No. 134 Squadron

No. 134 Squadron RAF was reformed on 31 July 1941 at RAF Leconfield, built around a flight drawn from No. 17 Squadron, and equipped with Hawker Hurricanes for an unusual opening mission: deployment to the Soviet Union as part of No. 151 Wing to help defend Murmansk and to train Red Air Force pilots in the new aircraft. After handing the Hurricanes over to the Soviet Navy, the squadron returned to Britain and reassembled at RAF Catterick in December 1941, subsequently re-equipping with Supermarine Spitfires. A move to Northern Ireland followed in early 1942 before the squadron embarked for the Middle East, arriving in Egypt that June, where its ground crews serviced other units’ aircraft until Hurricanes reached them later that year. From early 1943 the squadron flew fighter patrols and defensive sorties over North African ports and supply lines, then transferred to India in November 1943 and began ground-attack operations along the Burmese border. Conversion to the Republic Thunderbolt in mid-1944 equipped the squadron for its final offensive role, including support for the Allied landings at Rangoon in April 1945, before it was renumbered as No. 131 Squadron on 26 June 1945 at Ulundurpet, India. Its motto, “Per ardua volabimus” (“We shall fly through hardships”), proved an apt description of a wartime career that spanned the Arctic, the Western Desert, and the jungles of Burma.