World War I No. 210 Squadron was formed from No. 10 Squadron,
Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), when the
Royal Air Force (RAF) was established on 1 April 1918. No. 10 (Naval) Squadron had been raised on 12 February 1917, flying
Nieuports and later
Sopwith Triplanes, which were in turn replaced by
Sopwith Camels in late 1917. One of its pilots was
Raymond Collishaw, the RNAS's highest-scoring
ace and later an
Air Vice-Marshal. The unit remained in Europe after the war, until February 1919. It then returned to the UK and was disbanded on 24 June 1919. When the war ended 210 sqn flew a month postal runs to Norwegian ports but shortly thereafter officially disbanded on 4 June 1945 at Sullom Voe. The squadron's history however has a flight with the RAF Film Unit along the
Norwegian coast as flown as late as on 10 June 1945. It operated
Lancaster GR.3s from
RAF St Eval until September 1952, then moved to
RAF Topcliffe, re-equipping with
Neptune MR.1 aircraft in February 1953. The squadron disbanded at Topcliffe on 31 January 1957.
On Shackletons The squadron reformed one more time on 1 December 1958 when
No. 269 Squadron was renumbered, taking over that squadron's maritime patrol tasks from
RAF Ballykelly, equipped with the
Shackleton MR.2. The tasks included taking part in the
UN sanctions against Rhodesia, flown by two detachments from
Sharjah in the
Trucial States and
Majunga,
Madagascar. This lasted until 31 October 1970, when the Squadron disbanded. On 1 November 1970 the squadron's former detachment at Sharjah reformed as the new 210 sqn, but this did not last for long, as the squadron disbanded there for the last time at Sarjah on 17 November 1971. ==Aircraft operated==