No.82 Squadron Royal Flying Corps was formed at RAF Doncaster, Yorkshire as an army co-operation unit on 7 January 1917.
[11] The squadron started the Second World War flying anti-shipping missions over the North Sea, one of its aircraft sinking the German submarine U-31 near Wilhelmshaven on 11 March 1940,[9][12] though U-31 was subsequently raised, and returned to service, only to be sunk again, this time by a destroyer, in November.
[13] On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, and 82 Squadron was deployed in attacks against the German forces.
[14][15][16] Despite these losses, it continued to fly missions in support of the BEF, and after the evacuation from Dunkirk, against German held airfields and invasion barges in the Channel ports.
On 13 August, a raid on an airfield at Aalborg, Denmark again suffered catastrophic losses to German fighters, losing eleven out of twelve.
In June 1943, the squadron began bombing operations against Imperial Japanese targets in Burma from RAF Salbani.
[8][20] On 1 October 1946, the squadron was reformed at RAF Benson equipped with Avro Lancasters and Supermarine Spitfire PR.
82 Squadron reformed once again on 22 July 1959 at RAF Shepherds Grove as a Thor missile unit, part of Project Emily.