99 Squadron RAF

On 15 August 1917 No.13 Training Squadron at Yatesbury provided a nucleus for the formation of No.99 Squadron, which then took on the training role at Old Sarum until the new year. It was then nominated for service overseas and in due course equipped with Airco D.H.9s and went to France in April 1918 for day bombing duties.

For two weeks it flew around to get used to its operational area and then on 20 May flew its first, uneventful, operation. On the following day it dropped bombs in anger for the first time, this being a strategic raid well behind the enemy lines. The squadron was part of the Independent Air Force, a new strategic force formed for this purpose. Raids continued whenever the weather allowed, and these were usually fairly large affairs with more than one squadron combining. On 16 July the squadron was thus involved in one of the most successful raids of World War 1. In company with No. 55 Squadron, No. 99's D.H.9s set off for Stuttgart but heavy thunderstorms prevented an attack being made; the diversionary target was selected, this being the railway station at Thionville. As it happened there was an ammunition train in the station at the time and this was hit and blew up, sending shells in all directions and destroying the station and rail installations as well.

This was the period of heavy air battles, and such raids would normally be met by the German fighter circuses, dogfights breaking out between them and the escorting fighters. If however, the bombers were beyond the range of the escort then they themselves had to fight off the Germans, and on occasion heavy casualties resulted. For example on 31 July only two out of nine of the squadron returned from a raid on Mainz. The D.H.9 was not an unclouded asset, for its Puma engine (commemorated in the squadron emblem) was notoriously unreliable. Despite this the squadron fought on until the end of September, when it was withdrawn from operations to re-equip with the D.H.9A, in which the airframe had been rejuvenated by the installation of a Liberty engine. Work-up with the new type was slow and the Armistice arrived before the squadron could return to operations.

It was now used for a while within the continent flying official mail to the various Army of Occupation bases. This lasted until the summer of 1919, when the squadron packed up and went out to India. There it setup base for operations on the North West Frontier but on 1 April 1920 it was disbanded, being renumbered No.27 Squadron at Mianwali.

At home the RAF had lost virtually all its bomber squadrons after the war, but in the mid 1920s was able to achieve a modest expansion. Thus, on 1 April 1924, No.99 Squadron re-formed at Netheravon with Vickers Vimy bombers, moving to Bircham Newton as its permanent base. Here it re-equipped with the new Avro Aldershot, a large, cumbersome, single-engine bomber, one of the first post-war bomber designs. The type was not a success, No.99 being the only squadron to fly it and keeping it only until the end of 1925. During 1925 Handley Page had in production the Hyderabad, a military version of its successful range of airliners, and No.99 received this type with relief. The squadron now flew Handley Page aircraft right up to the eve of World War 2, and was one of the foremost heavy bomber squadrons through the 1920s and 1930s.

The Hyderabad enabled No.99 to establish itself; this was followed by the Hinaidi which was virtually the same airframe re-engined with Bristol Jupiter radials. No.99 had the first of these and flew them until the Handley Page Hey-ford appeared. Once again No.99 pioneered a new bomber into service, and in 1933 it flew the latest that the RAF could muster in terms of heavy bombers. It flew this aircraft most successfully in all its versions until the end of 1938, by which time its biplane configuration would have made it totally obsolete for a hot war. No.99 was early on the list for re-equipment with the finest of the new breed of bombers, the Vickers Wellington. It received these in October 1938 at Mildenhall and had worked up for operations by the time World War 2 broke out.

For active service No.99 moved to the racecourse at Newmarket and from there began operations with a leaflet raid on Hanover on the night of 8 September 1939. Such raids continued through that winter, but it was not until Hitler expanded in the north and west that No.99 dropped bombs in anger, its first raid being on Sola Airfield at Stavanger on the night of 17 April 1940. From then on it gradually built up as part of the No. 3 Group bomber force, which was committed to the night offensive over Germany and occupied Europe. Casualties were not light but several crews were saved by the resilience of the Wellingtons construction, which could take terrific punishment.

Throughout 1941 the squadron remained on operations over Europe with Wellingtons. Then, with the outbreak of war with Japan, it was decided to build up a medium bomber force in India. Accordingly, No.99 (in company with No.215 Squadron) came off operations and prepared for the journey. With all the operational upheavals in the Middle and Far East, getting the squadron together and set up in India was a lengthy process. Consequently it was not until November 1942 before it again became operational. Based at Digri, it now flew Hercules-engined Wellingtons against Japanese airfields and supply dumps in Burma. Again, the squadron flew at night and the task required precise navigational ability, flying over the featureless jungle with no external aids. This was a different type of operational climate to that over Europe: there was little or no enemy fighter or AA opposition, but the long distances, the hills and mechanical failure presented different hazards to the bomber crews. If an aircraft came down in the jungle it could take weeks to find it.

The squadron continued a regular offensive by night against the Japanese, with high spots during some of the campaigns when No.99 turned to tactical bombing. During the siege of Imphal in April 1944 the squadron turned it-self into a transport unit flying supplies to the Hawker Hurricane squadrons trapped in Imphal and enabling them to continue the fight.

This was virtually the squadron's last phase with its Wellingtons. In August 1944 it came off operations and the next month began to convert to the Consolidated Liberator. With this type it could roam much farther afield and during the last nine months of the war it tackled targets (particularly railway communica-tions) way behind the Japanese lines. In July 1945 the squadron moved to Cocos Island as its base for the assault on Malaya, one which was pre-empted by the Japanese surrender. No. 99 immediately turned to works of mercy, flying over the POW camps and dropping need-ed food and medical supplies. On 15 November 1945 the squadron disbanded on Cocos Island.

There was a place for such a famous squadron in the peacetime RAF, and No.99 was re-formed at Lyneham on 17 November 1947. Its new role was as a transport squadron, for which it was given Avro Yorks. For the next year its primary task was to fly the Commonwealth routes all over the world with freight, troops and official passengers. However, in 1948 a crisis near home blew up with the closing of the corridors into Berlin and the squadron was switched to the Berlin Airlift, the routes overseas being maintained on a minimum basis.

Now the squadron became involved in high-intensity shuttle-flying into Gatow airfield Berlin from Western German bases, and flew on this task for a year until August 1949, when it was withdrawn to re-equip with the Handley Page Hastings. By the time it had completed conversion the squadron was returned to the worldwide routes of Transport Command once more, and its Hastings were to be found around the world. It also worked up in the tac-tical support role, training with paratroops and the developed methods of dropping heavy loads into army positions. This training was put to practical use when the Suez campaign broke out in 1956, No.99 Squadron being employed from Cyprus to drop paratroops on Gamil airfield in Egypt.

Most of its time, however, was spent on route flying and this became its entire task in 1959 when No.99 became the first of two RAF squadrons to receive the Bristol Britannia. This gave it a long-range capability and a large load-carrying capacity for troops and personnel, and the squadron was soon in favour with passengers for the much smoother flight it could give them. As well as its regular schedules the squadron was much used for supporting overseas exercises and for taking part in mercy flights with such international crises as the Congo in 1960. Wherever trouble spots required detachments of British troops or aircraft, so the squadron's Britannias were used in support, providing a valuable long-range transport force. It came as a surprise, then, when the Britannia force was axed in 1976, No. 99 Squadron being disbanded at Brize Norton on 6 January 1976.