North Africa and Syria No. 451 Squadron was formed as an army cooperation unit at Bankstown, New South Wales on 12 February 1941. As one of Australia's
Article XV squadrons it was intended that the squadron would serve overseas as part of the
Royal Air Force (RAF). While it had been planned that the squadron would be issued with aircraft from British stocks on its arrival in Egypt, the difficult situation facing Allied forces in the region meant that all available aircraft were needed by the experienced squadrons engaged in combat and none could be spared. It was not until 1 July 1941 that No. 451 Squadron took over
No. 6 Squadron RAF's Hawker Hurricane fighters and other equipment at Qasaba. The remainder of No. 451 Squadron was attached to
XIII Corps and participated in
Operation Crusader during November and December 1941. The squadron frequently operated from airstrips near the front line, and some of its personnel were captured on 26 and 27 November when German forces attacked the airstrip at Sidi Azeiz. All but three of these men were liberated when
Bardia fell to the
South African 2nd Infantry Division on 2 January 1942. Following the conclusion of Operation Crusader No. 451 Squadron was withdrawn from operations on 24 January 1942 and was refitted at
Heliopolis. In February 1942 No. 451 Squadron was deployed to Syria to operate with the
Ninth Army. From March the squadron also maintained a detachment at
Cyprus to counter German reconnaissance flights over the island and in June it took over responsibility for providing air defence to
Haifa. No. 451 Squadron's only offensive action during the year was a raid against
Crete on 23 July in which it contributed six Hurricanes to a force of
Beaufighter heavy fighters and
Baltimore bombers. Three of these Hurricanes were lost during the operation.
Europe After being completely re-equipped with Spitfires in early 1944, No. 451 Squadron was transferred to
Corsica and arrived there on 18 April, attached to
No. 251 Wing RAF (with
No. 237 Squadron RAF and
No. 238 Squadron RAF). This move was very popular with the squadron's pilots as it gave them an opportunity to participate in offensive action. The squadron's role was to support Allied operations in Italy and southern France by escorting bombers and conducting armed reconnaissance patrols. It flew its first operation from Corsica on 23 April and engaged German fighters on a number of occasions. In mid-June the squadron supported the
Free French-led
Invasion of Elba. In August the squadron participated in
Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August. On 24 August, following the successful landings, 251 Wing began operating from
Cuers in southern France. By this time the front line was beyond the range of the squadron's Spitfires, however, and it saw little combat. From 16 October, No. 451 Squadron was redeployed to
Foggia in Italy. By the time the ground crew arrived at
Naples on 23 October the headquarters of the
Mediterranean Allied Air Forces had decided that there was no need for the squadron in Italy and recommended that it be returned to Australia. By this time it was not practical to deploy the squadron to the Pacific as the RAAF fighter units there were under-employed, and the squadron's training and equipment were not suited to it joining the other RAAF squadrons in Italy with the
Desert Air Force. As a result, it was eventually decided to transfer No. 451 Squadron to the United Kingdom, and its personnel embarked at Naples on 17 November after handing its Spitfires over to the other units of 251 Wing. After arriving in the UK, No. 451 Squadron was issued with Mark XVI Spitfires and based at
RAF Hawkinge in Kent from 2 December 1944. It began flying combat operations in early 1945 and was initially used to escort
RAF Bomber Command heavy bombers and
No. 2 Group RAF medium bombers during daylight raids. From 14 February the squadron was based at
RAF Matlaske from where it operated alongside
No. 453 Squadron RAAF against
V-2 rocket launch sites and railway targets in the Netherlands. From 20 March 1945 the two squadrons were mainly focused on attacking German transportation targets after the V-2 campaign against the UK ended. As the war in Europe draw to a close No. 451 Squadron's activities decreased, and it flew its last attack sorties from the UK on 3 April. The squadron flew only 61 operational sorties for the remainder of April and none in May. Following the end of the war No. 451 Squadron was deployed to
Fassberg and then
Wunstorf in Germany as part of the British occupation force. The squadron was deployed to
RAF Gatow near
Berlin during November and December 1945. While it was intended that No. 451 and
No. 453 Squadrons would form a long-term Australian contribution to the occupation of Germany, insufficient RAAF personnel volunteered for this duty to make the deployment viable. As a result, No. 451 Squadron was disbanded at Wunstorf on 21 January 1946. During the war the squadron suffered 28 fatalities, 18 of them Australians. ==Aircraft operated==