No. 53 Squadron

No. 53 Squadron began the Second World War as a strategic reconnaissance unit flying Bristol Blenheims from RAF Odiham, deploying to France in September 1939 before being withdrawn following heavy losses during the German offensive of May 1940. After a brief period of night bombing and coastal reconnaissance duties, the squadron transferred to RAF Coastal Command in early 1941, taking up anti-shipping strikes off the French coast from Cornwall before re-roling to anti-submarine patrols with Lockheed Hudsons that July. In a notable operational episode during the summer of 1942, the squadron became one of very few British units to fly from American territory, conducting anti-submarine patrols off the eastern seaboard from Rhode Island and later Trinidad in response to renewed U-boat success in those waters. Returning to Britain, the squadron converted first to the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and then, from mid-1943, to the long-range Consolidated Liberator, which it flew over the Bay of Biscay and the Western Approaches in sustained anti-submarine operations. The squadron moved to Iceland in September 1944 and continued Atlantic convoy-escort and submarine-hunting patrols from there until Germany’s surrender, serving primarily within No. 16 Group and No. 19 Group throughout its Coastal Command years.