No. 52 Squadron

No. 52 Squadron had an unusually varied Second World War career, serving in three distinct incarnations across the conflict. Reformed at RAF Abingdon in January 1937, it entered the war in a training capacity under No. 6 Group, equipped with Fairey Battles and Avro Ansons, before being absorbed into No. 12 Operational Training Unit in April 1940. It re-emerged in July 1941 at RAF Habbaniya in Iraq, initially as a maintenance unit before transitioning through Bristol Blenheims and Martin Baltimores into a maritime reconnaissance and convoy-escort role across the Middle East and Mediterranean. By early 1944 it was operating under RAF Coastal Command from Gibraltar before disbanding in March of that year. The squadron’s final wartime identity was born in July 1944 when the Dakota flights of No. 353 Squadron at Dum Dum, near Calcutta, were redesignated to form 52 Squadron, which then flew Douglas Dakotas and Consolidated Liberators on general transport and supply duties throughout India and Burma for the remainder of the war. Its motto is “Sudore quam sanguine” — By sweat and blood — and its badge depicts a lion rampant guardant holding a flash of lightning. The squadron continued in transport roles after the war, finally disbanding on 31 December 1969.