No. 617 Squadron RAF

No. 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is better known as the "Dambusters" squadron. It currently operates the Tornado GR4 from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland.

History

The squadron was formed at RAF Scampton during World War II on the March 15, 1943 with the purpose of attacking three major dams on the Ruhr in Germany: the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and was carried out on May 17, 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy Barnes Wallis's "Bouncing bomb."

The commander of 617 Squadron Wing Commander Guy Gibson was awarded the VC for his part in the raid. The Squadron's badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam, in commemoration of Op Chastise.

Later in 1943, Leonard Cheshire took over as CO of the Squadron from Gibson.

Throughout the rest of the war, the Squadron continued the specialist and precision bombing role, including the use of the enormous Tallboy and Grand Slam ground-penetrating 'earthquake' bombs. A particularly notable attack was the sinking of the battle ship Tirpitz. Tirpitz had been moved into a fjord in Northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the UK. She had already been damaged by a Royal Navy midget submarine attack and a second attack from carrier born aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. But both attacks had failed to sink her. The task was given to No. 9 and No.617 Squadrons who operating from a base in Russia attacked the Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs which damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to Tromsö fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of bombers operating from Scotland. There in October from a base in Scotland she was attacked again. Finally on November 12, 1944, the two squadrons attacked the Tirpitz and she capsized. All three RAF attacks on the Tirpitz were led by Wing Commander JB "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Wing Commander Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944.

Since the end of World War II the Squadron has operated the Avro Vulcan (reforming at Scampton on May 1, 1958,) and the Panavia Tornado GR1 and GR4.

Current Role

When the Squadron was reformed with the Tornado it was originally based at RAF Marham, but is now located at RAF Lossiemouth. 617 Sqn continued its pioneering heritage by becoming the first RAF squadron to fire the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise-missile during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The RAF's first female fast jet pilot entered service with 617 Sqn in August 1994.