No 128 Squadron

Motto: "Fulminis instar" ("Like a thunderbolt").
Badge: In front of an ogress a shuttle in hand. The badge is symbolic of the squadron's activities over enemy territory when, with Mosquito aircraft carrying 4,000 lb. bombs to Berlin, it functioned with the regularity of a shuttle.
Authority: King George VI, March 1946.

No 128 Squadron, RFC, was formed on 1st February 1918, and disbanded in July of that same year. Nothing further about its early history is known. No 128 was re-formed in October 1941, at Hastings, Sierra Leone, and took over the aircraft (Hurricanes) and duties (convoy and anti-submarine patrols, etc.) of No. 95 Squadron Defence Flight which had been operating from Hastings since July of that year. In January 1942, a joint Nos 128 and 200 (Hudson) Squadron detachment was established in Gambia and No 128 remained divided between Sierra Leone and Gambia until the following December.

No 128 was disbanded again in March 1943, but re-formed in September 1944, at Wyton, Huntingdonshire, as a Mosquito light-bomber squadron of No. 8 (Pathfinder) Group, RAF Bomber Command. It formed part of the PFF's Fast Night Striking Force and during the remainder of the war in Europe made many nuisance raids on important industrial centres in Germany, including Berlin, Frankfurt, Brunswick, Hamburg and Cologne. It attacked Berlin on 65 nights, 22 of them (23 raids) during March 1945. A highlight of its wartime PFF career was New Year's Day 1945, when it took part in a special operation - the "skip"-bombing of railway tunnels in the Koblenz region of South-West Germany.

Bomber Command WWII Bases: Re-formed 15.9.44 as No 128(B) Sqdn. at

• Wyton, Hunts. : Sep 1944 onwards

Bomber Command WWII Aircraft:

• de Havilland Mosquito B.XVI, B.XX and B.XXV : Sep 1944 onwards

Code Letters:

• "M5"

First Operational Mission in WWII (as part of Bomber Command):

• 10/11th September 1944 : 1 Mosquito bombed Berlin, another Mosquito aborted.

Last Operational Mission in WWII:

• 2nd/3rd May 1945 : 16 Mosquitos, operating in 2 waves of 8, bombed Kiel.

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