No. 601 Squadron — County of London

No. 601 (County of London) Squadron was formed on 14 October 1925 at RAF Northolt, its founding members drawn largely from wealthy amateur aviators who had assembled at White’s Club in London — an origin that earned it the enduring nickname “The Millionaires’ Squadron.” Mobilised in August 1939, the unit flew Hawker Hurricanes under No. 11 Group, Fighter Command, seeing action during the fall of France before moving to RAF Tangmere for the Battle of Britain, where it defended the south-east of England through the convoy battles and main assault phases of summer 1940. Among its pilots were some of the first Americans to fly operationally in the Second World War, including the Olympic gold medallist Billy Fiske, who died of wounds after his Hurricane was shot down in August 1940. The squadron briefly operated the Bell Airacobra from late 1941 before converting to Supermarine Spitfires and deploying to Egypt in mid-1942, fighting through El Alamein and the westward pursuit across North Africa. It subsequently served in Sicily and Italy, transitioning to fighter-bomber ground-attack duties in support of the Allied advance, and was finally disbanded on 14 August 1945. The squadron notably carries no motto — when the College of Heralds rejected the CO’s preferred Latin inscription, he chose to have no motto at all rather than accept an alternative.