About This Unit
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No. 117 Squadron (RAF)
For the purpose of this website, 117 Squadron (RAF) is included as one of the RAF Squadrons, to which thousands of RAAF personnel were posted across most theatres of WW2, and in which they served fought and very often died. These men were often disparagingly referred to as "Odd Bods" and "Jap Dodgers" by their unknowing colleagues who remained in RAAF service in the SW Pacific. The "Odd Bods" suffered the highest casualty rates of any cohort of servicepersonnel in WW2, particularly among the crews of RAF Bomber Command.
The Empire Air Training Scheme supplied tens of thousands of aircrew for the Royal Air Force (RAF) air war in Europe during WW II. While a number of so-called Article XV national squadrons were created in Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands of the RAF, the majority of Australian aircrew were posted, along with their Commonwealth colleagues, to RAF Squadrons as individual crew members,where they would 'crew up' often with a very multi-national aircrew comprised of men from all over the Commownwealth. Ground staff were similarly assigned.
Extract from RAF MoD site.
Having formed in WW1 as a bomber unit 117 was merged with No. 141 Squadron after the end of the war.
On 30 April 1941, No. 117 re-appeared on the Order of Battle when it reformed at Khartoum in Sudan, and incorporated the local communications flight. Four Bombays were acquired from No. 216 Squadron for long-range flights and in May four Savoia-Marchetti S.79Ks were added. In October the Squadron received DC-2s and in November it moved to Egypt, leaving the communication aircraft behind and returning its Bombays to No. 216 Squadron. Freight flights to the Western Desert began in December and in March 1942 a flight of D.H.8Bs was added. In April the Squadron converted to Lockheed Lodestars (a Hudosn derivative) and at the same time the first C-47 Dakota arrived. In August the Dakotas began operating freight and passenger services to Malta while Hudsons were used in North Africa, the Squadron standardising with Hudsons in November. Until June 1943 it flew freight and casualty evacuation flights from airfields captured by the advancing 8th Army and then began to convert to Dakotas. Routine services were flown around the Mediterranean until the Squadron moved to India at the end of October. After parachute-dropping training, supply missions began in January 1944. In addition the Squadron flew Chindits (British Army long range penetration forces) behind the Japanese lines in March and April and kept them maintained. Withdrawn in November 1944 for rest, No. 117 returned to the Burma front in December and flew supply-dropping missions for the rest of the war. On 17 December 1945, the Squadron was disbanded.