[3] The unit was formed as Number 2 Armoured Car Company RAF at Heliopolis, Egypt on 7 April 1922 and placed under the command of Squadron Leader M.

When employed for convoy escort and road patrol, members of the Company found they were frequently under ambush or sniper fire.

The high road speed of the Rolls-Royce Armoured car was found to be invaluable in a theatre where communication lines were frequently the target of sabotage.

In September 1940 a section of the Company was detached to General Wavell's ground forces during the first offensive against the Italians in Egypt.

During the actions in the October of that year the Company was employed on convoy escort tasks, airfield defence, fighting reconnaissance patrols and screening operations.

Its advance was marked by brief but violent actions whilst under constant threat from snipers on a road that was blocked by anti-tank obstacles.

By the time the Armistice was agreed on 30 May the Company, under the command of Sqn Ldr Michael Casano who won an MC for his efforts in this theatre, was 10 miles from Baghdad.

During the period, prior to their withdrawal in March the Company was regularly bombed and strafed whilst defending airfields and landing strips.

In May the Company returned to the Gambut area of the Western Desert to provide a defensive screen around the forward fighter airfields.

During this time the Company was in continuous contact with the forward enemy tank columns and subsequently covered the withdrawal of No.

Receiving new equipment did not keep the company out of action as by the end of the month it was escorting RAF elements into Tunisia, becoming the only 8th Army Air Force unit to enter the city of Tunis.

This was not a popular decision as many of the Squadron were ex-aircrew who had been made redundant after the war, and who had joined the armoured car companies on the assumption that they would remain independent of the Regiment.

The unit moved to Iraq for the next seven years and relinquished its armoured cars to become II (Field) Squadron RAF Regiment.

The Squadron moved to Malta in 1959, where the first Standard was presented on 25 November by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hubert Patch.

In July 1962 II (Field) Squadron moved to RAF Colerne in Wiltshire as part of 38 Group and adopted a parachute capability.

In July of the same year Support Weapons Flight were present at Salalah, Oman, when Sultan Qaboos overthrew his father in a coup.

In January 1992 the Squadron moved to the Airport Camp in Belize providing the capability of holding it until the arrival of reinforcements.

Personnel took off from Ascension Island and parachuted onto a DZ near the airport, in order to demonstrate the UK's ability to rapidly reinforce Sierra Leone if necessary, in front of an audience invited by the International Military Assistance Training Team (IMATT).