World War I What would later become
No. 99 (Madras Presidency) Squadron was originally formed at
Yatesbury,
Wiltshire, England on 15 August 1917 from elements supplied by No. 13 Training Squadron,
RFC. It was equipped with
de Havilland DH.9 bombers in 1918, deploying to France to form part of the
Independent Air Force, the RAF's strategic bombing force. It flew its first mission on 21 May and continued to take part in large scale daylight raids against targets in Germany, sustaining heavy losses due both to the unreliable nature of the DH.9 and heavy German opposition. As an example, during one raid against railway targets in
Saarbrücken on 31 July 1918, seven out of nine aircraft from 99 Squadron were shot down, with a further three DH.9s turning back with engine trouble before the formation crossed the enemy lines 99 Squadron was withdrawn from the front line on 25 September to be re-equipped with
de Havilland DH.9A bombers, and it was still in the process of converting when the war ended. During the war it had taken part in 76 bombing raids, dropping 61 tons of bombs and claiming 12 German aircraft, of which eight were during the raid of 31 July.
Inter-war period No. 99 Squadron reformed on 1 April 1924 at
Netheravon,
Wiltshire, flying
Vickers Vimys. In May 1924, it moved to
RAF Bircham Newton in
Norfolk, uniquely receiving the
Avro Aldershot single-engined heavy bomber. These were replaced at the end of 1925 by twin-engined
Handley Page Hyderabads, the squadron moving to
RAF Upper Heyford in December 1927. In 1929, it again switched to new aircraft when it began receiving
Handley Page Hinaidis, a
radial engined derivative of the Hyderabad. By 1933, the Hinaidi, which was little improvement over bombers in use during the First World War, was recognised as obsolete, and in November the unit received the first production
Handley Page Heyford heavy bombers. While these carried twice the bombload of the earlier aircraft, and had significantly better performance, they soon became outclassed. However, 99 Squadron, which had moved to
RAF Mildenhall in November 1934, was obliged to retain the Heyford until October 1938, when it converted to
Vickers Wellington monoplanes. In September 1935, "B" flight of 99 Squadron was split off to form
38 Squadron, while on 12 April 1937 the squadron again detached "B" flight, this time to form
149 Squadron.
World War II air crew at
RAF Waterbeach prepare for a night raid on Berlin at Jessore, India, prior to a sortie over Burma The squadron was the first unit to be equipped with
Vickers Wellingtons, just before the start of
World War II. On 14 December 1939, 12 Wellingtons of the squadron set off for an armed reconnaissance of the
Schillig Roads, hoping to attack a force of German warships spotted by a British submarine the previous night. While the formation encountered the German warships, the cloud base was too low to bomb the ships, and five of the bombers were lost over the North Sea, one shot down by anti-aircraft fire, three by German fighters and one lost in a collision. A further Wellington crashed on return to base. The squadron was a part of
No. 3 Group RAF,
Bomber Command and bombed targets in Norway and Germany, mainly at night. It moved to the newly established base at
RAF Waterbeach in March 1941. In February 1942 the squadron moved to India with the Wellingtons, and resumed operations in November 1942 against Japanese bases in Burma. From September 1944 the squadron re-equipped with
Consolidated Liberators which allowed it to reach targets in Thailand and Malaya. During this period, the squadron included a significant number of
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force aircrew personnel, attached to it under the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The squadron moved to the
Cocos Islands in August 1945 to prepare for the planned invasion of Malaya. After the Japanese surrender the squadron disbanded there on 15 November 1945.
Post-War The Squadron was reformed again on 17 November 1945 at
RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, as a transport squadron, equipped with the
Avro York. In that rôle it contributed to the
Berlin Airlift. The unit continued in the transport role from 1949 to 1959 with the
Handley Page Hastings, which was normally used as a transport aircraft but, as the squadron also had a tactical support role, was also used in 1956 to drop paratroops on
Gamil Airfield during the
Suez Crisis.
C-17 Globemaster III (2000–present) The squadron was reformed again in November 2000, to operate the RAF's
Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs. The first of the squadron's four initial C-17s was delivered to the RAF on 17 May 2001, arriving at Brize Norton on 23 May. One of the first high-profile missions of the squadron was the deployment of
Westland Lynx helicopters and support equipment to Macedonia as part of a
NATO peacekeeping force. This deployment was codenamed Operation Bessemer. Previously the RAF had to lease commercial heavy lifters such as the
Antonov An-124 to return the aircraft to the UK, or launch a major logistical effort to allow a ferry flight. In any case the C-17 has proved invaluable to the RAF and in December 2009, the Ministry of Defence announced its intention to acquire a seventh aircraft. This was received by the RAF at Boeing's
Long Beach, California facility on 16 November 2010. The UK announced the purchase of its eighth C-17 in February 2012. On 13 January 2013, it was announced that two No. 99 Squadron C-17s were to be used to transport French military equipment and troops to Mali. On 15 November 2013, a C-17 of No. 99 Squadron flew to the Philippines to assist with aid efforts there after
Typhoon Haiyan. In August 2021, the C-17 was called upon to assist with
Operation Pitting, the evacuation of Kabul. Four aircraft were deployed and the aircraft's normal capacity of 138 people was increased and exceeded almost every day. On 24 August there were 354 persons on board, and by the close of the evacuation, 436 stood as the new record and the greatest number of people ever flown on a single RAF aircraft. On 13 September 2022, C-17A
ZZ177 of No. 99 Squadron carried the coffin of
Queen Elizabeth II from
Edinburgh Airport to
RAF Northolt in preparation for
Her Majesty's state funeral. ==Aircraft operated==