The weapons and tactics training squadron helping develop the RAF pilots of tomorrow

ENSURING the pilots of the future are ready for combat is among the most crucial roles of the RAF, with the fast-jet training unit based at RAF Valley on the island of Anglesey.

While the responsibility for training comes under the umbrella of No. 4 Flying Training School, the weapons and tactics role is provided by No. IV Squadron, the unit operating the BAE Hawk T2, working alongside other squadrons – pilots complete conversion to jet training before undertaking more specific work with IV Squadron.

The training of RAF pilots is a relatively new role for IV Squadron, spending more than 60 years working in reconnaissance and ground attack, mostly overseas, before being reactivated in 2010 as a training squadron on the Welsh island – almost a century after the squadron was founded.  

Like many squadrons back in the 1910s, No. IV was formed at Farnborough, unsurprisingly being the fourth unit created in the fledgling Royal Flying Corps which had been devised by Royal Warrant in April 1912. 

Following the squadron’s formation in August 1912, it operated a number of early biplanes including Royal Aircraft Factory BE2s and French Breguets, the unit moved to Netheravon in Wiltshire where it remained until the outbreak of WWI in July 1918. A month later a section of IV Squadron departed for France, carrying out reconnaissance duties in support of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), August 19 seeing the unit’s first mission, crossing into Belgium to locate German cavalry detachments near Gembloux.

During WWI, operations were carried out both sides of the Channel with a number of aircraft flying anti-Zeppelin patrols in south east England as well as their role in mainland Europe, with William Robinson Clarke among IV Squadron’s notable pilots – the Jamaican national was the first black pilot to serve in the RFC. 

The separate sections of the squadron were reunited in February 1919, by now operating Royal Aircraft Factory RE8s, the unit returning to full strength in April 1920 at Farnborough, later that year part of the squadron crossing the Irish Sea to relocate to Aldergrove near Belfast; as part of the Irish War of Independence, a section moved to Baldonnel Aerodrome near Dublin in May 1921, the squadron returning to Farnborough in January 1922. 

A number of the squadron’s aircraft were deployed to Royal Navy aircraft carriers during the early 1920s, sailing aboard HMS Ark Royal and Argus to Turkey during the Chanak crisis when Turkish troops marched against British and French forces in the neutral zone of Dardanelles. 

The squadron continued to be active in the inter-war years including during the General Strike of 1926, when No. IV’s aircraft, which by then were Bristol F2 Fighters, were used to patrol railway lines that were believed by the Government to be under threat of sabotage. 

The unit transferred to different locations through the 1920s and 30s, and progressed through a range of aircraft, eventually moving to Odiham in February 1937, before the outbreak of WWII saw the squadron move back across the Channel to France as part of the BEF, 25 years after its aircraft had carried out reconnaissance duties across the same airspace in WWI. 

The advance of German forces saw IV Squadron and its Westland Lysanders forced to move across a number of sites in northern France, paying a heavy price before an eventual withdraw to Britain on May 24, 1940, initially to Hawkinge in Kent before relocating north to Ringway near Manchester: 18 aircrew had been killed in France along with an estimated 60 per cent of associated groundcrew.

Back in Britain the unit continued carrying out coastal patrols along with its army co-operation role, before switching in 1942 to become a fighter-reconnaissance squadron, upgrading to Curtis Tomahawks and then the North American Mustang for a number of months to carry out operations on mainland Europe. A year later, No. IV became part of Second Tactical Air Force, beginning 55 years of continual service on the continent: its US aircraft swapped for Mosquitos and Spitfires up to the end of the war as the squadron continued its fighter-reconnaissance duties, moving to Celle in Germany after VE Day to carry out survey operations in support of the Army of Occupation.

The squadron was disbanded on August 31, 1945, reforming the following day by renumbering 605 Squadron, equipped with Mosquitos and now based at Volkel in the Netherlands. For the next decade, the unit transferred through a variety of aircraft including the de Havilland Vampire and the Hawker Hunter as IV continued its fighter-reconnaissance work on the continent, before it disbanded at RAF Jever in Germany on December 31, 1960.  

A few days later No. 79 Squadron was renumbered as IV Squadron, flying Hunter FR.10s on low-level reconnaissance missions out of Gütersloh across mainland Europe, a decade later transferring to the V/STOL (vertical/short take-off and landing) Harrier jump jet, operating out of Wildenrath from 1970 before moving back to Gütersloh in 1977. The squadron continued to operate the Harrier from German sites until April 1999, the unit making a long-awaited returned to Britain at Cottesmore, more than half a century after its departure during WWII.  

In March 2010, the squadron became the Operation Conversion Unit, OCU, for the Harrier, taking over from No. 20 Squadron, relocating to RAF Wittering, but that role proved to be short-lived, with the sudden decision later that year to retire the Harrier after a speedy defence review undertaken by the new coalition government.

In January 2011, No. IV Squadron was stood down, but re-emerged in November of that year when No. 19 (R) Squadron was renumbered, transferring to RAF Valley at Anglesey, operating the BAE Hawk T2 in the tactical weapons training role.