224 Squadron RAF

Motto: “Fedele all'amico” ("Faithful to a Friend")

Badge: A tower entwined by a serpent

Royal Air Force Squadron No. 224 saw service in both the First and Second World Wars.

Part of No. 6 Wing Royal Naval Air Service (R.N.A.S) with headquarters at Taranto and Otranto formed No. 224 Squadron on the 1^st April 1918. The Squadron was equipped with the de Havilland DH.4. and during the First World War co-operated with the Italian Forces to make bombing runs on the enemy forces along the Adriatic coast. The Squadron was disbanded in May 1919 at Taranto.

No. 224 Squadron was re-formed at Manston on the 1^st February 1937, when Squadron No. 48 was renumbered. Two weeks later the Squadron moved to Boscombe Down where it was equipped with Avro Ansons which were later replaced with Lockheed Hudsons in May 1939. No. 224 then moved its station to Leuchars and had the duties of Coastal Command, anti-submarine patrols and providing convoy escorts. After the German invasion of Norway, the Squadrons duties included anti-shipping operations.

The Squadron moved to Limavady in Northern Ireland for anti-submarine duties in April 1941 and moved again to St Eval, Cornwall in December 1941. In February 1942 it returned to Limavady and moved to Tiree in April 1942 where it began conversion to B-24 Liberators in July. In September 1942 the squadron moved; first to Beaulieu, then St Eval in April 1943, and Milltown, Scotland in September 1944. The squadron returned to St Eval in July 1945 where it converted to Avro Lancasters GR IIIs which replaced the lend-lease Liberators in October 1946, which the Squadron operated until disbanded on 10^th November 1947.

On 1^st March 1948, the Squadron reformed at RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, with a detachment at Gibraltar and subsequently flew meteorological sorties with the Handley Page Halifax. In 1951 it re-equipped with the Avro Shackleton, which it operated from its new home at RAF Gibraltar from August 1951, until disbanding on 31 October 1966.

Flying Officer Kenneth Owen 'Kayo' Moore Service Number CanJ22754 of the Royal Canadian Air Force 224 Squadron broke all records by sinking two German U-boats in half an hour on the night of June 8^th – 9^th 1944

224 Squadron RAF

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