47 Squadron currently flies the C-130J Super Hercules from Royal Air Force Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, providing tactical air mobility and support to UK Special Forces around the world.
Most recently, the Squadron have been deployed on Op SHADER, the UK's contribution to counter-Daesh operations in the Middle East.
But let's roll back the clock to where it all began....
Formed at a former racecourse turned aerodrome in Yorkshire, 47 Squadron began as a home defence unit protecting Hull and Yorkshire against attacks by German Zeppelins using fixed wing aircraft including Whitworth FK3s, FK8s, and RAF Factory BE 12s.
As World War One raged on, the Squadron deployed to Salonika, Greece in September 1916 in support of the Allied forces on the Macedonian Front. This was 47 Squadron’s first Battle Honour, and features on the Squadron Standard.
The original home of 47 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, protecting the region against German Zeppelin attacks.
Back to being a racecourse, with a few historical reminders of the Royal Flying Corps’ presence here more than 100 years ago.
The BE12 was a single-seat version of the BE2, and became the Royal Flying Corps’ general purpose aircraft. It could carry a Vickers machine gun, with some variants carrying a rearward firing Lewisgun, along with up to 152kg of bombs.
Designed as a general purpose aircraft, the British-made aircraft saw service during the First World War. 47 Squadron RFC was the only overseas unit to receive these aircraft while in Salonika, Greece, with the remainder based in the UK.
The successor to both the BE12 and FK3, it featured a larger fuselage and wings, more powerful engine, and various upgrades to its undercarriage and control surfaces. 47 Squadron RAF used them mainly in a reconnaissance role, but they were used to support the Allied offensive of September 1918.
The Squadron’s fighter flights were detached to other units, with 47 mostly flying reconnaissance missions in their FK8s. However, this all changed towards the end of World War I as the campaign in Greece began to move at pace.
47 Squadron was paired with 17 Squadron, re-equipped with bombers, and tasked with attacking enemy aerodromes, ammunition dumps and railways in the Allied offensive of September 1918. By the end of the month the Germans ceded control of the air and flew no further missions.
Armstrong Whitworth FK8 based in Salonika
As the only British military personnel fighting in the Russian Civil War, the Squadron operated the Airco DH9 under A & C Flights, and the Sopwith Camel under B Flight. They comprised of 340 personnel, 67 of whom were pilots.
47 Squadron were mostly tasked with reconnaissance flights, but on encountering enemy positions in the field pilots would pick off cavalry and infantry during low-level raids using bombs or machine guns.
The Squadron continued to fly under its own colours until fighting its way back to the Crimea. To this day, 47 remains the only Squadron in the Royal Air Force with its own flag.
C Flight, 47 Squadron, September 1919
February 1920 saw 206 Squadron renumbered to 47 Squadron while in Helwan, Egypt. At the time they were a bomber squadron equipped with DH9s, receiving the upgraded DH9A a year later.
While 47 Squadron’s missions included day bombing, they were also used for air transport missions, surveying and marking the route from Cairo to Baghdad as well as carrying air mail.
It was during this time that the Squadron became the first RAF unit to conduct a round trip between Egypt and Nigeria, flying for 85 hours over 24 days, covering 6,500 miles.
Civilian conversion of an Airco DH9
October 1927, and 47 Squadron were on the move again – this time to Khartoum, Sudan to assist the Sudan Defence Force. They were re-equipped with Fairey 111Fs, with many being equipped with floats to operate from the Nile in 1929.
This gave rise to the current sqn motto: Nili Nomen Roboris Omen, The Name of the Nile is an Omen of our Strength.
As operations in Egypt continued, the Squadron’s Fairey 111Fs were replaced with Vincents in 1936 and Wellesleys in 1939.
With the outbreak of WWII hostilities in 1939, 47 Squadron was posted to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), from where it flew the first operational bombing sortie of the war against Italian airfield in Eritrea.
Re-equipping with Beaufort torpedo bombers in 1942, the Squadron returned to Egypt to carry out anti-shipping and anti-submarine attacks in the Eastern Mediterranean. It converted to Beaufighters in 1943 and moved to Tunisia and then Libya to support the Italian campaign.
Fairey 111Fs on the Nile equipped with floats
In March 1944, 47 Squadron moved to India as part of a Mosquito Strike Wing, flying ground attack missions against Japanese bases and equipment in Burma. A year later and a detachment was sent to Java, Indonesia in support of Allied forces which were under attack by guerrillas.
The Squadron was disbanded on 21st March 1946.
Rockets loaded onto a 47 Squadron Mosquito Mk VI, prior to a mission in Java, Indonesia.
Like many of 47 Squadron’s short-lived disbandments and re-activations, the Squadron sprang back to life on 1st September 1946 when 644 Squadron based at Qastina, Palestine renumbered to 47 Squadron.
They had been operating the Halifax as a transport squadron, but were soon ordered to return to RAF Fairford the same month.
Pilots from RAF Middle East Command in front of a Halifax.
On 24th June 1948, the Soviet Union closed all rail and road traffic in West Berlin between the British, United States, and French zones – and from western Germany. The West needed a way of transporting food and energy provisions – and quickly, in what would become the Berlin Airlift.
At the forefront of these efforts was 47 Squadron. They had inherited a fleet of Halifax A Mark 9s from their last renumbering in Palestine, which were quickly replaced with Handley Page Hastings.
The first mission using a Hastings was on 11th November 1948, and over the next eleven months flights would regularly transport thousands of tonnes of cargo. 32 Hastings were deployed in total during the Berlin Airlift, transporting around 22,000 tons of supplies to Allies across Berlin. The final mission flew on 9th October 1949.
Handley Page Hastings T.5, once operated by 47 Squadron during the Berlin Airlift. Now found at the Royal Air Force Museum at RAF Cosford.
After the success of the Berlin Airlift, the Squadron moved to RAF Topcliffe in 1949, followed by another move in 1953 to RAF Abingdon.
47 Squadron would become the first to receive the Blackburn Beverley heavy-lift transport aircraft in 1956. The aircraft was able to carry 58 passengers in its freight bay, and 46 in its tail boom. It could be configured to carry paratroopers, and was able to be configured for casualty evacuations.
The Squadron would operate Beverley aircraft for a number of years before disbandment once again in 1967.
Blackburn Beverley from the 47 Squadron archives.
Reformed once more on 25th February 1968, 47 Squadron would fly the C-130K Hercules from RAF Fairford, before moving to RAF Lyneham in September 1971.
The Special Forces (SF) Flight, initially parented by 36 Squadron, was formed on 1st February 1975 before being fully absorbed into the infrastructure of 47 Squadron. The Flight operated alongside, but separately from the main squadron until 2007.
Two C-130K Hercules flown from RAF Lyneham, taken from the rear load ramp of another Hercules.
In 2007, the Squadron received its first Hercules C Mk 4 and Mk 5, also known as the C-130J Super Hercules. Owing to the increasing level of operational demand, it was decided that the whole of 47 Squadron would train to operate in support of UK Special Forces.
Both C-130K and C-130J carried out the Squadron’s primary role of Tactical Air Transport, and secondary role of Strategic Air Transport, but in February 2011 the Squadron began to concentrate solely on Tactical Air Transport.
In July 2011, 47 Squadron moved with the rest of the Hercules force to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, and after almost 47 full years of service the C-130K was retired from operational service in October 2013.
