Formation and early years 101 Squadron
RFC was formed at
Farnborough on 12 July 1917 operating the
Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b. Two weeks later it moved to France to operate as a night bomber squadron. In March 1919 the squadron returned to the UK and it was disbanded on 31 December 1919.
Reformation and World War II (ABC) Lancaster I of No. 101 Squadron dropping bombs over
Duisburg, 1944The squadron was reformed in March 1928 at
RAF Bircham Newton as a day bomber squadron flying the
Boulton Paul Sidestrand. In 1938 the squadron was equipped with the
Bristol Blenheim. In 1941 the squadron changed to a medium-bomber squadron with the
Vickers Wellington. These were replaced the following year with the
Avro Lancaster. 101 Squadron Lancasters were in 1943 equipped with a top secret
radio jamming system codenamed "
Airborne Cigar" (ABC) operated by an eighth crew member who could understand German, some with German or Jewish backgrounds known as "special operators" commonly abbreviated to "spec ops" or "SO". They sat in a curtained off area towards the rear of the aircraft and located and jammed German fighter controller's broadcasts, occasionally posing as controllers to spread disinformation. The aircraft fitted with the system were distinctive due to the two large vertical
antennae rising from the middle of the
fuselage. Deliberately breaking the
standing operating procedure of
radio silence to conduct the jamming made the aircraft highly vulnerable to being tracked and attacked, which resulted in 101 Squadron having the highest casualty rate of any RAF squadron.
Post-war In October 1945, the squadron moved to
RAF Binbrook,
Lincolnshire and in June 1946 re-equipped with
Avro Lincolns. These aircraft were deployed in conducting small-scale raids against the
Quteibi tribe at Thumier in
Aden in October 1947. On 25 May 1950, the squadron took delivery of its first
English Electric Canberra B2 thereby becoming the RAF's first jet bomber unit. Without a training unit in existence, conversion to type was achieved by the squadron itself with assistance from
English Electric test pilots. Most of the type's service trials were flown by the squadron and, by the end of 1950, nine Canberra B2s were held on strength. Out of the pool of type-qualified crews, a wing of five squadrons had been formed by August 1952 at Binbrook, comprising Nos.
9,
12,
50, 101 and
617. In June 1954, the squadron became the first to receive the B.6 variant of the Canberra. After full conversion to the type, the Binbrook Wing of five squadrons undertook an intensive training programme in readiness for staged detachments to
Malaya as support for
Operation Firedog. This was a large-scale
counter-insurgency campaign, on-going in Malaya since 1948 against
communist guerrillas. 101 Squadron became the first RAF jet bomber squadron to serve in the
Far East when four Canberras arrived at
Changi on 11 February 1955. The first bomb drop by an RAF jet bomber occurred when the squadron, which had been deployed to
RAF Butterworth,
Penang, was operating against a target in
Johore. Over a period of two months operating from Butterworth, ninety-eight raids were made before the squadron returned to Binbrook on 21 June 1955. A final deployment to the same base from June to August 1956 signified the last Canberra participation in the Malayan operation. Also in 1956, the squadron flew night bombing raids against Egyptian airfields from their base at
Hal Far,
Malta during the Suez crisis. With the entry into service of the
V bombers, Canberras in the bomber role were becoming outmoded. Consequently, 101 Squadron was temporarily disbanded on 1 February 1957. On 20 June 1961 a 101 Squadron Vulcan B1A (XH481) flew non-stop from
RAF Waddington to the
Royal Australian Air Force Base Richmond, NSW, the longest recorded non-stop flight by a Vulcan, and the 10,000
nmi flight still stands as a record for the Vulcan, exceeding the mileage done by the
Black Buck Vulcan by some 3,000 nmi. After the advent of effective Soviet
SAMs forced Bomber Command to reassign
V bombers from high-altitude operations to low-level penetration operations in March 1963, the squadron's Vulcans adopted a mission profile that included a 'pop-up' manoeuvre from 500 to 1,000 ft to above 12,000 ft for safe release of Yellow Sun Mk2. By Dec 1967 the squadron was re-equipped with eight Vulcan B2 aircraft and eight
WE.177B laydown bombs which improved aircraft survivability by enabling aircraft to remain at low-level during weapon release. Following the transfer of responsibility for the nuclear deterrent to the Royal Navy the squadron was reassigned to
SACEUR for tactical strike missions still armed with the
WE.177B bomb and a variety of conventional munitions. In a high-intensity European war the squadron's new role was to support land forces on the Continent resisting an assault on Western Europe by the Red Army, by striking deep into enemy-held areas beyond the forward edge of the battlefield, striking at enemy concentrations and infrastructure, first with conventional weapons and secondly with
WE.177 tactical nuclear weapons as required, should a conflict escalate to that stage. The squadron continued in this role until the
Falklands War of 1982 when the squadron performed operations during the campaign in the South Atlantic, and was then disbanded on 4 August 1982. No 101 Squadron was chosen to operate the aircraft and was reformed at
RAF Brize Norton on 1 May 1984. Notable recent deployments of 101 Squadron include the
Gulf War and the
2003 invasion of Iraq. ==Aircraft operated==