 1940, the squadron became the RAAF's inaugural
Lockheed Hudson unit; it received its first Hudson on 30 March, and by the end of May had transferred out the last of its Ansons and was operating 11 of the new aircraft. Deployed to
Malaya to conduct maritime reconnaissance, No. 1 Squadron arrived at
Sembawang, Singapore, on 4 July 1940. It relocated to
RAF Kota Bharu, near the Malaya–Thailand border, in August 1941. Two days before the
attack on Malaya, its Hudsons spotted the Japanese invasion fleet but, given uncertainty about the ships' destination and instructions to avoid offensive operations until attacks were made against friendly territory, Air Chief Marshal
Sir Robert Brooke-Popham did not allow the convoy to be bombed. Shortly after midnight, local time, on the night of 7/8 December, the Japanese force started
landing on the beaches at Kota Bharu, close to the airfield, and from about 02:00, No. 1 Squadron launched a series of assaults on the Japanese forces, becoming the first aircraft to make an attack in the
Pacific War. The Hudsons sank a Japanese transport ship, the
IJN Awazisan Maru, and damaged two more transports, the
Ayatosan Maru and
Sakura Maru, for the loss of two Hudsons, an hour before the
attack on Pearl Harbor. By the end of the day, Japanese ground forces had advanced to the outskirts of the airfield, forcing the squadron's remaining airworthy aircraft to be evacuated to
Kuantan, and from there back to Singapore. By Christmas Eve 1941, No. 1 Squadron had five serviceable aircraft. Together with
No. 8 Squadron RAAF, also equipped with Hudsons, it was tasked with maritime patrols to the east of Singapore. On 26 January 1942, two of the squadron's Hudsons spotted a Japanese convoy heading for
Endau, on the east coast of Malaya. It was decided to
attack the convoy with all possible strength, including four Hudsons from No. 1 Squadron and five from No. 8 Squadron, together with obsolete
Vickers Vildebeest and
Fairey Albacore biplanes of
Nos. 36 and
100 Squadrons RAF, and with what little fighter escort could be found. The convoy was strongly defended by Japanese fighters, and although all nine Hudsons returned to Singapore, several were badly shot up. The rest of the strike force did not fare as well; 11 Vildebeests, two Albacores, two Hudsons (of
No. 62 Squadron RAF) and three fighters were lost. By the end of the month, No. 1 Squadron had withdrawn to airfield P.2 on
Sumatra, along with several other Commonwealth units including No. 8 Squadron. It continued to attack Japanese bases in Malaya and convoys in the
Dutch East Indies, relocating to Semplak,
Java, in mid-February. At Semplak it took over the Hudsons of No. 8 Squadron and No. 62 Squadron RAF, giving it a strength of 25 aircraft; at one stage it was to be renumbered as an RAF squadron, but this never occurred. Heavily outnumbered by Japanese air units, which raided Allied bases with impunity, No. 1 Squadron suffered heavy losses and was ordered to withdraw its four remaining Hudsons to Australia on 2 March 1942, disbanding soon after. Although 120 of the squadron's personnel were evacuated from Java, 160 men including the commanding officer, Wing Commander Davis, were unable to escape and were taken prisoner by the Japanese; less than half survived captivity. No. 1 Squadron was re-formed with
Bristol Beauforts on 1 December 1943 at
Menangle, New South Wales. By March 1944 it had deployed to
Gould, Northern Territory, where it was controlled by
No. 79 Wing under
North-Western Area Command. Its strength at the beginning of the month was some 350 officers and men, and 19 Beauforts. The squadron commenced reconnaissance operations on 20 March, and undertook its first bombing mission on 4 April against
Lautem, East Timor. Having undertaken 82
sorties in July, the Beauforts concentrated on maritime reconnaissance from August, using air-to-surface radar during operations from Gould and
Gove. After re-equipping with
de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers at
Kingaroy, Queensland, in January 1945, the squadron deployed to
Morotai in May and then
Labuan Island in June–July. No. 1 Squadron returned to Australia in December 1945 and was disbanded at
Narromine, New South Wales, on 7 August 1946. The wing's aircraft were serviced by
No. 482 (Maintenance) Squadron. From July 1950 to July 1958—for the first two-and-a-half years under the auspices of
No. 90 (Composite) Wing—it was based in Singapore, flying missions against communist guerrillas during the
Malayan Emergency. Tasked by
RAF Air Headquarters Malaya, the Lincolns generally conducted
