No. 46 Squadron — Uganda

No. 46 (Uganda) Squadron was formed at RAF Wyton on 19 April 1916 and served through two world wars before its final disbandment in August 1975. At the outbreak of the Second World War the squadron was based at RAF Digby, equipped with Hawker Hurricanes; in May 1940 it was deployed to Norway, where its pilots made history by landing their Hurricanes — aircraft not fitted with arrester hooks — aboard the carrier HMS Glorious for evacuation. The tragedy deepened when Glorious was intercepted and sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 9 June 1940, killing most of the embarked aircrew. Re-formed at Digby with replacement pilots, the squadron moved south to Stapleford Tawney under 11 Group, Fighter Command, for the defence of London during the Battle of Britain, where it claimed 34 enemy aircraft destroyed between July and December 1940 whilst losing 16 pilots killed. The squadron later converted to Bristol Beaufighters for night-fighter and intruder operations over the Mediterranean in 1942–43 before transitioning through Mosquitoes to transport duties by 1945.