page_title: No. 9 Squadron RAF
section_title: 1939–1943
hierarchical_section_title: No. 9 Squadron RAF / History / Second World War / 1939–1943
caption_attribution_description: English: Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Avro Lancaster B Mark III, ED831 'WS-H', of No 9 Squadron RAF, flown by Squadron Leader A M Hobbs RNZAF and his crew, taking off at Bardney, Lincolnshire, for a raid on the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen, on the shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee), Germany.
context_page_description: Number 9 Squadron is the oldest dedicated Bomber Squadron of the Royal Air Force. Formed in December 1914, it saw service throughout the First World War, including at the Somme and Passchendaele. During the Second World War, No. IX Squadron was one of two Avro Lancaster units specialising in heavy precision bombing and sank the battleship Tirpitz on 12 November 1944 in Operation Catechism. Between 1962 and April 1982, the Squadron flew the Avro Vulcan B.2 as part of the V-Force. In June 1982, it became the first front-line squadron in the world to operate the Panavia Tornado GR.1. In May 1998, No. IX Squadron received the RAF's first Tornado GR.4, which it operated until reequipping with the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 at its present home base of RAF Lossiemouth on 1 April 2019.
context_section_description: The Second World War began with the unit one of the few equipped with modern aircraft, the Vickers Wellington bomber, flying out of RAF Honington; the Wellington later gave way to the Avro Lancaster in September 1942 upon the Squadron's move to RAF Waddington, with which the unit would complete its most famous sorties.
  On 4 September 1939, the Squadron’s Wellington aircraft and crews were the first to hit the enemy, the first to get into a dogfight, possibly the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first to be shot down by one and, towards the end of the war, the first to hit the German battleship Tirpitz with the Tallboy 12,000-pound bomb, an achievement by the crew of an Avro Lancaster on her 102nd operation with the Squadron.
  No. IX Squadron fought with RAF Bomber Command in Europe all the way through the Second World War, took part in all the major raids and big battles, pioneered and proved new tactics and equipment, produced several of the leading figures in The Great Escape, such as Les 'Cookie' Long, as well as Colditz inmates – including the legendary 'Medium Sized Man' Flight Lieutenant Dominic Bruce OBE MC AFM originator of the famous 'tea chest' escape. They became one of the two specialised squadrons attacking precision targets with the Tallboy bomb, and led the final main force raid, on Berchtesgaden, 25 April 1945.
caption: Avro Lancaster B.3, ED831 'WS-H', of No. 9 Squadron taking off from RAF Bardney, Lincolnshire, for a raid on the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen in Germany.
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