No. 194 Squadron

No. 194 Squadron RAF was formed on 14 October 1942 at Lahore in India as a transport unit flying Lockheed Hudsons, initially tasked with scheduled mail and passenger services across the subcontinent. In early 1943 a detachment was dispatched to Tezpur to deliver supplies by air to the first Chindit expedition operating deep behind Japanese lines in Burma, flying 178 sorties in concert with No. 31 Squadron and dropping some 303 tons of stores. The squadron converted to Douglas Dakotas from May 1943 and in September of that year was reclassified as an Airborne Forces squadron, cementing its supply-dropping and troop-lift role. Moving to the Burma front in January 1944, it threw itself into supporting the critical battles of Imphal and Kohima, flying hundreds of sorties each month and airlifting the 5th Indian Division into the besieged Imphal plain. From January 1945 a flight of Stinson Sentinels was added for casualty evacuation from jungle strips, and by the peak month of July 1945 the squadron was flying around 1,396 sorties — roughly 45 a day. Known informally as “The Friendly Firm,” the squadron served under Eastern Air Command and then Headquarters Air Command South-East Asia before disbanding at Mingaladon on 15 February 1946.