No. 230 Squadron

No. 230 Squadron was originally formed at Felixstowe in August 1918 and reformed at RAF Pembroke Dock on 1 December 1934, going on to operate the Short Sunderland flying boat from 1938 onwards. At the outbreak of the Second World War the squadron was based at RAF Seletar in Singapore under RAF Far East, carrying out maritime reconnaissance and convoy patrol duties across the Indian Ocean. In 1940–41 the squadron relocated to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, where one of its Sunderlands located the Italian fleet on 27 March 1941, intelligence that contributed directly to the British victory at the Battle of Cape Matapan. During the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, Sunderlands of 230 and 228 Squadrons evacuated nearly 900 refugees from the Greek coast, including the King of Greece and senior Allied commanders. The squadron subsequently served under No. 216 Group in the Mediterranean before transferring to No. 222 Group under Air Command South East Asia, operating from Koggala in Ceylon and later from Burma, where in early 1945 it attacked Japanese coastal shipping and carried out casualty evacuation flights into the theatre. Its Malay motto — “Kita chari jauh,” meaning “We search far” — reflects the vast oceanic ranges over which its flying boats operated throughout the war. The squadron was finally disbanded on 28 February 1957 after more than two decades of continuous flying-boat service.