No. 111 Squadron RAF

No. 111 Squadron RAF
Official Squadron Badge of No. 111 Squadron RAF
Active	1 August 1917 – 12 May 1947 2 December 1953 – 22 March 2011
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Nickname(s)	'Treble One'
Motto(s)	Latin: Adstantes ("Standing by")
Battle honours	Palestine 1917–1918*, Megiddo, Home Defence 1940–1942*, France and Low Countries 1940, Dunkirk*, Battle of Britain 1940*, Fortress Europe 1941–1942*, Dieppe, North Africa 1942–1943*, Sicily 1943, Italy 1943–1945*, Salerno, Anzio and Nettuno, Gustav Line, France and Germany 1944*. Honours marked with an asterisk are those emblazoned on the Squadron Standard
Insignia
Squadron Badge	In front of two swords in saltire a cross potent quadrat charged with three seaxes fesswise in pale
Squadron Roundel
Squadron Codes	TM (Apr 1939 – Sep 1939) JU (Sep 1939 – May 1947) B (Carried on Phantoms) H (Carried on Tornados)

No. 111 (Fighter) Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1917 in the Middle East as No. 111 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps during the reorganisation of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force after General Edmund Allenby took command during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The squadron remained in the Middle East after the end of the First World War until 1920 when it was renumbered as No. 14 Squadron.

The squadron was reformed in 1923. At the start of the Second World War, it fought in the battle of Britain. In late 1941 it moved to the Mediterranean where it was involved in the invasion of North Africa and then of Sicily and the Italian mainland. Disbanded in the years after the war, the squadron reformed in 1953 with jets.

Operating the Hawker Hunter, No. 111 Squadron provided an aerobatic display team – the Black Arrows. It also performed aerobatics when it re-equipped with the Lightning interceptor. The Squadron moved to Scotland in 1975 remaining there after it exchanged Phantoms for the air defence variant of the Panavia Tornado. It operated the Panavia Tornado F3 in air defence from RAF Leuchars, Scotland until March 2011, when the squadron was disbanded, at the same time ending the Tornado F3 service in the RAF.

No. 111 Squadron was formed at Deir el-Balah, Palestine, on 1 August 1917, with a mixed bag of single seat fighters as the first dedicated fighter squadron in the region. Its mission was to restrict enemy reconnaissance flights and challenge the German fighter presence over Suez. It was reinforced by Bristol F.2 Fighters in September,one of these claiming the first aerial victory for 111 on 8 October. It handed over its Bristol Fighters to No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps in February 1918, becoming completely equipped with single seat fighters. By the time the Armistice with Turkey ended the war in the Middle East, No. 111 Squadron had claimed 44 enemy aircraft destroyed and a further 13 forced down for the loss of two pilots killed in combat, one prisoner and three wounded. The squadron had produced four aces: Austin Lloyd Fleming, future Air Marshal Peter Roy Maxwell Drummond, Charles Davidson, and Arthur Peck. 'Treble One' was reformed in Egypt after the War as No. 14 Squadron.