Tuesday, 23 October 2012

55th Anniversary of No 204 Squadron


March 1970 marked the fifty fifth aniversary of the formation of No 204 Squadron RAF. To mark this occasion the Philatelic Club of RAF Ballykelly issued a souvenir cover which is apropriately stamped and certified as having been flown on a routine maritime patrol. The date stamp includes the silhouette   of an MK 2 Shackleton.

The planes flown by the Squadron in its early years included many of those flown by the hero of  the Capt. W. J. Johns' books. The montage picture on the Cover includes these old Great War planes such as the Sopworth Pup and the Sopworth Camel as well as the Dakotas and Shackletons flown by the Squadron in more recent years.

After leaving RAF Ballykelly was reformed and was involved in the maintaining of sanctions against Southern Rhodesia from an airfield at Majunga in Madagascar. Thus was its last hoorah. The  Squadron was disbanded on 28th April 1972.

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