No. 5 Squadron — Army Co-operation

No. 5 (Army Co-operation) Squadron was one of the RAF’s oldest units, formed at Farnborough on 26 July 1913, and spent the entire Second World War in the India–Burma theatre. At the outbreak of war the squadron was stationed at Fort Sandeman on the North-West Frontier, still equipped with the obsolete Westland Wapiti biplane, and the following years brought a rapid succession of aircraft types as the RAF scrambled to modernise its Far East forces. When Japan entered the war at the end of 1941, the squadron was redeployed to Dum Dum, Calcutta, where it flew Curtiss Mohawk fighters in defence of the city before moving forward to Dinjan in Assam to escort Bristol Blenheim bombers over north-west Burma. Re-equipped with the Hawker Hurricane in mid-1943 and then the Republic Thunderbolt in September 1944, the squadron operated under No. 221 Group RAF as part of the Third Tactical Air Force, conducting ground-attack and fighter-bomber missions in support of the Fourteenth Army through the Arakan and Imphal campaigns. The squadron’s motto, Frangas non flectas — “Thou mayst break, but shall not bend me” — proved apt for a unit that adapted from army cooperation biplanes to front-line fighter operations under the most demanding conditions. It finally disbanded in India on 1 August 1947.