No. 3 Squadron RAF
| No 3 Squadron | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Active | 13 May 1912 (RFC) |
| Role | Air Defence and Early Warning |
| Garrison/HQ | RAF Coningsby |
| Motto(s) |
Latin: Tertius primus erit ("The third shall be the first") |
| Equipment | Typhoon FGR4 & T3 |
| Battle honours | Western Front 1914–1918, Mons, Somme 1918, Low Countries 1940, Battle of Britain 1940, Normandy 1944, Arnhem, France and Germany 1944–1945, Iraq 2003 |
| Insignia | |
| Squadron Badge heraldry | On a monolith, a cockatrice |
| Squadron Roundel |  |
No 3 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Typhoon F2, FGR4 and T3 from RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire. It was formed in 1912 as one of the first squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps.
No 3 Squadron (Royal Flying Corps) was formed at Larkhill on 13 May 1912 by the renaming of No. 2 (Aeroplane) Company of the Air Battalion Royal Engineers, under the command of Major Robert Brooke-Popham. Being already equipped with aeroplanes and manned by pilots and air mechanics, No. 2 (Aeroplane) Company was thus the first British, Empire or Commonwealth independent military unit to operate heavier-than-air flying machines, hence the 3 Squadron motto Tertius primus erit, meaning "The third shall be the first". On 5 July 1912, two members of the squadron, Captain Eustace Loraine and Staff Sergeant Wilson were killed in an aircraft crash, making them the first RFC fatalities. In 1913, No 3 Squadron deployed to Halton in Buckinghamshire to support the land manoeuvres of the Household Division. A temporary airfield was set up on what later became RAF Halton's Maitland Parade Square. During the exercise, No 3 Squadron flew a number of reconnaissance sorties and staged the first confrontation between an airship and an aeroplane.
Sent to France on the outbreak of the Great War, the squadron initially operated in the reconnaissance role using a variety of aircraft types. On 22 August 1914, British Captain L.E.O. Charlton, 3 Sqn Flight commander and Lieutenant V.H.N. Wadham reported German General Alexander von Kluck's army was preparing to surround the BEF, contradicting all other intelligence. The British High Command took note of the report and started to withdraw toward Mons, saving the lives of 100,000 soldiers.The English ace James McCudden served as a mechanic and later observer with 3 Squadron from June 1913 to January 1916 before leaving to become a pilot. Cecil Lewis, author of Sagittarius Rising flew Morane Parasols with No 3 Squadron during the Somme offensive in the summer of 1916. Later in October 1917, with the introduction of Sopwith Camels, a fighter/scout role was taken on, with 59 enemy aircraft being claimed by the end of the war. The squadron disbanded in October 1919.
...
Wikipedia