No. 237 Squadron — Rhodesia

No. 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron was re-formed on 22 April 1940 when No. 1 Squadron of the Southern Rhodesian Air Force was absorbed into the Royal Air Force, inheriting the number of a First World War unit that had been dormant since 1919. In its early wartime service the squadron flew obsolete biplanes — Audax, Hardy, and Hart variants — on army cooperation duties along the Kenyan and Sudanese frontiers during the East African campaign against Italian forces in Eritrea and Abyssinia. By mid-1941 the squadron had moved to Egypt, re-equipping with Hawker Hurricanes for tactical reconnaissance over the Western Desert, a role it continued through the shifting fortunes of the North African campaign. A period in Iraq followed in 1942 as a precaution against a possible German thrust towards the oil fields, before the squadron returned to a fighter role, eventually transitioning to Supermarine Spitfires and operating from Corsica and then Italy in support of Allied operations over southern France and northern Italy. The squadron was renumbered as No. 93 Squadron on 1 January 1946, having served throughout the entire war under RAF Middle East and Mediterranean Air Command; among its wartime pilots was Ian Smith, later Prime Minister of Rhodesia, who was shot down over Italy.