No. 83 Squadron

No. 83 Squadron went into action on the very first day of the Second World War, sweeping the North Sea for German warships. Based at RAF Scampton in No. 5 Group, it flew the Handley Page Hampden through the war’s early years. On the night of 15 September 1940, during a raid on Antwerp, its 18-year-old wireless operator and air gunner, Flight Sergeant John Hannah, fought a fire in his blazing Hampden until it was out, despite severe burns; he became the youngest airman ever to receive the Victoria Cross.

The squadron briefly took the troublesome Avro Manchester before re-equipping with the Avro Lancaster. In August 1942 it joined the No. 8 Group Pathfinder Force at RAF Wyton as a marker unit, and in 1944 returned to No. 5 Group at RAF Coningsby to mark targets for that group’s independent operations. Carrying the motto “Strike to defend”, it later flew the Avro Lincoln and, in the jet age, became one of the RAF’s first Avro Vulcan squadrons.