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| North American Mustang Mk I coded XV-E No 2 Squadron RAF. |
Number 2 Squadron, also known as No. II (Army Co-operation) Squadron, is the most senior squadron of the Royal Air Force.
No. 2 Squadron's traditional army co-operation role is reflected in the "AC" of its title, its motto Hereward (Guardian of the Army), and the symbol of a Wake knot on its crest. Its unofficial nickname is Shiny Two.
No. 2 Squadron was formed at Farnborough, Hampshire on 13 May 1912, on the founding of the Royal Flying Corps as one of the first three squadrons of the new force. It was formed from a detachment of No. 2 (Aeroplane) Company of the Royal Engineers Air Battalion. Both No. 2 Squadron and No. 3 Squadron were equipped with fixed wing aeroplanes, while No. 1 Squadron was equipped with airships. The Squadron's first commander was Major C J Burke. The Squadron was equipped with a mixture of aircraft types, including the prototype Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2.
From 26 February 1913, the squadron was based at Montrose in Angus, Scotland, the first operational Royal Flying Corps base in the UK. This was established on the instructions of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to protect the Royal Navy. At Montrose the ghost story of Desmond Arthur spread around the flying corps. In May 1914, when the Squadron was transferring south from Montrose, five aircraft crashed when they hit a bank of fog just south of the River Tees. Six of the aircraft had to land, with five of them crash landing, resulting in many injuries and two deaths (a Lieutenant and a First Class Mechanic) in a field near Hutton Bonville in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
No. 2 Squadron was the first to fly the English Channel into France at the start of the First World War with H.D. Harvey-Kelly being the first pilot to land his aircraft. The squadron spent the war on reconnaissance duties in France flying, amongst other aircraft, the B.E.2.
Although its principal role was not air-to-air combat, it still had one flying ace among its ranks in Arthur William Hammond. It also numbered the first aviation Victoria Cross winners in its ranks, in Second Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse and Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod.
The squadron gained the 'AC' in its title in the inter-war years, flying army co-operation (AC) sorties during the partition of Ireland in the early 1920s. After time in China during 1927, the squadron re-equipped with the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas again on army co-operation work.
At the outbreak of the Second World War the unit was flying Westland Lysanders. In France until the Dunkirk evacuation. It was then based at RAF Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire as the principle squadron in that location. Over time the squadron equipped with fighters – the Curtiss Tomahawk in 1941, the North American Mustang in 1942. In July 1944, assigned to the 2nd Tactical Air Force, the squadron returned to France in the reconnaissance role. It was re-equipped with Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIVs in November 1944. Shiny Two relocated to RAF Celle in June 1945 after the war in Europe was won as part of the British Air Forces of Occupation.
Squadron Codes
KO (November 1939–May 1941)
XV (May 1941–1943)
Commanding Officers
Squadron Leader A J W Geddes (29 April 1939) (Wing Commander from 1 March 1940)
Wing Commander P J A Riddell (24 December 1941)
Wing Commander P W Stansfeld (8 February 1943)
Squadron Leader B O C Egan-Wyer (29 June 1943)
Squadron Leader M J Gray (25 August 1943)
Squadron Leader C A Maitland (7 September 1944)
Squadron Leader R J F Mitchell (25 March 1945)
Squadron Leader D W Barlow (24 April 1946)
Aircraft
September 1938-September 1940: Lysander I and Lysander II
September 1940-July 1942: Lysander III
August 1941-April 1942: Tomahawk I, IIA
April 1942-May 1944: Mustang I, Ia
May 1944-January 1945: Mustang II
November 1944-January 1951: Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIV
Duty
September 1938-June 1940: Army Cooperation squadron
June 1940 onwards: Tactical Reconnaissance
Location
30 November 1935-6 October 1939: Hawkinge
6 October 1939-19 May 1940: Abbeville/ Drucat (France)
19-20 May 1940: Lympne (UK)
21-21 May 1940: Bekesbourne and Croydon
21 May-8 June 1940: Bekesbourne only
8 June-24 October 1940: Hatfield
24 October 1940-3 February 1943: Sawbridgeworth
3 February-20 March 1943: Bottisham
20 March-27 April 1943: Fowlmere
27 April-16 July 1943: Sawbridgworth
17 July-10 August 1943: Gravesend
10 August 1943-22 January 1944: Odiham
29 February-11 March 1944: Sawbridgworth
11-24 March 1944: Dundonald
24 March-4 April 1944: Sawbridgworth
4 April-30 July 1944: Gatwick
30 July-14 August 1944: B.10 Plumetot (France)
14 August-3 September 1944: B.4 Beny-sur-Mer
3-6 September 1944: B.27 Boisney
6-11 September 1944: B.31 Fresnoy Folney
11-27 September 1944: B.43 Fort Rouge
27 September-11 October 1944: B.61 St. Denis Westrem
11-23 October 1944: B.70 Deurne
23 October 1944-9 March 1945: B.77 Gilze-Rijen
9 March-18 April 1945: B.89 Mill
18 April-30 May 1945: B.106 Twente
30 May-18 June 1945: B.116: Celle
18 June 1945: B.150 Hustedt
Significant Dates
6 October 1939: Moves to France with BEF
19 May 1940: Forced to return to Britain by the rapid German advance
14 November 1942: First Mustang sortie
July 1944: Moves to Normandy after the D-Day invasion.
