No. 200 Squadron

Reconstituted on 25 May 1941 at RAF Bircham Newton from a nucleus of No. 206 Squadron, No. 200 Squadron almost immediately deployed to West Africa, flying Lockheed Hudsons on anti-submarine and convoy-escort patrols across the South Atlantic from Jeswang and later Yundum in Gambia. Re-equipment with Consolidated Liberators from mid-1943 extended the squadron’s reach dramatically. On 11 August 1943, Flying Officer Lloyd Allan Trigg RNZAF pressed home an attack on U-468 despite his Liberator being set ablaze by anti-aircraft fire; the submarine sank but the aircraft and all her crew were lost. Trigg’s posthumous Victoria Cross was awarded entirely on the testimony of the U-boat’s survivors — a distinction unique in the history of the decoration. In March 1944 the squadron transferred to India under Air Command South East Asia, conducting anti-shipping patrols over the Indian Ocean before turning to Special Duties supply flights into Burma. It was renumbered No. 8 Squadron on 15 May 1945.