 |
PHANTOM JET FIGHTER picture archive |
 |
74 Squadron History
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The Beginning
74 Squadron was formed at Northolt, London, on July 1st. 1917 as a training squadron for the Royal Flying Corps flying Avro 504s. They soon moved to London Colney, Hertfordshire. They were remobilised on March 1st 1918, as a "service" squadron. 74 Sqn then moved to France on the 20th March 1918 where they were equipped with SE5 single seat aircraft. 74 Squadron was first in action on the 12th. April when flying from Clairmaraie, France. They destroyed five enemy aircraft without loss. Whilst in France, 74 Squadron was nicknamed the "Tiger Squadron" because of the aggressive spirit shown by their pilots. That is why we now see the Tigers head on 74 Squadron aircraft. The Squadron was disbanded at Lopcombe Corner, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 1919. Between WW1 & WW2 On September 1935 74 Sqn was reformed at Hornchurch, Essex. The Squadron was equipped with Hawker Demon 2 seat fighter. 74 Sqn was sent to Malta during the Abyssinian crisis. The Squadron returned to Hornchurch in August 1936. The following April the Hawker Demon was replaced with the Gloster Gauntlet single seat aircraft. In February 1939 exchanged their Gauntlet aircraft for the Supermarine Spitfire. WW2 During 1940, Fighter Command was engaged in establishing air supremacy to cover the evacuation of British forces in Dunkirk. On August 14 1940 the Squadron moved to Wittering for some rest. They then moved to Kirton-in-Lindsey, and a month later to Coltishall, Norfolk. In October 1940 they moved to Biggin Hill. In February 1941 the Squadron moved to Manston, Kent, but in the following months they also operated from Gravesend, Acklington, Llandebr and Long Kesh. Improved versions of the Spitfire with cannon-armed Mk Vb were received in May 1941. During this time the Governor of Trinidad made a presentation gift of Spitfires to the Squadron, which became known as the "Trinidad" Squadron. In April 1942 74 Sqn embarked on the ship "Rangitat" at Liverpool for Palestine. It arrived at Port Durban, and they then transferred to the ship "Mauretania", which sailed to Port Tewfik, Egypt. The Squadron eventually reached Palestine in July. In October 74 Sqn moved to Dosham Tappen, Persia now Iran, moving again in December to Mehrabad where it was armed with the 12 gun Hawker Hurricane IIb. May 1943 saw 74 Sqn move to Landing Ground 106 in the Western Desert from where, operating with long range fuel tanks, the Hurricanes provided convoy escorts in the eastern Mediterranean. During August 74 Sqn were operating at Mersa Matruh and Edku. They exchanged their Hurricanes for Spitfire Mks Vb and Vc, and were transferred to Nicosia in September. 74 Sqn received sailing orders in April 1944, they left Suez on the ship "Devonshire" for the port of Liverpool. The Squadron assembled at North Weald on May 1st. Two weeks later they moved to Lympne. On D-Day (June 6th 1944) 74 Sqn was used to patrol the allied invasion fleet and after the landings to attack German positions, troop concentrations and lines of communication. By September 13th 74 Sqn first moved to Lille, France and later to Courtria for fighter sweeps over Arnhem. During the latter part of the second world war 74 Sqn was moved to Schijndel, Holland, then on to Droppe in Germany, where they received the news of the German surrender. After moving to Blakenberg, Germany the Squadron moved to Ostend, Belgium. 74 Sqn then returned to the UK to re-equipped with Golster Meteor F MkIII twin-jet fighter. From WW2 to the present day In December 1947 the Meteor III gave way to the F MkIV, and in October 1950 the 590mph F Mk8 was introduced. 74 Sqn flew the Meteor until March 1957, when the Hawker Hunter F Mk4 was introduced. This in turn was replaced by the F Mk6 in November 1957, and was flown by the Squadron until July 1960. 74 Sqn was chosen as the first Squadron to be equipped with the English Electric Lightning single seat all weather fighter at RAF Coltishall, Norfolk. By February 1964, 74 Sqn had moved 250 miles north to Leuchars, Fife, Scotland. In June 1967, 74 Sqn was now equipped with the Lightning F6 aircraft, which flew out to Tengah, Singapore. providing a supersonic content to the Far East Air Force. This terminated in June 26th 1969 to allow 74 Sqn to fly back to Singapore on June 27th. After more than 4 years service with the Far East Air Force, 74 (Trinidad) Sqn "The Tigers" disbanded on 25th August 1971. On October 19th 1984, 74 Sqn re-formed at RAF Wattisham with Phantom F4J aircraft which were purchased form the United States Navy. The Squadron was fully operational by June 30th, and, together with 56 Sqn at RAF Wattisham, formed part of the Air Defence Force for the United Kingdom. However, on 1st October 1992 74 Squadron gave up it's Phantoms for Hawk trainer aircraft, their role is fighter training at RAF Valley, North Wales. |
nick@f4phantoms.co.uk or robert@f4phantoms.co.uk
© Copyright 1998 Nick Hewgill & Robert Small. All rights reserved.