No. 23 Squadron RAF

No. 23 Squadron RAF
Official Squadron Badge of No. 23 Squadron RAF
Active	1 September 1915 – 31 December 1919 1 July 1925 – September 1945 1 September 1946 – 31 October 1975 1 November 1975 – 31 October 1988 1 November 1988 – 3 October 2009
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Motto(s)	Latin: Semper Aggressus ("Always on the attack")
Colors
Equipment	E-3 Sentry
Battle honours	Home Defence 1916*, Western Front 1916–1918, Somme 1916, Arras, Ypres 1917*, Somme 1918*, Channel & North Sea 1939–1940*, Fortress Europe 1940–1944, North Africa 1943*, Sicily 1943, Italy 1943–1944*, Anzio & Nettuno*, France & Germany 1944–1945*, Ruhr 1944–1945, Kosovo, Iraq 2003. Honours marked with an asterisk* are emblazoned on the Squadron Standard
Insignia
Squadron Badge heraldry	An eagle preying on a falcon
Squadron Codes	MS Sep 1938 – Sep 1939 YP (Sep 1939 – May 1945 and Sep 1946 – Apr 1951) E (Carried on Tornados)

No. 23 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. Until October 2009, it operated the Boeing Sentry AEW1 Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire.

No. 23 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at Fort Grange, Gosport on 1 September 1915, commanded by Louis Strange and equipped with a mixture of types. A detachment of Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2C's were deployed to Sutton's Farm to act as night fighters to oppose raids by German Zeppelins, but no successful interceptions resulted. The squadron moved to France on 16 March 1916 flying FE2b two-seat pusher fighters. The squadron used the FE2b on close-escort duties and to fly standing patrols to engage hostile aircraft wherever they could be found, helping to establish air superiority in the build-up to the Battle of the Somme.

By the end of the year the "Fee" was obsolete, and the Squadron started to receive Spad S.VII single-seat fighters in February 1917, with its last F.E.2s in April 1917. 23 Squadron flew its SPADs both on offensive fighter patrols over the front and low-level strafing attacks against German troops. In December 1917 it replaced its SPAD S.VII with the more powerful and heavier armed Spad S.XIII. The squadron converted to Sopwith Dolphins in April 1918 until it disbanded just after the war on 31 December 1919. It numbered 19 aces among its ranks during the war, including: William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick, DSO, MC; Douglas U. McGregor, MC; James Pearson, DFC; Clive W. Warman, DSO, MC; Frederick Gibbs, MC; Conn Standish O'Grady, MC; Herbert Drewitt, MC, AFC; James Fitz-Morris, MC; Harold Albert White, DFC; Alfred Edwin McKay, MC; Harry Compton, DFC; and Arthur Bradfield Fairclough, MC.