Number 31 Squadron RAF will celebrate its centenary in 2015; a pivotal
milestone for a Squadron engaged at the forefront of military activity
for the past 100 years. With a number of events lined up to celebrate
this important anniversary, former Commanding Officer of the Squadron,
Ian Hall, has set himself the ambitious task of penning the Squadron's
entire history, from formation right up to current-day activities.
This lively and informative narrative is interspersed with firsthand
accounts taken from interviews conducted with the men who made/make up
the Squadron. The first twenty-five years of the Squadron's history were
spent on India's northwest Frontier, hence the Squadron motto 'First in
the Indian Skies'. During the Second World War, it was occupied mainly
in the Middle East and North Africa, before moving to the Burma theater
for the remainder of the war. Upon returning to the UK in 1948, the
Squadron performed communications duties until, in 1955, it joined the
Cold War in West Germany, operating successively in reconnaissance and
strike/attack roles. Operational deployment in recent years has seen the
Squadron deployed during the Gulf War, the Iraq War, in Kosovo, and
Afghanistan. With troops pulling out of Afghanistan in 2014, 31 Squadron
have now completed a circular history, and there seems no better time
than now to commit it to print.
Each and every facet of this long and varied history is relayed in a
style that serves to provide an account that is at once celebratory and
objective when it comes to recording not only the facts of the various
deployments but also the personal stories of the men behind the
headlines.
