ROYAL AUXILIARY AIR FORCE I 100 th ANNIVERSARY
601 ( County of London ) Squadron RAuxAF
601 ( County of London ) Sqn Royal Auxiliary Air Force was formed at Royal Air Force Northolt in 1925 as the third Auxiliary Air Force unit . Originally a day bomber Sqn it transferred to the fighter role and operating Hurricanes , saw wartime service in the Battle of Britain followed by service in Malta , North Africa , and Italy .
Although shot down in May 1940 , as the CO of 92 Sqn , Sqn Ldr Roger Bushell actually joined 601 Sqn in 1932 . After being shot down over France , he became a Prisoner of War and was eventually sent to Stalag Luft III . From there he masterminded , and was one of the 50 officers subsequently executed during what became known as ‘ The Great Escape ’ in the spring of 1943 .
Following the War the Sqn became a jet-fighter unit operating Vampires and Meteors before disbanding again in March 1957 at Royal Air Force North Weald . His Royal Highness the late Prince Phillip , The Duke of Edinburgh was the Honorary Air Commodore of the Sqn when it disbanded . The Air Force Board agreed to reform the Sqn in April 2017 as a hybrid reserve sqn with the 3 principal roles of providing advice to the Chief of the Air Staff and the Royal Air Force to help address important issues ; to provide access to new networks that the Royal Air Force has not traditionally been connected with ; and to develop advocates for the Royal Air Force .
Since its reformation 601 Sqn has grown from an initial cadre of 15 to 70 members and has expanded its advice to a wide variety of areas including space and digital .
The Battle Honours emblazoned on the new Standard that was presented to the Sqn in July 2022 at Hendon are :
France and Low Countries 1940 : Dunkirk : Battle of Britain 1940 : Malta 1942 : Egypt and Libya 1942 - 1943 : North Africa 1943 : Sicily 1943 : Italy 1943 - 1945 . The Sqn also has the following additional Battle Honours : Home Defence 1940 - 1942 : Fortress Europe 1941 - 1942 : El Alamein : El Hamma : Anzio : Nettuno : Gustav Line and the Gothic Line .
603 ( City of Edinburgh ) Squadron RAuxAF
603 ( City of Edinburgh ) Sqn was formed at RAF Turnhouse on 14 October 1925 , as a bomber sqn . 603 Sqn also occupied a townhouse in Edinburgh , known as ‘ Town Headquarters ’ ( THQ ), a location for which could be easily reached by volunteers from Edinburgh and the surrounding areas . 603 Sqn still occupies THQ in 2024 . In 1938 , 603 Sqn re-rolled as a fighter squadron and converted to Spitfires in October 1939 . On 16 October 1939 , the Sqn was credited with shooting down the first Luftwaffe aircraft in British airspace in the Second World War and two weeks later , in conjunction with 602 Sqn , the first to be brought down on British soil , in East Lothian . In August 1940 , the Sqn moved to RAF Hornchurch as part of Fighter Command ’ s
11 Group and fought at the forefront of the UK ’ s air defence for the rest of the Battle of Britain . When recalling the units under his command during the Battle , the station commander of RAF Hornchurch was later to write of 603 Sqn , ‘ They were , I think , the greatest Sqn of them all ’.
In April 1942 , the aircraft and aircrew of the Sqn joined the defence of Malta , flying from USS Wasp . Following the lifting of the siege of Malta in 1942 , it operated as a Beaufighter maritime strike sqn in the Mediterranean theatre and then in 1945 as a Spitfire sqn over the Netherlands . Disbanded in 1945 , it reformed in 1946 and continued to fly first Spitfires and then Vampire jets until the disbandment of RAuxAF flying units in 1957 .
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