The Aviation Magazine No 57 Special Edition 2018 Volume 9 Issue 4 | Page 26

The No. 351 Squadron were based at Florennes AB from the middle half of 1947.
In January 1948, No. 351 Squadron was renumbered and became No. 1 Fighter-
Bomber Squadron. The Thistle Squadron was back, and with the No. 2 Comet
and No. 3 Holly Leaf Squadrons they formed the 2nd Wing all equipped with the
Supermarine Spitfire XIV.
In addition to the Spitfire the 1st Sqn also flew the Canadian built Noorduyn
Harvard IIB, later on the Harvards were successfully used during the Congolese
rebellion in July 1960 in the Belgian Congo. Sixteen Harvards, based initially at
Kamina were armed with two 7.62 calibre machineguns, two Alcan 261 bomb
racks and two Matra 13 rocket launchers.
The jet-age arrived to the 1st Sqn in June 1951, with the Republic F-84E/G Thun-
derjet the fighter-bomber. In 1955, the first of the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak
were delivered to 1st Squadron at Florennes. On 30 June 1971, 1st Squadron
moved to Bierset Air Base where it received its first Dassault Mirage 5BA in
January 1972. In March 1989 the Mirage 5ABs were replaced with the more ad-
vanced SABCA built under licence from General Dynamics (now Lockheed-
Martin) F-16.
The Thistle Squadron moved back to Florennes on 15 March 1989, where it still
is based to date.