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No. 617 Squadron RAF
*** Shopping-Tip: No. 617 Squadron RAF
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="margin-left:1em; border:3px solid lightskyblue;width:30%; " align="right"
!bgcolor="lightskyblue" colspan="3" align="center" style="border-bottom:3px solid"|No. 617 Squadron
|-
|colspan="3" align="center"|
Image:617sqn-600.jpg 200px|617 Squadron badge
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!bgcolor="lightskyblue" colspan="3"|Information
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|'''Role'''||colspan="2"|Strike/Attack
|-
|'''Aircraft Operated'''||colspan="2"|
Panavia Tornado
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|'''Home Station'''||colspan="2"|
RAF Lossiemouth
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|'''Motto'''||colspan="2"|"Après moi le déluge" (After me, the flood)
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!bgcolor="lightskyblue" colspan="3"|History
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|'''Date Founded'''||colspan="2"|21 March 1943
|-
|'''Badge'''||colspan="2"|On a roundel, a wall in fesse, fracted by three flashes of lightning in pile and issuant from the breach water proper
|-
|'''Notable Battle Honours'''||colspan="2"|Fortress Europe 1943-1945, The Dams, Biscay Ports 1944, France and Germany 1944-1945, Normandy 1944, Tirpitz, Channel and North Sea 1944-1945, German Ports 1945, Gulf 1991, Iraq 2003
|}
'''No. 617 Squadron''' of the
Royal Air Force is better known as the "Dambusters" squadron. It currently operates the
Tornado GR4 from
RAF Lossiemouth,
Scotland.
History
The squadron was formed at
RAF Scampton during
World War II on the
March 15,
1943 with the purpose of attacking three major dams on the
Ruhr in
Germany: the
Möhne Reservoir Möhne,
Eder and
Sorpe. The plan was given the codename
Operation Chastise and was carried out on
17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy
Barnes Wallis's "
Bouncing bomb".
The commander of '''617 Squadron'''
Wing Commander Guy Gibson was awarded the
Victoria Cross VC for his part in the raid. The Squadron's badge, approved by
George VI of the United Kingdom King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam, in commemoration of Operation Chastise.
Later in 1943,
Leonard Cheshire took over as CO of the Squadron from Gibson. Cheshire personally took part in the special target marking techniques required which went far beyond the precision delivered by the standard Pathfinder units - by the end he was marking the targets from a
P-51 Mustang fighter.
Throughout the rest of the war, the Squadron continued the specialist and precision bombing role, including the use of the enormous
Tallboy bomb Tallboy and
Grand Slam bomb Grand Slam ground-penetrating 'earthquake' bombs. These often required particular care to organise and in some occasions losses were heavy, for example attacking the
Dortmund-Ems Canal.
A particularly notable attack was the sinking of the German battleship ''
Tirpitz''. ''Tirpitz'' had been moved into a fjord in Northern
Norway where she threatened the
Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already been damaged by a Royal Navy
X_class_submarine midget submarine attack and a second attack from carrier born aircraft of the
Fleet Air Arm. But both attacks had failed to sink her. The task was given to
No. 9 Squadron RAF No. 9 and No.617 Squadrons who operating from a base in Russia attacked ''Tirpitz'' with Tallboy bombs which damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to
Tromsø fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland. There in October from a base in Scotland she was attacked again. Finally on
12 November 1944, the two squadrons attacked ''Tirpitz'' and she capsized. All three RAF attacks on ''Tirpitz'' were led by Wing Commander JB "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Wing Commander Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944.
The World War II exploits of the squadron, and
Operation Chastise in particular, were described in ''The Dam Busters'' in both
The Dam Busters (book) book and
The Dam Busters (movie) movie forms.
Since the end of World War II the Squadron has operated the
Avro Vulcan (reforming at
Scampton), and the
RAF Tornado GR1 Panavia Tornado GR1 and
RAF Tornado GR4 GR4.
Current Role
When the Squadron was reformed with the Tornado it was originally based at
RAF Marham, but is now located at
RAF Lossiemouth. 617 Sqn continued its pioneering heritage by becoming the first RAF squadron to fire the
MBDA Storm Shadow cruise-missile during the
2003 invasion of Iraq 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The RAF's first female fast jet pilot entered service with 617 Sqn in August 1994.
Image:617sqn side.jpg thumb|300px|No 617 Sqn Tornado GR1
Previous aircraft operated
*
Avro Lancaster - 1943
*
Avro Lincoln - 1946
*
English Electric Canberra - 1952
*
Avro Vulcan - 1958
*
Panavia Tornado - 1983
RAF Tornado squadrons
GR4
*
No. 9 Squadron RAF No. 9 Squadron -
RAF Marham
*
No. 12 Squadron RAF No. 12 Squadron -
RAF Lossiemouth
*
No. 14 Squadron RAF No. 14 Squadron - RAF Lossiemouth
*
No. XV Squadron RAF No. XV (Reserve) Squadron -
RAF Lossiemouth
*
No. 31 Squadron RAF No. 31 Squadron - RAF Marham
*'''No. 617 Squadron''' - RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Tornado GR4A GR4A
*
No. II Squadron RAF No. II Squadron - RAF Marham
*
No. 13 Squadron RAF No. 13 Squadron - RAF Marham
RAF Tornado F3 F3
*
No. 11 Squadron RAF No. 11 Squadron - RAF Leeming
*
No. 25 Squadron RAF No. 25 Squadron -
RAF Leeming
*
No. 43 Squadron RAF No. 43 Squadron -
RAF Leuchars
*
No. 56 Squadron RAF No. 56 (Reserve) Squadron - RAF Leuchars
*
No. 111 Squadron RAF No. 111 Squadron - RAF Leuchars
*
No. 1435 Flight RAF No. 1435 Flight -
RAF Mount Pleasant
See also
*
List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons
Category:Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons 617 Squadron
External links
-
Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary: No. 617 Squadron
ja:第617飛行中隊
*** Shopping-Tip: No. 617 Squadron RAF