area bombing missions, as well as strikes against pinpoint targets. They operated singly and in formations, sometimes in concert with RAF bombers, and often strafed targets with their machine guns and 20 mm cannon after dropping ordnance. The Lincolns were considered well suited to the campaign, owing to their range and ability to fly at low speeds to search for targets, as well as their firepower and heavy bomb load. Not having to contend with
anti-aircraft fire, they flew mainly by day, but No. 1 Squadron also operated by night, the only Commonwealth unit to do so. Its original complement of six aircraft was increased to eight after the British
Air Ministry requested in February 1951 that Australia augment its bomber force to partly offset the imminent withdrawal of the RAF's Lincolns to
Bomber Command in Europe. The squadron was awarded the
Gloucester Cup for proficiency in 1950–51 and 1954–55. It suffered no casualties during the campaign but two of its aircraft were written off: one that overshot the landing strip at Tengah in November 1951, and another that crashed into the sea off
Johore after striking trees on takeoff in January 1957. Although the original purpose of the bombing campaign in Malaya was to kill as many insurgents as possible, the impracticality of achieving this in operations over dense jungle resulted in a shift towards harassing and demoralising the communists, driving them out of their bases and into areas held by Commonwealth ground troops. By the time it was withdrawn to Australia in July 1958, No. 1 Squadron had dropped over 14,000 tonnes of bombs—85 per cent of the total delivered by Commonwealth forces during the Emergency. Its service was recognised with the presentation of a
Squadron Standard by the Commander-in-Chief
Far East Air Force, Air Marshal
The Earl of Brandon. As at 2014, the Malayan Emergency marked the last occasion that the unit took part in combat operations.
Jet era No. 1 Squadron re-equipped with Canberra Mk.20s after returning to Australia. No. 1 Squadron was awarded successive Gloucester Cups for its proficiency in 1959–60 and 1960–61. As of January 1962, its strength was eight aircraft and 53 personnel, including 18 officers. The unit effectively ceased operations in 1968, to begin converting to the
General Dynamics F-111C supersonic bomber, which was expected to enter service soon afterwards. Already controversial owing to its escalating cost, the F-111 program was heavily delayed by airworthiness concerns related to its
swing-wing technology. In September 1970, as an interim measure while awaiting delivery of the F-111, No. 1 Squadron relinquished its Canberras for leased
McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantoms. Although the Phantom had a multi-role capability, the RAAF employed it as a strike aircraft to maintain compatibility with the proposed F-111 mission profile. One of No. 1 Squadron's Phantoms was lost with its crew of two in June 1971, the only fatalities and hull loss of the 24 aircraft leased to the RAAF. Though not as sophisticated an aircraft as the F-111, the Phantom was a significant advance over the Canberra, and well regarded by its Australian crews. No. 82 Wing accepted its first F-111Cs in June 1973. The
Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal
Charles Read, ordered that the new aircraft be flown with great caution initially, well within operational limits, to minimise the possibility of further damage to its reputation through early attrition. No. 1 Squadron was assigned 12 of the initial 24 aircraft delivered. It was No. 82 Wing's lead strike force, No. 6 Squadron's primary task being
crew conversion training. The wing employed a centralised servicing regime, whereby all aircraft and maintenance personnel were held by No. 482 Squadron, which released the F-111s in line with Nos. 1 and 6 Squadrons' joint flying program. In February 1981, responsibility for operating-level servicing of the F-111s was transferred to the flying squadrons, which for the first time took direct control of their F-111s. No. 482 Squadron continued to provide intermediate-level servicing; major upgrades and complex maintenance were carried out by
No. 3 Aircraft Depot. These two organisations merged in 1992 to form No. 501 Wing, which handed over heavy maintenance of the F-111 to
Boeing Australia in 2001. Between 1977 and 1993, the RAAF lost seven F-111Cs in crashes. Three of the accidents involved aircraft flown by No. 1 Squadron: in August 1979, January 1986 and September 1993, the last two killing both crew members. In July 1996, No. 1 Squadron took responsibility for aerial reconnaissance using specially modified RF-111Cs previously operated by No. 6 Squadron. This gave No. 1 Squadron five mission types: land strike, maritime strike, close air support, long-range air defence, and reconnaissance. In May 1999 the unit was again awarded the Gloucester Cup for proficiency. Along with its revolutionary variable-sweep wings, the F-111 was equipped with
