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Pages in category "Royal Air Force squadron leaders" The following 200 pages are in this category, out of approximately 237 total. This list may not reflect recent changes .
Llewellyn remained in the RAF in the postwar period, being granted a permanent commission in the RAF as a flight lieutenant, with seniority backdated to May 1945. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] He took command of No. 74 Squadron in September 1945 as an acting squadron leader .
The rank title squadron leader was chosen as squadrons were typically led by RAF majors and the term squadron commander had been used in the Royal Naval Air Service. The rank of squadron leader was introduced in August 1919 [ 3 ] and has been used continuously since then.
At 24 years old, as a squadron leader serving with No. 109 Squadron (RAF), he embarked on what was to be his final mission, for which he received the VC. On 23 December 1944 over Cologne , Germany , Palmer was leading a formation of Lancaster bombers on a daylight raid to bomb Cologne's Gremberg railway marshalling yards .
The squadron took part in the Battle of Britain, during which the first Americans to fly in World War II were members of the squadron. Reactivated in 2017, it is a specialist squadron "tapping into the talents of leaders from industry, academia and research to advise and shape and inspire [the RAF]". [10]
During the Second World War, when units from other air forces were attached to the RAF – such as the Article XV squadrons (also known as "400 series squadrons") – their squadron codes were often changed, to avoid confusion with RAF units.
In fact, pilots skip the rank of pilot officer and go from officer cadet to flying officer on graduation from officer training school at RAF Cranwell. A squadron leader does not necessarily command a squadron, nor a wing commander necessarily command a wing, nor a group captain command a group. A group will usually be commanded by an AVM.
In March 1942 he was promoted to acting squadron leader and given command of No. 64 Squadron RAF. He was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) on 27 June. [4] During the ill-fated Dieppe Raid on 19 August, Duncan Smith was shot down by an enemy fighter but rescued from the English Channel with injuries and eardrum pain.