First World War The squadron was formed in
Italy on 27 September 1918 from flights of the
Royal Naval Air Service after that service's amalgamation with the
Royal Flying Corps to form the RAF. It flew
Sopwith Babies and
Felixstowe F3s from
Otranto reconnoitring for submarines escaping from the
Adriatic Sea into the
Mediterranean Sea. The squadron was disbanded on 16 May 1919.
Second World War The squadron reformed as a fighter squadron at
RAF Filton near
Bristol on 2 October 1939, taking over some of
No. 605 Squadron's
biplane Gloster Gladiator Mk.Is. It became operational towards the end of the year and
scrambled for the first time on 12 January 1940. Around this time the squadron received 22 Gloster Gladiator Mk.IIs to replace the Mk.Is The Gladiator was obsolete by the time of the Second World War, being only slightly faster than the
Heinkel He 111 medium bomber used by the Luftwaffe.
Gloster Gladiator and Norway Flying Officer Herman Francis Grant Ede DFC and other RAF pilots colours Germany
invaded Norway on 9 April 1940 and No. 263 Squadron was soon instructed to prepare for a move. On 20 April, the aircraft were flown, via
RAF Sealand, to
Scapa Flow,
Scotland where
Fleet Air Arm pilots landed them on the aircraft carrier and 18 Gladiators sailed for Norway. On 24 April, after two days sailing, the squadron flew its aircraft off the carrier to a landing strip on the frozen lake
Lesjaskogsvatnet in
Oppland in central southern Norway. Unfortunately for the enterprise, the squadron was extremely short of ground staff and equipment and few of its Gladiators had been prepared for combat before the
Luftwaffe struck with Heinkel He 111s shortly after daybreak on 25 April. By the end of 26 April, although No. 263 Squadron had managed to destroy two Heinkels, all of its aircraft had been destroyed or rendered unserviceable and by the end of the month the squadron was ordered home. flown by
Bermudian Flying Officer H.F.G. "Baba" Ede, DFC, on the 24th May, 1940 The re-equipped squadron returned to the far north of Norway on 21 May, flying from
Bardufoss airfield, near
Narvik, reinforced by
No. 46 Squadron whose Hurricanes arrived a few days later, using an airstrip in
Skånland Municipality. Due to unsuitable ground at Skånland, 46 Squadron moved so that both were operating from Bardufoss by 27 May. The squadrons had been ordered to defend the fleet anchorage at Skånland and the military base at
Harstad on the island of
Hinnøya. Action was short but intense before the squadrons were instructed on 2 June to prepare for evacuation; 263 Squadron had flown 249 sorties and claimed 26 enemy aircraft destroyed. 263's ten surviving Gladiators were landed on HMS
Glorious on 7 June.
Glorious sailed but was intercepted by the German
battleships and . The aircraft carrier was sunk and with it the aircraft from four squadrons. 263 Squadron lost its CO, S/Ldr John W Donaldson, F/Lt Alvin T Williams and P.O. Sidney Robert McNamara along with seven other pilots. Among the pilots who fought with the squadron in Norway and died on
Glorious, was F.O. Grant Ede, DFC, one of many
Bermudians to serve in the RAF during the war and the first Bermudian to die in the war.
Westland Whirlwind The
Westland Whirlwind was the first cannon-armed fighter for the RAF, first flown in October 1938 and at the production stage by 1940. It was a
twin engined heavy fighter (also able to function as a
fighter bomber with bombload). With four
20mm Hispano cannon in the nose, it was more powerful than an eight-gunned fighter like the Spitfire or Hurricane. It was fast, matching the current Spitfire's maximum speed, but performed best at low altitude and was used for convoy escort and against small targets in the
English Channel and northern
France. Only 114 were produced (compared with over 20,000 Spitfires). No. 263 Squadron spent the next six months with
13 Group near
Edinburgh. It assembled on 10 June 1940 at
RAF Drem and after two weeks moved to
RAF Grangemouth, where it spent three months before returning to Drem until November and then moving again south to be nearer its intended targets in northern France and the English Channel. During its time in
Scotland, it had to sort out the final problems with the
Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines and Hispano cannon. To fill the gap the squadron was provided with
Hawker Hurricanes which were flown in action a few times. Production of the Peregrine by Rolls-Royce was slow and it was November before the squadron was fully equipped. The squadron transferred to
RAF Exeter, commencing
Chameleon patrols against enemy
E-boats stationed in the English Channel and
Western Approaches. The E-boats would rescue German bomber crews who had "ditched" in the sea. Here, on 12 January 1941, a section patrolling near the
Isles of Scilly located a
Junkers Ju 88 and
Pilot Officer (PO) Stein was credited with a probable kill. As well as its fighter capability, the Whirlwind could operate as a
fighter-bomber. In September 1941 S/Ldr Thomas Pugh, the squadron's 21-year-old commander, suggested that the bombing capability should be investigated, however the idea was initially rejected. Finally, in August 1942 the squadron moved to
RAF Colerne in
Wiltshire and bomb-racks were fitted to eight aircraft; initially two bombs could be carried, and later this was increased to two bombs.
Cap Arcona On 3 May 1945, three ships, the
Cap Arcona, the
Thielbek and the
Deutschland, were sunk as a result of four attacks by
Hawker Typhoons of
No. 83 Group RAF. After
No. 184 Squadron RAF and
No. 198 Squadron RAF it was 263 Squadron's, by then based in
RAF Ahlhorn (
Großenkneten) who were led by
Squadron Leader Marten T. S. Rumbold. ==Post-war==