17 January 1945: Last Mustang sortie
Bibliography
Butcher, Percy Edwin. Skill and Devotion: A Personal Reminiscence of the Famous No. 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. Hampton Hill, Middlesex, UK: Radio Modeller Book Division, 1971.
Halley, James J. The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force & Commonwealth, 1918–1988. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1988.
Heathcott, John. "Unit Heritage: 'Second to None': 'Shiny Two', No. II (AC) Squadron, RAF". Wings of Fame. Volume 11, 1998. London: Aerospace Publishing. pp. 140–157.
Jefford, C.G. RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury: Airlife Publishing, 2001.
Onderwater, Hans. Second to None: the History of No. II (Army Co-operation) Squadron RAF, 1912–2002. second edition, Airlife Publishing, UK.
Raleigh, Walter. The War in the Air: Being the Story of the part played in the Great War by The Royal Air Force: Vol I. Oxford: The Clarenden Press, 1922.
Rawlings, John D.R. Coastal, Support and Special Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft. London: Jane's Publishing Company Ltd., 1982.
Rawlings, John D.R. Fighter Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft. London: Macdonald and Jane's (Publishers) Ltd., 1969 (new edition 1976, reprinted 1978).
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| Two Royal Air Force Mustang Mark Is AG550 XV-U and AM112 XV-X of No. 2 Squadron RAF based at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, in flight over Cambridgeshire. AG550 is being flown by Wing Commander A.J.W. Geddes, the squadron commander. |
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| Mustang I XV-U of No 2 Squadron RAF, 1942. |
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| Mustang Mark I AG550 XV-U of No. 2 Squadron. |
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| Mustang I AG633 XV-E of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Mustang I AL995 XV-S of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Mustang I AG550 XV-U of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Mustang I AG633 XV-E of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Mustang I AG550 XV-U of No. 2 Squadron RAF, 3 September 1943. |
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| Mustang I AG636 XV-F of No. 2 Squadron RAF, Sawbridgeworth, 1942. |
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| Mustang I AG639 XV-E of No. 2 Sqdn, c. 1942. |
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| Mustang I AG550 XV-U of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Photographic staff transfer the film magazine of an Type F.24 aerial camera, mounted in the oblique position in a North American Mustang of No. 2 Squadron RAF, to its carrying case for rapid development by the Photographic Section, following a tactical reconnaissance training sortie, at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. |
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| Lysander Mark III, T1532 KO-D, of No. 2 Squadron RAF based at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, in flight while making a practice attack on a road convoy at Odiham, Hampshire. |
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| A North American Mustang Mark I, AL995 'XV-S', of No. 2 Squadron RAF, undergoes an overhaul on its dispersal point at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, as another aircraft of the squadron overflys the airfield. |
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| A North American Mustang of No. 2 Squadron RAF, takes off from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, past a Commer Q2 mobile wireless van providing air to ground communications. To the left, a De Havilland Dragon Rapide communications aircraft is parked in one of the dispersals. |
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| A pilot and an Army Liaison Officer examine prints of aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by No. 2 Squadron RAF in their Mobile Operations Room at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, while an airman of the Photographic Section examines a newly-developed roll of film. |
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| Early RAF Mk.I Mustangs of No.2 Squadron at Sawbridgeworth, possibly in January 1942. |
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| Crashed Curtiss Tomahawk IIA AH945 XV-W of 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Curtiss Tomahawk IIA XV-S AH942 of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Westland Lysander I KO-_ of No. 2 Squadron RAF. |
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| Squadron badge. The RAF roundel (three concentric circles) over all a wake knot. Approved by King Edward VIII in May 1936. The circles represent the RAF and the wake knot is derived from the arms of Hereward the Wake and indicates the basic role of the unit as a guardian of the Army. |