No. 41 Squadron

No. 41 Squadron spent the whole of the Second World War as a Supermarine Spitfire unit, flying the type from the Mark I of 1939 through to the Griffon-engined Mark XIV, and serving for most of the war in No. 11 Group of Fighter Command. From its pre-war base at RAF Catterick it moved south to RAF Hornchurch and was heavily engaged in the fighting over Dunkirk and then the Battle of Britain, where it claimed over a hundred enemy aircraft. It was with No. 41 Squadron, between May and November 1940, that the Shropshire pilot Eric Lock scored the bulk of the victories that made him the highest-scoring British-born airman of the battle.

From 1941 the squadron turned to the offensive, escorting bombers and flying fighter sweeps over occupied France, and in 1943-44 it was among the units chasing down V-1 flying bombs, destroying more than fifty. After transferring to the Second Tactical Air Force in October 1944 it followed the Allied armies onto continental airfields in Belgium and Germany for the final advance. Its motto was Seek and destroy.