No. 150 Squadron R.A.F.

No. 150 Squadron, RFC, was formed at Salonika, Macedonia, on 1st April 1918, as a fighter squadron and subsequently operated both in Macedonia and Turkey. Disbanded in 1919 it was re-formed in England as a bomber squadron in 1938 and equipped with Fairey Battles. In the early months of the Second World War No. 150 served with the Advanced Air Striking Force in France and in May 1940, was one of the Battle squadrons which attacked the Meuse bridges in an attempt to stem the German advance. It was withdrawn to England in June 1940, and by the end of the year was flying Wellingtons and playing its part in the strategic night-bombing offensive. In December 1942, after having flown 1,717 sorties from the United Kingdom with Battles and Wellingtons, the squadron moved to North Africa and subsequently took part in the Tunisian, Sicilian and Italian campaigns. No. 150 was disbanded (in Italy) early in October 1944, but re-formed in England a few weeks later as a Lancaster heavy-bomber squadron, and between 11th November 1944 and 25th April 1945, flew 827 operational sorties, and dropped more than 3,827 tons of bombs on enemy targets. In so doing it lost 8 aircraft and 40 aircrew. After finishing bombing operations the squadron was employed on dropping food supplies to the starving Dutch people, transporting ex-P0W's from Belgium to England, and also ferrying personnel from Italy to this country. It carried out attacks on Germany for the rest of the war and disbanded on 7 November 1945. On 1 August 1959, it reformed as a Thor intermediate ballistic missile squadron at Carnaby, disbanding again on 9 April 1963.