History
No. XIII Squadron formed at Gosport on 10 January 1915 and operated in France, initially on Army Co-operation duties and subsequently on bombing raids, pioneering formation bombing. Aircraft types operated during the war included the Martinsyde G.100, the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2, the Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8, both the SPAD VII and SPAD XIII, and the Sopwith Dolphin.
The inter-war years saw the squadron operating a variety of aircraft types in England. By the autumn of 1939 the Sqn was equipped with Lysanders and operated in France until May 1940 when No. XIII Squadron changed role and theatre, flying a variety of bomber aircraft in the Mediterranean until the end of the War. Peace heralded the return to reconnaissance duties, originally with Mosquitos then Meteors and Canberras, operating from, Egypt, Cyprus and Malta. In 1978 the Sqn returned to the UK, flying PR9 Canberras, built by Short Brothers, until the unit disbanded in 1982, creating an 8-year hiatus in its 91-year history.
Read more about this topic: No. 13 Squadron RAF
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)