No. 20 Squadron RAF

No.20 (R) Squadron

Active	1 September 1915 - 1 August 1947 11 February 1949 - 16 September 1951 14 June 1952 - 30 December 1960 1 September 1961 - 13 February 1970 1 December 1970 - 31 July 1992 1 September 1992 - 31 March 2010
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Motto(s)	Latin: Facta non verba ("Deeds not Words")
Battle honours	Western Front 1916–1918 Somme 1916 Arras Ypres 1917 Somme 1918 Lys Hindenburg Line Mahsud 1919–1920 Waziristan 1919–1925 Mohmand 1927 North-West Frontier 1930–1931 Mohmand 1933 North-West Frontier 1935–1939 North Burma 1943–1944 Arakan Campaign 1943–1944 Manipur 1944 Burma 1944–1945 Gulf 1991
Insignia
Squadron Badge heraldry	In front of the rising sun, an eagle, wings elevated and perched on a sword.The rising sun is intended to commemorate the unit's long association with the East. The eagle is perched on 'Talwar' indicative of the Squadron's work with the Army in India.
Squadron Roundel
Aircraft flown
Attack	Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2B Bristol F.2 Fighter Westland Wapiti Hawker Audax Westland Lysander Hawker Hurricane Supermarine Spitfire Hawker Tempest de Havilland Vampire Canadair Sabre Hawker Hunter Hawker Siddeley Harrier SEPECAT Jaguar Panavia Tornado

No. 20 (R) Squadron of the Royal Air Force was from September 1992 until March 2010, the OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) for the BAE Harrier GR9, and T12, operating from RAF Wittering. A reserve squadron, it could be called upon for combat duties if necessary.

The squadron was formed on 1 September 1915, as a fighter-reconnaissance unit of the Royal Flying Corps, and became arguably the highest scoring and possibly most decorated British squadron on the Western Front with 613 combat victories, a posthumous Victoria Cross won by Thomas Mottershead, four Distinguished Conduct Medals, and over sixty Military Crosses and Military Medals awarded to its members. Its ranks included over forty flying aces. The squadron transferred from the Royal Flying Corps to the newly formed Royal Air Force in April 1918.

Post World War I, unlike most of its contemporaries, the squadron was not disbanded and was transferred in Jun 1919 to the North-West Frontier Province, India for policing duties, in the Army Co-operation role, equipped with Bristol Fighters, then Wapitis and Audaxes for the whole of the inter-war period.

At the outbreak of World War II, the squadron was still equipped with Audaxes, which were replaced with Lysanders in December 1941, re-equipping with Hurricanes in March 1943. During the Second World War the squadron's Hawker Hurricane IIDs and IVs saw action against the Japanese.

After the war, the squadron re-equipped with Spitfires in September 1945, and Tempest FBIIs in May 1946, retaining these until it disbanded on 1 August 1947, whilst based in India.

20 Squadron reformed at RAF Llanbedr on 11 February 1949 as an Anti-Aircraft Co-operation (AAC) squadron, moving to RAF Valley on 19 July 1949, equipped with miscellaneous aircraft. The squadron disbanded at Valley on 16 September 1951.

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