No. 220 Squadron

No. 220 Squadron served throughout the Second World War as a Coastal Command general reconnaissance and anti-submarine unit. Reformed at Bircham Newton in 1936 with Avro Ansons, it opened the war on North Sea patrols before converting to the Lockheed Hudson in late 1939. A squadron Hudson located the German prison ship Altmark in Norwegian waters in February 1940, directing the Royal Navy to her interception. After anti-shipping operations along the Norwegian and Dutch coasts, the squadron re-equipped with the Boeing Fortress in early 1942 and shifted to long-range Atlantic patrols from Northern Ireland and the Outer Hebrides. It sank U-624 in February 1943 and U-707 in November 1943, later destroying U-871 in September 1944 after deploying to the Azores. A final conversion to the Consolidated Liberator in December 1944 kept the squadron on South Atlantic patrols until the war’s end.