No. 453 Squadron of the
Royal Australian Air ForceThe Royal Australian Air Force is the Air Force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF began in March 1912 as the Australian Flying Corps making it the second oldest air force in the world...
was formed during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. 453 Squadron came into existence at
BankstownBankstown is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales Australia. Bankstown is located 20 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Bankstown.-History:Prior to European...
in
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
on May 23, 1941. The squadron's motto was
Ready to strike. It was raised under the
Empire Air Training SchemeThe British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, also known as the Empire Air Training Scheme, Empire Air Training Plan, Commonwealth Air Training Plan or simply "The Plan" or "The Scheme", was a massive air-training program involving the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southern...
.
The squadron was deployed to
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
in August 1941, as fears of war with
JapanThe Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the...
increased. The squadron, along with
No. 21 Squadron RAAFNo. 21 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force general reserve squadron. It saw action as a fighter, dive bomber and heavy bomber unit during World War II.-History:...
,
No. 243 Squadron RAFRAF 243 Squadron was a RAF squadron in World War II which was based at Kallang Airport in Singapore, and fought during the Battle of Singapore in 1941-42 with the inadequate Brewster Buffalo fighter....
and
No. 488 Squadron RNZAF488 Squadron was a squadron formed from New Zealanders trained under the Empire Air Training Scheme for service during the Second World War under the operational command of the Royal Air Force.-Day Fighter Unit:...
, flew
Brewster BuffaloThe Brewster F2A was an American fighter aircraft which saw limited service during World War II. In 1939, the F2A became the first monoplane fighter aircraft used by the US Navy...
fighters, but the Buffalos supplied to these squadrons proved to be poor in quality.
No. 453 Squadron of the
Royal Australian Air ForceThe Royal Australian Air Force is the Air Force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF began in March 1912 as the Australian Flying Corps making it the second oldest air force in the world...
was formed during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. 453 Squadron came into existence at
BankstownBankstown is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales Australia. Bankstown is located 20 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Bankstown.-History:Prior to European...
in
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
on May 23, 1941. The squadron's motto was
Ready to strike. It was raised under the
Empire Air Training SchemeThe British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, also known as the Empire Air Training Scheme, Empire Air Training Plan, Commonwealth Air Training Plan or simply "The Plan" or "The Scheme", was a massive air-training program involving the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southern...
.
Malaya and Singapore
The squadron was deployed to
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
in August 1941, as fears of war with
JapanThe Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the...
increased. The squadron, along with
No. 21 Squadron RAAFNo. 21 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force general reserve squadron. It saw action as a fighter, dive bomber and heavy bomber unit during World War II.-History:...
,
No. 243 Squadron RAFRAF 243 Squadron was a RAF squadron in World War II which was based at Kallang Airport in Singapore, and fought during the Battle of Singapore in 1941-42 with the inadequate Brewster Buffalo fighter....
and
No. 488 Squadron RNZAF488 Squadron was a squadron formed from New Zealanders trained under the Empire Air Training Scheme for service during the Second World War under the operational command of the Royal Air Force.-Day Fighter Unit:...
, flew
Brewster BuffaloThe Brewster F2A was an American fighter aircraft which saw limited service during World War II. In 1939, the F2A became the first monoplane fighter aircraft used by the US Navy...
fighters, but the Buffalos supplied to these squadrons proved to be poor in quality. Following the Japanese invasion of
Peninsular MalaysiaPeninsular Malaysia , also known as Malaya or West Malaysia, is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula, and shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Its area is 50,810 square miles . It accounts for the majority of Malaysia's...
on 8 December 1941, 453 Squadron was deployed to airfields at
IpohIpoh is a city in Malaysia and is the capital of the state of Perak. It is approximately 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur via the North-South Expressway....
and
Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur , is the capital and largest city of Malaysia. The city proper, making up an area of , has an estimated population of 1.6 million in 2006. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
. The squadron strove to support the ground troops by providing air cover and attacking Japanese troops and transport, but suffered high losses in doing so. The squadron withdrew to Singapore on 24 December with only three working aircraft. In Singapore, 453 Squadron merged with 21 Squadron.
The squadron fought on until 5 February with just six operational Buffaloes. In spite of many mechanical problems the Buffalo squadrons claimed a 2:1 kill ratio against the Japanese.
The squadron was to provide air cover for Admiral Phillip's Force Z (see
Sinking of Prince of Wales and RepulseThe sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action.The action took...
), but a radio message giving the location of the Fleet was only sent out by the
Repulse an hour after the first Japanese attack. Flt Lt Vigors from
243 SquadronRAF 243 Squadron was a RAF squadron in World War II which was based at Kallang Airport in Singapore, and fought during the Battle of Singapore in 1941-42 with the inadequate Brewster Buffalo fighter....
was acting CO of 453 Squadron while Sqn Ldr W. J. Harper was in Australia. He wrote about the loss of the two ships:
"I reckon this must have been the last battle in which the Navy reckoned they could get along without the RAF. A pretty damned costly way of learning. I had worked out a plan with the liaison officer on the
Prince of Wales, by which I could keep six aircraft over him all daylight hours within 60 miles of the east coast to a point north of Kota Bharu. This plan was turned down by Admiral Phillips. Had I been allowed to put it into effect, I am sure the ships would not have been sunk. Six fighters could have made one hell of a mess of even 50 or 60 slow and unescorted torpedo-bombers.
As we could do nothing else, we kept virtually the whole squadron at readiness at Sembawang while the Fleet was out. I was actually sitting in my cockpit when the signal eventually reached us that the Fleet was being attacked. Phillips had known that he was being shadowed the night before, and also at dawn that day. He did not call for air support. He was attacked and still did not call for help. Eventually it was the captain of
Repulse who called for air support just before his ship sunk"
When 453 Squadron arrived in Java it could not again be made operational. It was ordered back to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, and was disbanded at Adelaide on 15 March 1942.
Europe
The squadron was reformed from Australian personnel in the UK at
RAF DremRAF Drem is a former RAF station, just north of the village of Drem in East Lothian, Scotland. The motto of the station was Exiit Hinc Lumen which means "Ascend from this Light"....
, near Edinburgh, in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
on 18 June 1942. The squadron was equipped with
Supermarine SpitfireThe Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries through the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used into the 1950s both as a front line fighter and in secondary roles...
aircraft, and joined the
RAF Fighter CommandFighter Command was one of three functional commands that dominated the public perception of the Royal Air Force for much of the mid-20th century...
. The squadron provided defensive air patrols over Britain and surrounding waters, escorted bombers over enemy-controlled Europe, and conducted offensive strikes in its own right attacking targets on both land and sea. After the
invasion of Western EuropeOperation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation began on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy Landings when an airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault...
the squadron began operations over enemy territory. From November 1944 to March 1945, 453 Squadron was heavily engaged in striking at assembly and launch sites used by the Germans in their V2 rocket attacks against Britain. On 2 May 1945, the squadron escorted the aircraft that returned
Queen WilhelminaQueen Wilhelmina may refer to:*Wilhelmine of Prussia , Queen consort of the Netherlands *Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands...
to The Netherlands after three years in exile. This was 453 Squadron's last mission of the war. After the war it was planned that the squadron would form a long-term Australian presence among the occupation forces but sufficient volunteers could not be found to make this a viable proposition. Thus, on 21 January 1946 the squadron disbanded.
During the war the squadron suffered 29 (28 Australian) fatalities.