No. 11 Squadron

No. 11 Squadron was formed on 14 February 1915 as a Royal Flying Corps unit and, after reform in 1923, had been based in India since 1929 when the Second World War began. Re-equipped with Bristol Blenheim Is in July 1939, the squadron was one of the most widely travelled of the war, serving in turn against Italian forces in East Africa, alongside British and Commonwealth armies in the Western Desert and Greece, against Vichy French forces in Syria, and finally — from late 1942 — against the Japanese in Burma and Ceylon. It was one of a handful of RAF squadrons to engage all four of Britain’s principal wartime adversaries. In September 1943 the Blenheims gave way to Hawker Hurricane IICs for low-level ground-attack work over Burma, operating under No. 221 Group RAF as part of the Third Tactical Air Force. The squadron received Supermarine Spitfire XIVs from June 1945, shortly before the end of the war in the Far East, and was not finally disbanded until 23 February 1948. Its motto, “Ociores acrioresque aquilis” — swifter and keener than eagles — was approved with its badge in May 1937.