No. 171 Squadron

No. 171 Squadron spent the last year of the war as one of the secret electronic-warfare units of No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group. Reformed in September 1944 at RAF North Creake in Norfolk, it flew first the Short Stirling and then the Handley Page Halifax in the radio-countermeasures role rather than as a conventional bomber.

Its task was to blind and confuse the German defences while the main bomber stream was over enemy territory: scattering “Window” to swamp the radar screens with false echoes, and operating the airborne Mandrel jammer to blot out the German early-warning radar. Its motto, Per dolum defendimus — “we defend by guile” — neatly described a squadron whose weapon was deception rather than bombs.