RAF Squadron nicknames

[Agent K]

2 hours ago, Jabba said:

I am not sure but it is something I heard at RAF Gutersloh that 3 Sqn were also banned from the UK after leaving their ground crew behind during WW2. They also mentioned that the yellow stripes either side of the green was added for this.

 

3 Squadron currently based in the UK..... at Coningsby?

[RAF4EVER]

7 hours ago, Duncan B said:

And we in ASF knew our clients (111 & 43) collectively as the 'trembling cocks'.

 

6 Sqn was often referred to as S$%ty 6 by other ground crew in the RAF in my day. It apparently stemmed back to WW2 in the desert when, allegedly, during one retreat the aircrew flew off and deserted their ground crew to be captured. I don't know if that actually did happen but it was also given as the reason why 6 Sqn spent so long stationed abroad after the war, in exile for their sins as it were. Makes for an interesting story as to why they were not thought highly of by other Squadrons at that time. 

 

Duncan B

28 Sqdn also did that.

[Doddsy2978]

Yeah!  I have heard of this about a number of Sqns. The ‘crime’ is even alluded to at the beginning of the film Battle of Britain as part of the retreat from France. It is well over 50 years at since the BofB was prosecuted so, there may something in it there as the penance (if a posting to the Med or Far East can be considered as such), would have been spent by the 90,s. As to which Sqn was involved, I don’t know. It cannot be more than one Sqn, can it?  Unless there was a whole wing involved. Nevertheless, the action presumably saved an aircraft or two, for which, the RAF would have presumably been grateful a couple of months later. 
 

I am Not so sure of the first shout though. By the time RAF was formed, the war had about 7 months to run and, though I could not guarantee it and could be wrong, I would think that the German Forces were beginning to show their threads at about that time. I speak metaphorically, of course. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

84 Sqn, who were in Cyprus, were tarred with this calumny too. 

 

We referred to 100 Sqn, who pulled banners behind Canberras for the fighters to shoot at, as 'Tatty Ton'

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 6/1/2014 at 7:57 PM, Enzo Matrix said:

IX Sqn - TABS This was used at Honington in the early 80s by the groundcrew and stood for "There's always bluddy something"! Their badge was a lemon and a corkscrew - bitter and twisted.

 

And late 70's too. We even had an official patch for the overalls. The slogan was originated by the aircrew in the Second World War, perhaps after being asked to sink the Tirpitz

[Jabba]

3 hours ago, Agent K said:

 

3 Squadron currently based in the UK..... at Coningsby?

Yes now, but until RAFG was closed down they were out there.

[John B (Sc)]

Unpleasant as it would be to leave groundcrew behind, I would have thought that in war saving the (frequently rare and slow to train) aircrew and their fighting aircraft might have to come first.  Presumably that would also be  a matter of orders, so the aircrew would have no choice?  Just like some poor sods have to provide the distraction attack and quite possibly die doing it., 

 

 

[XV107]

On 11/5/2021 at 10:32 PM, John B (Sc) said:

Unpleasant as it would be to leave groundcrew behind, I would have thought that in war saving the (frequently rare and slow to train) aircrew and their fighting aircraft might have to come first.  Presumably that would also be  a matter of orders, so the aircrew would have no choice?  Just like some poor sods have to provide the distraction attack and quite possibly die doing it., 

 

 

 

Indeed - aircraft were to be saved, and those who weren't able to be in them had to do the best they could to escape. There are all sorts of tales about squadrons being 'exiled', but they're not true.

 

84 is supposed to have been exiled after 1918 because the squadron did something which upset Trenchard. Given that he could've vetoed their continuance as an RAF squadron in the post-1918 downsizing, where he personally selected the squadron numberplates that were to form the basis of the inter-war air force... he was presented with a list of numberplates, made a couple of changes (84 remaining on the list) and then set about assigning the squadrons to their various world-wide locations. People forget how small, relatively, the air force in the UK was in the early 1920s (at one point the RAF had no home-based fighter squadrons at all, albeit only for a few weeks). In reality, 84 was chosen as one of the overseas squadrons because that was where most of them were to start with and stayed overseas. There was never any reason for the unit to return to the UK to become part of the UK ORBAT.

You also have comments about streaks of yellow appearing in squadron colours because ground crew were abandoned during the Second World War, only for the evidence to show that the yellow appeared in the inter-war years, requiring a time machine to be involved in the story at some point.

One of the other legends, of course, is that after 74 Squadron went to the Far East and painted the tails of their Lightnings black, contrary to the Fighter Command instructions (after 56 rather took the you-know-what with the chequerboard tail), their absence from the ORBAT after 1971 was punishment for this. As well as the obvious point being that they weren't part of Fighter Command when in Singapore and thus could paint the tails black if the local AOC was happy (he was), the Air Staff in fact spent most of the period between 1971 and 1983 trying to reform 74 so that there was a Tiger Squadron, but the rules over seniority kept thwarting them until 39 Squadron was elbowed out of the way (supposedly earmarked for reformation on Canberras, so a different numberplate was needed and - oh! What a happy accident! - it was 74's that was next in line )to be the 'plate for the F-4J(UK) squadron. In between that, as noted elsewhere, the Air Staff looked (and failed) to reform the squadron on Phantom FGR2, Jaguar GR1, Hunter FGA9, Victor K1 [that is not a typo] Hunters again and Lightnings (proposed extra Lighting squadron after 1979). Then the F-4J(UK) came into service and 74 got that job, restoring them to the ORBAT, even if they've now been disbanded for longer than what was seen as an unconscionably long gap in the 1970s/early 80s and are unlikely to return.