The squadron's pilots and ground crews were awarded four DSOs, six MCs, nine DFCs, two MMs, and four Mentions in Dispatches, for their World War I service with the unit.

Thirty-nine men were killed or died on active service, 48 were wounded or injured, and 20 pilots became Prisoners of War, including Australian Captain Norman Bruce Hair.

[8] On 27 July 1929, eleven aircraft from 41 Squadron flew to Calais to rendezvous with French aviation pioneer Louis Blériot and escort him back to Dover, in a re-enactment of the first crossing of the English Channel 20 years earlier.

[9] On 9 October 1930, following the R101 airship disaster in Beauvais, France, 41 Squadron pilots and ground crew formed a part of the Guard of Honour for the Lying-in-State of the 48 victims in the Palace of Westminster.

Gen. Lord Christopher Thomson PC CBE DSO, and the Director of Civil Aviation, Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker KCB AFC.

[8] On 1 July 1935, 41 Squadron escorted an Imperial Airways aircraft to Brussels, with the Duke and Duchess of York on board, where they attend functions for British Week at the International Exhibition.

One of the first was Japanese General Matsui Iwane who, after World War II, was held accountable and executed for the 1937 'Rape of Nanjing', in which his armies murdered an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians.

The badge takes the form of a red double-armed cross on a white background, adapted from the arms of the French town of St. Omer, the location of the squadron's first operational overseas posting, in October 1916.

However, in reality it is much worse: sixteen pilots had been killed, five wounded and hospitalised (who did not return) and fifteen otherwise posted away, in effect a 200% turnover since the unit's deployment to Hornchurch in early September.

[18] On 12 February 1942, 41 Squadron took part in the attack on the German Kriegsmarine's Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau after they escaped from Brest and made a dash up the Channel to the safety of their home ports.

[20] Tired, after a busy summer on the south coast fending off Me109s and FW190s fulfilling the Luftwaffe's 'hit and run' strategy, the squadron was taken off operations until February 1943 and sent to Llanbedr, Wales, for an extended period of rest.

On 19 June, however, the squadron was pulled off air support for the bridgehead in France, and was deployed solely in the destruction of Germany's newest weapon, the V-1 flying bomb.

[26] In April 1945, the squadron moved forward with the advancing front, and made its first base in Germany, just south-west of the town of Celle, 140 mi (230 km) due west of Berlin, and only a short distance south-east of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

[29] The squadron's 325 World War II pilots were men from Britain, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Poland, White Russia, Rhodesia, South Africa, Trinidad, Uruguay, the United States, and Zululand.

With the departure of 41 Squadron from RAF Biggin Hill ceased to be a Fighter Command airfield, its infrastructure now deemed out of date for the requirements of modern warfare.

The runways had become too short for the RAF's newest generation of aircraft and, as a result of encroaching development and civil air paths which now passed above, the base was no longer in a practical location.

The departure of the unit marked the end of an era for the station in every sense of the word, as thereafter it was relegated to non-operational status, and only used by the London University Air Squadron.

Whilst there, they hosted French Air Force Dassault Super Mystère fighters during President Charles de Gaulle's state visit in April 1960.

[3] On 1 April 1972, at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, the squadron was reborn as a tactical fighter reconnaissance and ground attack unit within 38 Group Air Support Command.

The RIC is composed of a number of Air Transportable Reconnaissance Exploitation Laboratories (ATREL), which enable the rapid developing of photographic images and their subsequent analysis.

[3] In preparation for this change, '41 Designate Squadron' was formed at RAF Coltishall, in north Norfolk, on 1 July 1976, and commenced training as a reconnaissance unit with SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1 aircraft.

[38] In support of its reconnaissance role, the unit formed a RIC at Coltishall to process and interpret the photographs made by pilots, using sensors located in a large external pod.

[3] In its aftermath, the squadron was deployed to Incirlik, in south-west Turkey, where it participated in the defence of Iraq's Kurdish minority within the boundaries of the country's northern no-fly zone (Operations 'Warden' and 'Resinate North') until April 1993.

Advances in technology, it reasoned, would mean air defence could be maintained with fewer aircraft, thus allowing older equipment to be withdrawn from service earlier than originally intended.

However, with the departure of these latter squadrons in 2006, and the subsequent closure of the base in December, the close-knit RAF community was dispersed to other locations, and a quiet returned to the area, which has not existed since May 1940.

It remained in the role of FJWOEU until 2010, during that time testing numerous weapons and defence systems that were subsequently deployed by British forces on the front line at various locations throughout the world, including Afghanistan.

[46] In September 2010, the squadron celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, holding an event at RAF Coningsby attended by families of pilots of the World War II era.

They recently commemorated the following World War II aircraft:[48] ‡ – rank indicated is final rank achieved upon leaving Royal Air Force service Commencing the draw-down of the RAF's Harrier force as a result of the British Government's Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 (SDSR),[49] 41 Squadron's three Harrier GR9s were transferred to 1 (Fighter) Squadron at RAF Cottesmore on 4 November 2010.

[52] The first published history of 41 Squadron, Blood, Sweat, and Valour, was launched at the Royal Air Force Club in London in December 2012, and recounts the unit's wartime activity during the war years August 1942 to May 1945.

[53] A second volume, entitled Blood, Sweat and Courage was launched at the Royal Air Force Club in London in December 2014, and covers the preceding war years, September 1939 to July 1942.