No. 217 Squadron RAF

No. 217 Squadron RAF
Bristol Beauforts of No. 217 Squadron off Cornwall, 1942
Active1918-1919, 1937-1945, 1952-1957, 1958-1959
Country United Kingdom
Branch Royal Air Force
RoleMaritime patrol, anti-shipping, strike, reconnaissance
Part ofRAF Coastal Command
Motto(s)Woe to the unwary[1]
EngagementsWorld War I
World War II
Operation Grapple
Insignia
Squadron badge heraldryA demi-shark, erased
Aircraft flown
AttackAirco DH.4, Lockheed Hudson, Bristol Beaufort, Bristol Beaufighter TF.X
Utility helicopterWestland Whirlwind HAR.2
PatrolAvro Anson, Lockheed Hudson
ReconnaissanceLockheed Neptune MR.1

No. 217 Squadron RAF was a squadron of the RAF. It was formed and disbanded four times between 1 April 1918 and 13 November 1959. In World War I it served in a strike role against enemy bases and airfields in Belgium. In World War II as part of RAF Coastal Command it served first in a maritime patrol role along the Western Approaches and later in an anti-shipping role in the English Channel. Ordered to the Far East in 1942, the squadron was retained for two months in Malta in an anti-shipping role, protecting Allied convoys, before moving to Ceylon to defend the approaches to India, serving in an anti-submarine and anti-shipping role. It was equipped and training for a strike role, when the war ended. In the postwar period, it served for five years in a maritime reconnaissance role, and then briefly in a support role for Operation Grapple, the British hydrogen bomb tests on Christmas Island.

  1. ^ See Pine (1983), p. 266