No. 201 Squadron — Guernsey's Own

No. 201 Squadron RAF, known as “Guernsey’s Own” through its affiliation with the Island of Guernsey, was one of the RAF’s oldest flying boat units, tracing its lineage to No. 1 Squadron RNAS formed in 1914 and renumbered 201 on the creation of the RAF in April 1918. Reformed in January 1929 at Calshot, it had converted to the Short Sunderland by April 1940 and flew anti-submarine and maritime patrol operations from Coastal Command throughout the Second World War. For most of the war the squadron operated from Castle Archdale on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, flying long-range sorties over the North Atlantic and North Sea in search of U-boats and blockade runners. It sank five U-boats between March 1943 and August 1944, including three in a concentrated eight-week campaign over the Bay of Biscay during the summer of 1944 while deployed to Pembroke Dock to support the Normandy landings. The squadron served under No. 18 Group on the outbreak of war before transferring to No. 15 Group in February 1943. Its motto, “Hic et ubique” — Here and everywhere — aptly described its wide-ranging oceanic patrols, and it continued flying maritime reconnaissance aircraft until disbandment in February 1957.