No. 27 Squadron

No. 27 Squadron was formed on 5 November 1915 at Hounslow Heath, acquiring its elephant badge from its first aircraft, the Martinsyde G.100 “Elephant,” and spending much of the inter-war period on the North West Frontier of India. At the outbreak of the Second World War the squadron was operating from Risalpur and was stood down as a training unit before returning to operations in October 1940 as a Bristol Blenheim night-fighter squadron, deploying to Malaya in early 1941. The Japanese invasion in December 1941 caught it at Sungei Patani; eight Blenheims were destroyed on the ground on the first day, and the remnants retreated through Butterworth, Singapore, and Palembang before the squadron effectively ceased to exist in February 1942. It was reformed on 19 September 1942 at Amarda Road in India under No. 224 Group, receiving Bristol Beaufighter Mk.VIs and returning to operations on Christmas Day 1942 with strikes against Japanese targets in Burma. Operating within No. 169 Wing, the squadron’s Beaufighters proved highly effective against Japanese communications — the unit alone destroyed or damaged 66 locomotives and over 400 items of rolling stock in the first nine months of 1943. In April 1945 the squadron transitioned to air-jungle rescue duties, recovering aircrew shot down over the Burmese jungle, until disbandment on 1 February 1946.