No. IX Squadron RAF

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=No. IX Squadron RAF


role=Strike/attack/SEAD
equipment=Tornado GR4
garrison=RAF Marham
motto="Per noctem volamus (We fly through the night)"
identification_symbol=A Bat
dates=8 December 1914
battle_honours=Western Front 1915- 1918, Somme 1916, Ypres 1917, Amiens, Hindenburg Line, Channel and North Sea 1939-1945, Norway 1940, Baltic 1939-1945, France and Low Countries 1940, German Ports 1940-1945, Fortress Europe 1940-1944, Berlin 1941-1945, Biscay ports 1940-1945, Ruhr 1941-1945, France and Germany 1944-1945, Tirpitz, The Dams, Rhine, Gulf 1991, Kosovo, Iraq 2003

No. IX (Bomber) or 9 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was the first in the service to receive the Panavia Tornado, which it currently operates from RAF Marham, Norfolk.

History

No. IX (B) Squadron was formed and disbanded twice during the First World War. The first incarnation was formed in France from a detachment of the RFC HQ; this lasted less than a year. Re-formed at Brooklands a few weeks later as a fighter squadron, No. 9 was equipped with an assortment of different types; it was disbanded again after the war, in 1919.

The squadron's life as a bomber unit began on 1 April 1924, reforming at Upavon, later RAF Manston, with the Vickers Vimy. Less than a year later, the squadron re-equipped with the Vickers Virginia heavy bomber, which it retained until this was replaced by the Handley Page Heyford in 1936. World War II began with the unit one of the few equipped with modern aircraft, the Vickers Wellington bomber, flying out of RAF Honington; the Wellington later gave way to the Avro Lancaster, with which the unit would complete its most famous sorties.

On 4 September 1939, the squadron’s Wellington aircraft and crews were the first to hit the enemy, the first to get into a dogfight, possibly the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first to be shot down by one and, towards the end of the war, the first to hit the German battleship "Tirpitz" with the Tallboy 12,000 pound bomb, an achievement by the crew of a Lancaster on her 102nd operation with the squadron.

No. 9 fought with RAF Bomber Command in Europe all the way through World War Two, took part in all the major raids and big battles, pioneered and proved new tactics and equipment, produced several of the leading figures in The Great Escape, as well as Colditz inmates - including the legendary 'Medium Sized Man' Flight Lieutenant Dominic Bruce OBE MC AFM originator of the famous 'tea chest' escape; they became one of the two specialised squadrons attacking precision targets with the Tallboy bomb, and led the final mainforce raid, on Berchtesgaden, 25 April 1945.

The battleship "Tirpitz" had been moved into a fjord in Northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already been damaged by a Royal Navy midget submarine attack and a second attack from carrier born aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. But both attacks had failed to sink her. The task was given to No. 9 and No.617 Squadrons who, operating from a base in Russia, attacked the Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs which damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to Tromsö fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland. There in October from a base in Scotland she was attacked again. Finally on November 12, 1944, the two squadrons attacked the Tirpitz and she capsized. All three RAF attacks on the Tirpitz were led by Wing Commander JB "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944.

After the War, the Lancasters were replaced by Avro Lincolns until 1952, when the Squadron re-equipped with English Electric Canberra jet-bombers. These aircraft were used during three months of operations in Malaya in 1956 and during the Suez Crisis. In March 1962, the squadron converted to the Avro Vulcan and became part of the V-Force, spending six years in Cyprus as part of the Near East Air Force Wing (NEAF). The squadron were also part of the RAF Coningsby, RAF Waddington & RAF Cottesmore Wings before disbanding in April 1982.

The IX squadron badge was approved by King Edward VIII in 1936.

Current role

IX Squadron reformed in August 1982, becoming the world's first operational Tornado squadron at RAF Honington with the Panavia Tornado GR1, moving to RAF Bruggen in 1986. The squadron deployed to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 1990 as part of Operation Granby, the first Gulf War, leading a number of bombing raids, delivering JP 233 and 1000 lb bombs. The squadron has conducted operations over southern Iraq in support of UN resolutions and over Kosovo in 1999.

IX Squadron continued its pioneering history by becoming the first squadron to receive the Tornado GR4 in 1999. A formal ceremony at RAF Brüggen on June 15 2001 officially ended a continuous RAF presence in Germany since World War II; on July 17 the squadron completed its move to RAF Marham and all of the remaining Tornados had left by September 4 2001.

The squadron formed a part of the RAF contribution to the 2003 Iraq War (Operation Telic). Nos. II, IX, XIII, 31 and 617 Squadrons contributed to Tornado GR4 Wing 1 based at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait. IX Squadron suffered a devastating loss on March 23 2003 when one of their aircraft was engaged by a Patriot battery in Kuwait while returning from a mission. The pilot and navigator were both killed. Immediately after the incident it was claimed that the RAF crew had failed to switch on their IFF beacon. However a US journalist embedded with the U.S. Army unit operating the Patriot battery said the "army Patriots were mistakenly identifying friendly aircraft as enemy tactical ballistic missiles."

While all Tornado GR.4s are capable of carrying the ALARM Anti Radiation Missile, IX and 31 Sqns specialise in the role. In this role they are known as "Pathfinder" squadrons.

In 2007 IX B Squadron were the lead squadron in celebrating 25 years of the Tornado GR in service with the Royal Air Force. A special tail-fin design was applied to one of the squadrons Tornado GR's ZA469.

ee also

*List of RAF squadrons