No. 62 Squadron

No. 62 Squadron was re-formed on 3 May 1937 at RAF Abingdon when ‘B’ Flight of No. 40 Squadron was raised to squadron status, initially equipped with Hawker Hinds before converting to Bristol Blenheim Is in 1938. The squadron deployed to Singapore in August 1939 and moved forward to airfields in northern Malaya, from which it flew bomber and coastal reconnaissance sorties in the early months of the Far East war. When Japan invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941, Squadron Leader Arthur Scarf of 62 Squadron flew a solo attack on Singora airfield after Japanese aircraft had destroyed the rest of the formation on the ground at Butterworth; mortally wounded, he landed his crippled Blenheim at Alor Star to save his crew and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Following the fall of Malaya and Singapore in early 1942, the squadron re-equipped with Lockheed Hudsons and fought its way back through Sumatra and Java before regrouping in India. From mid-1943 the squadron converted to Douglas Dakotas and, operating under No. 229 Group within the RAF Third Tactical Air Force, became a dedicated air-supply unit, dropping men and materiel to Chindit columns during Operation Thursday and sustaining the 14th Army through the Battles of Imphal and Kohima. The squadron continued transport and supply operations until the Japanese surrender and was disbanded at Mingaladon, near Rangoon, on 15 March 1946.