terrain-following radar and an escape module that jettisoned the entire cockpit in an emergency, rather than individual ejection seats. Its top speed was
Mach 2.5 and its
combat radius allowed it to reach targets in Indonesia from bases in northern Australia. Upon delivery in 1973 it was fitted with analogue
avionics and could only drop
unguided ("dumb") bombs. In its 37 years of service with the RAAF the type went through several upgrades, including the
Pave Tack infra-red and laser-guided precision weapons targeting system,
Harpoon anti-shipping missiles, and advanced digital avionics. Alan Stephens, in the official history of the post-war Air Force, described the F-111 as "the region's pre-eminent strike aircraft" and the RAAF's most important acquisition. The closest they came to being used in anger, though, was during Australian-led
INTERFET operations in
East Timor commencing in September 1999. Both F-111 squadrons were deployed to
RAAF Base Tindal, Northern Territory, to support the international forces in case of action by the Indonesian military, and remained there until December; six of No. 1 Squadron's aircraft and approximately 100 personnel were involved. From 20 September, when INTERFET forces began to arrive in East Timor, the F-111s were maintained at a high level of readiness to conduct reconnaissance flights or air strikes if the situation deteriorated. As it happened, INTERFET did not encounter significant resistance, and F-111 operations were limited to reconnaissance by RF-111Cs from 5 November through 9 December. In 2007, the Australian government decided to retire the F-111s by 2010, and acquire 24
Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets as an interim replacement, pending the arrival of the
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning then being developed. The F-111 fleet was considered to be at risk due to fatigue, and too expensive to operate as each aircraft required 180 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time. No. 1 Squadron ceased operating the F-111 in January 2009, in preparation for converting to the Super Hornet. Former F-111 aircrew, familiar with side-by-side seating and a different performance envelope, found conversion more challenging than pilots experienced in the RAAF's
McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighters, which shared many characteristics with the newer model. No. 1 Squadron re-equipped between 26 March 2010 and 21 October 2011, making it the first Australian unit, and the first squadron outside the United States, to fly the Super Hornet. The multi-role Super Hornet allowed No. 1 Squadron to augment its previous offensive strike role with an air-to-air combat function. The RAAF attained
full operational capability with the Super Hornet in December 2012. In April 2014, the government purchased 58 F-35s in addition to 14 already ordered, for the express purpose of replacing the 71 "classic" Hornets of Nos. 3, 75 and
77 Squadrons and
No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit. A government decision on whether to purchase a further 28 F-35s, to be based at Amberley, would depend on how long the Super Hornets were to be retained. According to
Australian Aviation, continuing delays to the F-35 program had increased the likelihood that the Super Hornets would, rather than being disposed of early as originally planned, continue to be operated by the RAAF for their full service life of over 20 years. According to the
Department of Defence, as of 20 December 2014 the Super Hornets had flown over 180 sorties, dropped 113 weapons, and destroyed 36 ISIL targets, damaging another six. In March 2015, having flown almost 3,000 hours in over 400 missions, the detachment was replaced by six F/A-18As from
No. 75 Squadron. No. 1 Squadron commemorated its centenary in 2016 with several events including, on 8 June, a flight over Amberley by Super Hornets in concert with a vintage Bristol Fighter. On 23 November, the 12 Super Hornets operated by No. 6 Squadron were transferred to No. 1 Squadron in preparation for the former unit converting to an electronic warfare role with the
Boeing EA-18G Growler in 2017. At the same time, a training flight was established within No. 1 Squadron to deliver refresher training on the Super Hornet. A detachment of No. 1 Squadron was again deployed to Al Minhad as part of the Australian Air Task Group in May 2017, replacing the legacy Hornets of No. 77 Squadron. The Super Hornets flew the last strike mission of their rotation, and the last of 2,700 sorties by the Air Task Group Hornets, on 14 January 2018. In April, No. 1 Squadron was awarded the 2017 Gloucester Cup. The squadron's training flight and six Super Hornets were transferred to the newly established
No. 82 Wing Training Flight in June 2020. ==Aircraft operated==