The Squadron that delivered Thunderbolts in defence and attack for 65 glorious years
THE year 1982 was a momentous one for the military, the Falklands War seeing British forces recapture the islands from the Argentinean invaders with the RAF’s Vulcans carrying out what was then the longest bombing raids in history, Operation Black Buck.
It was also the year when the RAF’s last Vulcan bomber squadron was disbanded, No. 44’s retirement ending a 65-year history of defending British interests both at home and abroad. But the Vulcan wasn’t the only bomber the unit was closely associated with, No. 44 famously the inaugural Lancaster bomber squadron during WWII, carrying out the first operational mission flying one of the most famous aircraft in history on March 2, 1942.
The establishment of No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron dates back to WWI, the unit formed at Hainault Farm in Essex in July 1917, a specially selected group comprised of No. 39 Squadron personnel who were tasked with night fighter operations, initially flying Sopwith Strutters which were soon replaced by Sopwith Camels.
The squadron, whose motto Fulmina Regis lusta translates as ‘The King’s thunderbolts are righteous’, formed part of the Home Defence Unit protecting London from the threat of German airships and Gotha bombers, among its commanding officers at the time, one Major Arthur Harris, better known during WWII as Bomber Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command.
A year after the Great War ended, No. 44 was disbanded, reforming in March 1937 with Hawker Hinds at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire, the unit relocating soon after to Andover in Hampshire, before making a more permanent home at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire in June 1937, remaining there until May 1943.
Aircraft operated by the squadron progressed through Bristol Blenheims to Handley Page Hampdens, the unit reacquainting itself with Bomber Harris, forming part of No. 5 Group, No. 44 one of only two squadrons operating continuously throughout WWII.
It was 1941 when the name Rhodesia was added to the Squadron title to reflect the contribution to the war effort by that country’s citizens, and the fact that around a quarter of the ground and air crews of No. 44 were from the African colony. The unit’s badge was changed to include the seal of Lobengula, the chief of the Matabele nation which formed part of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, the elephant symbolising the heavy attacks the squadron had carried out, and would continue to carry out during WWII.
(44 Squadron Avro Lancasters 29 September 1942)
It was December 1941 that the squadron began the switch from Handley Page Hampden to the RAF’s most famous bomber, the Avro Lancaster, officially entering service with No. 44 in February 1942, the first operational sortie carried out on the night of March 2, deploying naval mines at the mouth of the Elbe River at Heligoland Bight, before undertaking the new aircraft’s first bombing mission over Essen a week later.
The squadron also took part in the mission that resulted in the Lancaster becoming known to the wider public, both at home and in Germany, at a time when secrecy regarding all things military was seen as key to the success of the wartime campaign: on April 17, 1942, six Lancasters of No. 44 from Waddington were joined by six more from No. 97 flying out of Woodhall Spa, the aircraft operating at ultra-low level (tree top height) en route to bomb the MAN engineering factory at Augsburg. Only five of the 12 Lancasters that left Lincolnshire returned home – just one from No. 44 – but the factory was successfully hit, and Winston Churchill publicly hailed the operation, seeing it as a propaganda coup.
The raid saw Squadron Leader John Nettleton of No. 44 receive the Victoria Cross, the first South African of the war to be given the award, an honour that came at a very high price, Nettleton feeling responsible for the loss of so many fellow squadron members; just over a year later, Nettleton himself was killed when his Lancaster was shot down over the Bay of Biscay, with wartime records putting No. 44 Squadron third on the list for highest overall casualties of RAF Bomber Command.
Post war, No. 44 converted to Avro Lincolns and then B-29 Superfortresses (known as Boeing Washingtons to the RAF), the unit not receiving its first jets until April 1953, becoming an English Electric Canberra squadron, an aircraft it operated during the Suez crisis before No. 44 was disbanded on July 16, 1957 at RAF Honington.
(Avro Vulcan B.2 XM594 preserved at Newark Air Museum in original 44 Squadron markings.)
The squadron re-emerged back at Waddington on August 10, 1960 as part of the RAF’s V-bomber force which maintained and carried Britain’s nuclear deterrent, flying the Avro Vulcan. No. 44 continued flying the bomber over the next two decades as its role switched from a high-altitude strike aircraft to low level penetration, the Vulcan proving more adept than the Vickers Valiant and Handley Page Victor at coping with the turbulent air closer to the ground.
By the early 1980s, with Britain’s nuclear deterrent now carried by the Royal Navy’s Polaris submarines, a decision was made to mark the end of the RAF’s V-Force with the simultaneous disbanding of Nos. 44, 50, and 101 Squadrons at Waddington in July 1982. However, by April 1982, aircraft from all three squadrons were involved in combat operations in the South Atlantic following Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands.
No. 44 formed part of the Vulcan operations given the code name Black Buck, a complex operation that involved flying from Ascension Island to bomb the runway at Port Stanley, an 8,000-mile round trip that included 17 refuels.
But the reprieve for No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron would be short-lived, the until disbanding on December 21, 1982, the last of the Vulcan bomber squadrons. A decision was made at the time to form a Squadron Association, a group that has been going strong for more than four decades, with associate members including families of those that served during WWII determined to keep the No. 44 flag flying.
