 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The squadron was first formed at London Colney on 1 July 1917. No. 74 Squadron was a training unit flying Avro 504Ks. Its first proper fighters were S.E.5As in March 1918. The squadron served in France from April until February 1919, when it returned to Britain where it was disbanded on 3 July 1919.
During the Abyssian crisis of 1935 the squadron was reformed in September to operate out of Malta with Hawker Demon two-seater fighters. In July the following year, the Squadron, with its Demons, was shipped back to England. It re-equipped with Gloster Gauntlets in April 1937 at Hornchurch, and formed part of the newly created Fighter Command. The Gauntlets were exchanged for the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I in Feb 1939.
On the 6th of September 1939, after an early morning air raid alert, a squadron of Hurricanes took of from North Weald. These were followed by two reserve Hurricanes. The two reserves were identified as enemy aircraft and Spitfires from Hornchurch were ordered to attack them. Both were shot down. One pilot, Montague Hulton-Harrop was killed, the other pilot, Frank Rose, survived. The pilot who fired the fatal shot was John Freeborn. The exact story of what happened in this incident, which came to be known as the "Battle of Barking Creek" may never be known. Even the origin of the name is obscure, as it did not take place above Barking Creek, but near Ipswich, in Suffolk. This was the first RAF operational death of the war. At the subsequent courts martial, the court accepted that the entire incident was an unfortunate error.
The Squadron, which was now part of No 12 Group, first saw combat during the evacuation from Dunkirk. These battles extracted a heavy toll on both pilots and aircraft. Thereafter they served successfully through the Battle of Britain Mark Is were replaced with Mk.IIA Spitfires in September 1940 at RAF Coltishall. The squadron moved back south to RAF Biggin Hill in October for the end of the Battle of Britain. The Squadron went to the north of England in July 1941 to regroup, from there moving around to stations in Wales and Northern Ireland until it was sent, without aircraft, to the Middle East in April 1942. Shortly after moving to the Middle East in April 1942. In June they arrived in Egypt. The squadron was moved to Palestine to operate as a maintenance unit for USAAF B-24 Liberators. The squadron received aircraft, Hurricane IIBs in December 1942 and served in Iran until May 1943, moving back to Egypt for shipping patrols and conversion to Spitfire Mk.VB and Mk. VC in September 1943. In late October 1943 the squadron got Mk.IX Spitfires, which were swapped for Mk. XVIs in March. No 74 returned home just in time to take part in the D-Day landings in June 1944, using its aircraft as fighter-bombers supporting the Allied liberation of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Scarcely three days later the Squadron was sent back to England to equip with jets - the Gloster Meteor. The squadron kept Meteors until 1957, when they got a more modern fighter, the Hawker Hunter.
In June 1959 the squadron moved to Coltishall for re-equipment with the English Electric Lightning F.1 in mid 1960. In 1964 they moved to RAF Leuchars to get F.Mk.3 then F.Mk.6 Lightnings in 1966. The Squadron moved to RAF Tengah in Singapore, where it operated alongside 20 Squadron which flew Hunters, and 81 Squadron which flew Canberra PR-9s. The Squadron flew its EE Lightning F6s to RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus to hand them over to 56 Squadron and disbandment on 31 August 1971.[2]
The squadron was reformed at RAF Wattisham in October 1984, with ex-US Navy/Marine F-4Js (designated as the F-4J(UK) in RAF service) that were purchased by the RAF as a stop gap measure to replace those of 23 Sqn that had been sent to the Falklands after the war. 74 Sqn gave up their superior Phantom F-4Js and shared Phantom FGR.2s with 56 Sqn in 1991 and a year later RAF Wattisham closed. On 5 October 1992, one of the three squadrons of No 4 Flying Training School at RAF Valley was allocated the identity of No. 74 (Reserve) Squadron, until disbanding on 22 September 2000. In 2008, No.74 would have celebrated its 90th anniversary.
