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No. 230 Squadron RAF

No. 230 Squadron was a flying boat squadron that served in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean during the Second World War. Reformed at Pembroke Dock on 1 December 1934,  it was not intil the following year that it recieved first aircraft, the biplane Short Singapore III, in April 1935.

By mid 1938 and based in Singapore,  No. 230 squadron began to convert to the Short Sunderland, a stat of tha art four engined monoplane flying boat.  It was fully equipped by the start of the Second World War. The squadron was initially used to provide patrols over the Indian Ocean and the approaches to Malaya and Singapore. In October a detachment was posted on Ceylon, and gradually expanded until by February 1940 the entire squadron was based there.  The remaining Singapore-based personnel transferred to No. 205 Squadron.

In May 1940, with Italy clearly about to enter the war, the squadron was moved to the Mediterranean where it flew reconnaissance sorties for the Mediterranean fleet and anti-submarine patrols. The squadron was based in Egypt, but from June began to use Kalafrana, Malta, as an advanced operating base.

The squadron was involved in the trails and tribulations of 1941.  In March the Enigma code breakers alerted Admiral Cunningham that the Italian fleet was about to put to sea.

No.230 Squadron flew reconnaissance sorties partly to confirm the news and partly to provide a cover story for the impending British attack. On 27 March one of their Sunderlands found the Italians, and on 28 March Cunningham won the Battle of Cape Matapan, a triumph for the Royal Navy.

In contrast in April the squadron was used to help evacuate refugees from Greece during the German invasion. The Sunderlands of Nos. 228 and 230 Squadrons were able to rescue just under 900 people from the Greek coast, amongst them the King of Greece and many of the senior Allied commanders.

In June the squadron was given the task of administering the Dornier Do.22s of No.2 (Yugoslav) Squadron which had escaped from the German invasion of their country. This task continued until February 1942.  In the previous month, on 9 January, the squadron claimed its one U-boat, sinking U-577 in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In January 1943 the squadron returned to the Indian Ocean, with its main base at Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika and detachments on Madagascar on the east coast of Africa.  In June 1943, the squadron was split when detachments were sent to the Mediterranean to provide air-sea rescue services in areas beyond the range of the Supermarine Walrus (a single engined biplane seaplane nicknamed 'the Flying Gas Ring' because if its unfortunate exhaust signature, as well as some transport duties. Its main success in this role came when aircraft from the squadron rescued forty two crewmen from seven Flying Fortresses that crashed into the sea off Bone after the attack on the Messerschmitt works at Regensburg.  Their route took them towards occupied Italy rather than turning around and running the gauntlet back to the UK. 

In February 1944 relocated for the second time,  to Ceylon.  In May-June 1944 two aircraft were detached to Dibrugarh to support the Chindits' second operation behind Japanese lines. In June they evacuated 500 casualties from Lake Indawgyi to the Brahmaputra River. One of the two aircraft sank in the Brahmaputra River and had to be left behind.

In February 1945, other aircraft relocated to Calcutta in a freight role supporting the British 14th Army (the Sunderland had a prodigious hull capacity), operating into Burma and flying casualties back out. In April 1945 the entire squadron based out of Burma and was used to attack Japanese coastal shipping between Malaya and Burma, by which t ime the Japanese merchant fleet was under enormous pressure throughtout SE Asia the SW and Central Pacific from air, surface and submarine attack. In December 1945 the squadron finally returned to Singapore, but only for a short period, and in April 1946 it returned to the UK.

It disbanded at Pembroke Dock in 1946.

Compiled by Steve Larkins Nov 21

Sources:

1.  Rickard, J (3 March 2011), No. 230 Squadron (RAF): Second World War, http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/230_wwII.html