XIII Squadron History - World War II
On 3 September 1939 when war was declared on Germany, XIII Squadron was based at Odiham in Hampshire flying Lysanders. The Squadron soon moved to France and by 2 October 1939 XIII Squadron had established itself at Mons-en-Chausseé as one of a number of Lysander and Blenheim Squadrons that together formed 22 Army Cooperation Command of the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force.

The Squadron initially spent time familiarizing itself with the local area and taking pictures of the enemy positions, overlapping them to form a photographic mosaic of Northern France. Time was also spent conducting fighter affiliation training with Hurricanes and on performing signals exercises with the Royal Artillery. During the "phony war" there were very few casualties and the Squadron continued with exercises and photo-reconnaissance sorties. The "blitzkrieg" attack on 10 May 1940 however changed everything and forced the Squadron to move to Douai to spot for heavy artillery and to bomb frontline troop positions. Throughout this period there were many encounters with enemy aircraft, often with dire consequences. On one occasion however a Lysander was attacked by two Me 109s. One Messerschmitt was shot down in flames and the other was so badly damaged that it was forced to break off the engagement. The Lysander returned to base without damage or any injury to the crew! The Squadron evacuated France on 29 May 1940 and moved to Hooton Park in Cheshire on 1 June 1940. XIII Squadron's role was to conduct anti-invasion and anti-submarine patrols along the coasts of Lancashire and over the Irish Sea.

On 11 July 1941 the Squadron was told that it was to move to Odiham to be re-equipped with Blenheim aircraft to resume Army Co-operation duties. The Squadron readily completed its pilot conversions and by 18 August 1941 had six "combat ready" crews. High level and low level bombing was practiced regularly, along with long cross-country flights and rear gun firing tests. It was discovered that the Blenheim was unsuited to close Tactical reconnaissance but the Squadron became very involved in the dropping of smoke screens to help mask the insertion of paratroopers and gliders.

In 1942 XIII Squadron provided diversionary attacks against enemy airfields for the 1,000 bomber raids against Hamburg and Cologne. On one occasion they even contributed to the main force itself, on 24 June 1942 contributing five aircraft to an attack on Bremen of which only three returned.

By the end of the year the Squadron moved to North Africa to support the First Army at the beginning of Operation TORCH. The Air Party eventually arrived at Blida in Algeria on 17 November 1942 after challenging staging flights over the Bay of Biscay, Portugal and Spain. Navigation, landing on the very short strip at Gibralter on "vapours", and a chance meeting with a German Dornier added together to make it quite an exciting journey to say the least! The main focus of the Squadron was to bomb airfields and troop concentrations but day bombing was eventually abandoned with the Squadron switching to night operations. The Blenheim was too underpowered and under-armed to hold its own against the day attacks by the Luftwaffe and losses were proving too great. During the winter months the Squadron only operated during periods of substantial moon phase. It was particularly hazardous operating over the mountainous coastlines and aircraft were regularly lost.

During the allied invasion of Italy, the Squadron was tasked with shipping protection and destroyed one submarine during these missions. On 12 September 1943 whilst the Squadron was based at Protville II, Tunisia, Bleniem V BA 997 U "Uncle" sighted a fully surfaced German U-Boat south-east of Sardinia. Piloted by Flying Officer Finch, four 250lb depth charges we dropped in a short stick that straddled the submarine. The third depth charge exploded within ten yards of the conning tower and the U-boat disappeared below the surface in a cloud of steam and spray. Air bubbles were seen rising to the surface and a 300ft oil slick formed. Between 15 and 20 survivors were seen and photographed.

In October 1943 XIII Squadron moved to Sidi Ahmed and then on to Sidi Amor and the aging Bleniem Vs were replaced with Ventura Vs. Soon after the Squadron had completed its conversion, news came that they were to move to the Middle East for re-arming with Baltimores. The news was received with dismay from the aircrew as it was thought that all of the hard work in the conversions during the past few weeks had been in vain. XIII Squadron moved to Kabrit, Egypt on 19 December 1943 and took delivery of its Baltimore IVs the following month. 1944 saw the Squadron continue to support the Italy campaign with regular bombing and target marking missions. Re-equipping with Bostons in October 1944 saw the Squadron continuing these tasks but additional duties of "armed recce" and, as the war came to a close in May 1945, more and more leaflet dropping missions were also being flown.

On 14 September 1945 the Squadron moved to Hassani where, under the command of Wing Commander F E Lewis DFC, it was disbanded on 19 April 1946.