IX (Bomber) Squadron

Delivering adversary training and contributing to UK Quick Reaction Alert

Throughout the night we fly

A bat - approved by King Edward VIII in November 1936 as an authorised version of a badge highlighting the squadron's night-bombing duties.

About

  • 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

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 on 14 March. Re-formed at RAF Lossiemouth, as a Eurofighter Typhoon aggressor and QRA squadron, on 1 April

Battle honours

Western Front 1915- 1918*

Somme 1916*

Ypres 1917*

Amiens

Hindenburg Line

Channel and North Sea 1939-1945

Norway 1940

Baltic 1939-1945

France and Low Countries 1940

German Ports 1940-1945

Fortress Europe 1940-1944

Berlin 1941-1945*

Biscay ports 1940-1945

Ruhr 1941-1945

France and Germany 1944-1945

Tirpitz*

The Dams*

Rhine

Gulf 1991*

Kosovo 2003*

Iraq 2003-2011

Libya 2011*

(Honours marked with an asterisk, may be emblazoned on the Squadron Standard)

Contact

Please contact the home station Media Communications team for more information or to contact the Squadron

Media enquiries details for RAF Lossiemouth

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