No. 30 Squadron

No. 30 Squadron entered the Second World War based at RAF Ismailia in Egypt, where its Bristol Blenheim Is were converted to the IF fighter variant to escort bombers attacking Italian positions in the Western Desert. In November 1940 the squadron deployed to Eleusis in Greece as part of Britain’s support for the Greek defence against Italian forces, suffering heavy losses before withdrawing to Crete and then back to Egypt, where it re-equipped with Hawker Hurricanes and took up night-fighter duties defending Alexandria. The Japanese entry into the war in December 1941 prompted a further move; the squadron’s Hurricanes were shipped aboard HMS Indomitable and arrived in Ceylon in March 1942, just in time to contest the Japanese carrier raids on Colombo and Trincomalee. The unit transferred to the Burma front in February 1944, flying bomber-escort and ground-attack sorties from a succession of forward airstrips; its Hurricanes were replaced by Republic Thunderbolts from May 1944, and these aircraft carried the squadron through to the Japanese surrender. Throughout the conflict No. 30 Squadron thus served continuously as a fighter and fighter-bomber unit across three theatres — North Africa, the Mediterranean, and South-East Asia — operating under Middle East Command and later South East Asia Command. The squadron’s motto is Ventre à terre (“All out”), and it flew its final wartime sorties in July 1945 before disbanding on 1 April 1947.