Motto:
"Sic fidem servamus" ("Thus we keep faith")
Badge: A sword in bend severing a mantle palewise. This
unit formed at Dover and adopted a mantle being severed by a sword to
show its connection with that town, the arms of which include St. Martin
and the beggar with whom he divided his cloak. The mantle is also
indicative of the protection given to this country by the Royal Air
Force.
History
Re-formed in May 1937,
as a bomber squadron, No. 50 was flying Hampdens from Waddington at the
outbreak of the Second World War and first dropped bombs in anger in
March 1940, when it participated in Bomber Command's first attack on a
German land target - the mine-laying seaplane base at Hornum on the
island of Sylt. In December 1940, by which time it had attacked many
other enemy targets, including Berlin, the squadron took part in the
first area-bombing attack on a German industrial centre (Mannheim). A
year later, to the month, it took part in the Combined Operation against
the German-held Norwegian island of Vaagsõ, its Hampdens - operating
from an advanced base in Northern Scotland - dropping smoke bombs to
provide a smoke screen for troops and landing craft, and also bombing a
gun battery.
In 1942 No. 50
Squadron converted to Manchesters, then to Lancasters, and in October of
that year contributed twelve Lancasters to No. 5 Group's celebrated low-Ievel
dusk raid on the Schneider works at Le Creusot. In 1943 it took part in
the first shuttle-bombing raid (when the targets were a radar factory at
Friedrichshafen and the Italian naval base at Spezia), and the epic raid
on the German V-weapons experimental establishment at Peenemunde. Among
the targets that it attacked in 1944 were the V1 storage sites in the
caves at St. Leu d'Esserent in the Loire valley, and the dykes at
Flushing on the German-held Dutch island of Walcheren. In December 1944,
it took part in a raid on the German Baltic Fleet at Gdynia, and in
March 1945, was represented in the bomber force that so pulverised the
defences of Wesel just before the crossing of the Rhine that Commandos
were able to seize the town with only 36 casualties. In April 1945, came
the last of the squadron's operations against the enemy - an attack on
an oil refinery at Vallo (Tonsberg) in Norway.
Among the many
decorations won by No. 50 Squadron in the Second World War were a
Victoria Cross (awarded posthumously to Flying Officer LT Manser), 6
DSOs, 70 DFCs and 114 DFMs.
(©
Royal Air Force)
RAF Squadron crest
© Crown Copyright is reproduced with the
permission of the Controller of Her
Majesty’s Stationery Office
Casualties of the squadron, buried
in the Netherlands.
