THE SQUADRON

IX Bomber Squadron is stationed at RAF Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland. IX(B) Squadron now provides specialist adversary, or aggressor training to frontline units. Aircraft flown have included the Vickers Vimy, Avro Lancaster and Vulcan, English Electric Canberra and Panavia Tornado. IX(B) Squadron was the first RAF unit to conduct air strikes over Libya during Operation Ellamy in 2011.

Throughout the night we fly

BASED AT

History

1914   Formed at St Omer as 9 (Wireless) Squadron on 8 December, but disbanded March 1915. Re-formed at Brooklands, Surrey in April before taking its Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c biplanes to France for bombing and reconnaissance. Disbanded 1919.

1924   Re-established on 1 April as IX (Bomber) Squadron flying the Vimy for night bombing. Received the Vickers Virginia from January 1925 and the Handley Page Heyford in 1936.

1939   Re-equipped with the Vickers Wellington in February and flew on the first World War II RAF bombing raid to actually drop bombs, against shipping at Brunsbüttel, on 4 September.

1942   Re-equipped with the Lancaster, using the type in the significant raid against Peenemünde in August 1943.

1944   Flew alongside 617 Squadron, dropping 12,000lb Tallboy bombs in a 12 November raid on the battleship Tirpitz. The ship was permanently disabled.

1945   The actions of Flight Sergeant George Thompson, wireless operator on a 9 Squadron Lancaster attacking the Dortmund-Ems canal on 1 January, earned him a posthumous Victoria Cross.

1946   In July the squadron began operating Avro Lincolns. Re-equipped with the Canberra in 1952.

1956   No. IX Squadron served a three-month tour in Malaya during Operation FIREDOG, returned briefly to the UK, then despatched to Malta for the Suez Crisis.

1961   Disbanded in July; re-formed in August on the Vulcan.

1982   Disbanded in April; re-formed in June, at RAF Honington, as the RAF’s first frontline Tornado squadron. Moved to Brüggen, West Germany, in 1986, flying in the 1991 Gulf War and over Kosovo in 1999.

1999   Became the first frontline Tornado GR4 unit, before moving to RAF Marham in 2001. Deployed for Operation TELIC, over Iraq, in 2003.

2010   Deployed to Afghanistan under Operation HERRICK, returning for repeat tours in 2012 and 2014.

2011   Led the initial Storm Shadow attack on installations in Libya from RAF Marham, the first RAF offensive mission launched from UK soil since 1945. Subsequently deployed to Italy for Operation ELLAMY.

2014   Began operations against Daesh in Syria and Iraq under Operation SHADER; a mixed IX(B) and 31 Squadron flight completed the final Tornado SHADER sortie on 31 January 2019.

2019   Disbanded at RAF Marham. Re-formed at RAF Lossiemouth, as a Eurofighter Typhoon aggressor and QRA squadron.

BATTLE HONOURS

1915 - 1918*   Western Front

1916*   Somme

1917*   Ypres

1917     Amiens

1917     Hindenburg Line

1939 - 1945   Channel and North Sea

1940   Norway

1939 - 1945   Baltic

1940   France and Low Countries

1940 - 1945   German Ports 

1940 - 1944   Fortress Europe

1941 - 1945*   Berlin

1940 - 1945   Biscay ports

1941 - 1945   Ruhr

1944 - 1945   France and Germany

1944 - 1945   Tirpitz*

1944 - 1945   The Dams*

1944 - 1945   Rhine

1991*   Gulf

2003*   Kosovo 

2003 - 2011   Iraq

2011*   Libya

*Honours marked with an asterisk, may be emblazoned on the Squadron Standard.

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