No. 190 Squadron

No. 190 Squadron reformed on 1 March 1943 at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands, initially operating Consolidated Catalina flying boats on anti-submarine patrols over the North Atlantic as part of Coastal Command. The unit was renumbered and stood down at the close of 1943, then immediately re-established on 5 January 1944 at Leicester East with a wholly different purpose: glider towing and paratroop delivery as a specialist airborne forces squadron within No. 38 Group. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the squadron flew two sorties — twenty-three aircraft carrying men of the 5th Parachute Brigade and eighteen towing gliders into Normandy. During Operation Market Garden in September 1944 it flew 98 sorties in support of the Arnhem landings, losing eleven aircraft in those gruelling supply and glider missions. The squadron went on to support the Rhine crossings in March 1945 and flew fuel forward to advancing Allied armies before ferrying troops to Norway in May 1945 to receive the German surrender, after which it was renumbered No. 295 Squadron on 21 January 1946. Its motto, “Ex tenebris” — Through darkness — reflected the nocturnal nature of much of its special-operations flying.