| Company: 23 Squadron RAF |
Category: airforces uk
Country: UK
url: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~23sqnwad
23 Squadron Royal Airforce 1915-1994. On 1st September 1915, Captain Louis Arbon Strange was posted to Fort Grange, Gosport, Hampshire to form No 23 Squadron. He arrived from Farnborough in an Avro 504 and the following day found himself in possession of "an office, a sergeant and three men, an old 80hp Gnome Bleriot and the bits and pieces of two Henri Farmans", in addition to the Avro machine. Owing to the untimely onset of appendicitis, (the now promoted) Major Strange had handed over to Major R E T Hogg by March 1916 when the Squadron deployed to the Western Front, equipped with FE2b aircraft. Initially flying fighter-reconnaissance patrols, the unit later added ground attack to its capabilities when, in early 1917, they re-equipped with 18 SPAD VIIs which were a good match for the enemy's Albatross DIII machines. By 1st April 1918 when the RFC became the Royal Air Force, 23 Squadron were enjoying considerable success flying Sopwith Dolphins against such formidable adversaries as the "Richthofen Circus" commanded by Hauptmann H Goering. |
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