No. 270 Squadron RAF | |
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Short Sunderland
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Active | 1919 1942–1945 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Air Force |
No. 270 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force squadron that operated both in the First and Second World Wars mainly as an anti-shipping and anti-submarine squadron.
No. 270 Squadron was formed from three flights (354, 355 and 356) of the Royal Naval Air Service based at Alexandria with floatplanes and flying boats. The main role was coastal reconnaissance which it continued to do until it was disbanded on 15 September 1919 when it was absorbed into 269 Squadron.
The squadron was re-formed on 12 November 1942 at Jui, in Sierra Leone, with the Consolidated Catalina flying boat. It flew sorties into the mid-Atlantic on anti-submarine patrols, sinking a U-boat in January 1943. It was also tasked with finding ships trying to break the blockade on Vichy France ports. In July 1943 the squadron sailed to Lagos, Nigeria and at the end of that year it re-equipped with the four-engined Short Sunderland. The squadron was disbanded, after the war in the Atlantic had ended, on 30 June 1945 at Apapa, Nigeria.