No. 240 Squadron

No. 240 Squadron was reformed at RAF Calshot on 30 March 1937 as a flying boat unit, and at the outbreak of war moved to Invergordon to begin North Sea patrols under No. 18 Group, Coastal Command. Operating successively on Short Singapore IIIs, Saro Londons, Supermarine Stranraers and then the more capable Consolidated Catalina from March 1941, the squadron flew anti-submarine and maritime reconnaissance patrols over the Western Approaches and the Atlantic. In May 1941 one of the squadron’s Catalinas played a notable part in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck, shadowing the vessel at a critical stage before the Fleet Air Arm torpedo attack that crippled her. The squadron deployed to India in mid-1942, thereafter operating from Redhills Lake on patrols across the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean for the remainder of the war under No. 225 Group, Air Command South East Asia. From December 1944 it also flew supply and agent-insertion missions into the Dutch East Indies, before disbanding on 1 July 1945. Its Icelandic motto, Sjo-Vordur Lopt-Vordur, translates as “Guardian of the sea, guardian of the sky.”