This was established on the instructions of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to protect the Royal Navy.

[9] Although its principal role was not air-to-air combat, it still had one flying ace among its ranks in Arthur William Hammond.

[11] The squadron gained the 'AC' in its title in the inter-war years, flying army co-operation (AC) sorties during the partition of Ireland in the early 1920s.

After time in China during 1927,[12] the squadron re-equipped with the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas again on army co-operation work.

In July 1944, assigned to the 2nd Tactical Air Force, the squadron returned to France in the reconnaissance role.

[14] Shiny Two relocated to RAF Celle in June 1945 after the war in Europe was won as part of the British Air Forces of Occupation.

II (AC) Squadron began to convert to the McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2 in December 1970,[16] when they received XV485 at RAF Brüggen.

II (AC) Squadron at RAF Gütersloh continued to operate in tandem with the Phantom No.

[17] Shiny Two began to convert to the SEPECAT Jaguar GR1 in 1976, with XZ101 being delivered on 26 February 1976, with the Phantom FGR.2s being replaced by October the same year.

These were upgraded to the latest GR4 standard, with which the Squadron deployed at part of Operation Telic in Iraq during 2003.

The design, planning and fund-raising for the memorial took three years and it features a Roman numeral 'II' carved from black granite.

[25] In August 2014, the squadron deployed three Tornados equipped with the RAPTOR reconnaissance pod and the Litening III targeting pod to N'Djamena in Chad for Operation Turus, to take part in the search for Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

[27] However, in October 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron said that the squadron's disbandment and reformation would be put on hold to allow Tornados to continue supporting strikes against ISIS.

2 Squadron Typhoons and support personnel deployed to the Far East to take part in exercises with Japan and South Korea.

The Squadron operated from the Japan Air Self Defense Force base at Misawa on Honshu, to take part in Exercise Guardian North 16.

It was the first time either Japan or South Korea had hosted exercises with a foreign nation other than the United States.