It was initially intended to be a corps reconnaissance squadron but after training in May 1918 it was not sent to the Western Front but to Ireland to help with the developing troubles there.

[4] From May 1939 the squadron began re-equipping with Handley Page Hampdens together with Avro Ansons to assist in the conversion process.

In June 1943 it took part in the first "shuttle bombing" raids on Friedrichshafen and La Spezia - code-named Operation Bellicose - and the famous attack against the V-2 rocket research facility at Peenemünde.

Among the targets attacked in 1944 were a coastal gun battery at Saint-Pierre-du-Mont and the V-1 flying bomb storage sites in the caves at Saint-Leu-d'Esserent.

In December 1944, it made a 1,900-mile round trip to bomb the German Baltic Fleet at Gdynia, while in March 1945, it was represented in the bomber force that so pulverised the defences of Wesel just before the Rhine crossing that Commandos were able to seize the town with only 36 casualties.

In April 1945, came the last of the squadron's operations of the war – a bombing raid on an oil refinery at Tønsberg in Norway, and a simultaneous minelaying expedition in the Oslofjord.

A total of 267 decorations were won by the squadron, including a Victoria Cross awarded to Sergeant Norman Cyril Jackson for conspicuous bravery during an attack on Schweinfurt on 26/27 April 1944.