The Disbandment of No 205 (MR) Squadron
The Far East flight of the RAF consisting of four Southamptons
took off from Plymouth Sound 17 October 1927 and arrived in Singapore 28
February 1928. The Flight was renamed 205 Squadron on 28 January 1959 and the
squadron served in the Far East until its disbandment on 31st October 1971. The
last 3 aircraft and crews of the squadron then formed 204 Squadron (Far East)
Detachment and returned to Plymouth Sound 24 January 1972.
This cover was flown in a three Shackleton formation from SAF base Tengah
Singapore via Gan, Bahrain, Jedda, Akrotiri, Gibraltar, Plymouth to RAF St
Mawgan.
No 205 Squadron
No 205 Squadron was formed on 1 April 1918 from No 5 Squadron RNAS at Bois de
Roche in northern France. Equipped with DH4s, and later DH9As, it was engaged in
bombing duties over Western Front for the rest of the war, returning to the UK
in March 1919, where it disbanded on 22 January 1920, after ten months as a
cadre unit.
No 205 Squadron reformed at Leuchars on April 1920 as a fighter-reconnaissance
squadron in No 29 Group for co-operation with the Navy and carrier operations
but on 1 April 1923, it became No.441 Flight. On 8 January 1929, the Far East
Flight which had out to Singapore between October 1927 and February 1928 was
redesignated No.205 Squadron. As the first RAF squadron to be based in the Far
East, it carried out survey flights with Southamptons until Singapores arrived
to replace them in April 1935, although it was February 1936 before the last
Southamptons was withdrawn. By the end of May 1936 the squadron was fully
equipped with six Singapores and on outbreak of war these flew patrols over the
approaches to Singapore and the Indian ocean, using bases in Ceylon and the
Nicobar Islands as out-stations. In April 1941, No 205 received its first
Catalina and by October the last Singapore had been flown away by RNZAF for
service in Fiji. With the coming war to the Far East, the squadron was engaged
in trying to locate Japanese naval forces on their way to invade Malaya and the
Dutch East Indies. After losing several boats on this task, it moved to Java at
the end of the year from its exposed base at Seletar and when Japanese forces
landed it retired to the south coast of the Island and in March 1942 to
Australia, where it disbanded on 31 March 1942.
On 23 July 1942 No 205 Squadron reformed at Koggala in Ceylon from detachments
supplied by No.202 and 240 Squadrons with eight Catalinas. Anti-submarine ans
air sea rescue patrols occupied the squadron for the rest of the war. An
additional task was the operation of mail and passenger flights between Ceylon
and Australia. Conversion to Sunderlands began in June 1945 and soon after the
Japanese surrender, detachments moved back to Singapore. In October 1950 its
first Sunderlands moved to Japan to patrols off the Korean coast until June
1954. Conversion to Shackeltons began in May 1958 at Changi and on 15 May 1959
the Sunderland flew its last flight with the RAF and No 205 Squadron became
fully equipped with landplanes. It remained the RAF's maritime reconnaissance
force in the Far East until disbanded on 31 October 1971.
C7a RAF Museum cover for the Disbandment of No 205 Squadron which depicts the first and last aircraft used by the squadron in the Far East the Supermarine Southampton 2 and the Avro Shackleton MR Mk 2. The squadron badge is also shown and the cover bears 20 cents Singapore stamp cancelled with Singapore CDS on 15 January 1972.
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Avro Shackleton MR Mk 2
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| Supermarine Southampton 2 |
Credits
Article courtesy of eBay seller aviationcollectables
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=aviationcollectables
205 squadron badge courtesy of
http://www.rafweb.org/Sqn201-205.htm
Avro Shackelton photo courtesy of http://www.airwar.ru/enc/sea/shackl.html
Supermarine Southampton 2 photo courtesy of http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com/archive/Southampton/Southampton.htm
External Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Shackleton
http://www.gatwick-aviation-museum.co.uk/shack/shack.html
http://users.bigpond.net.au/Shackleton/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/supermarine-southampton.htm
http://splashdown2.tripod.com/id12.html