Tornado of 25 Sqn RAF

Tornado F3, Squadrons current location is RAF Leeming.

No. 25 Squadron was formed at Montrose in Scotland on 25 September 1915 from the personnel of No. 6 Reserve Squadron. Moving to France in February 1916, the Squadron took up fighter/reconnaissance patrols over the Western Front with two-seat FE2Bs. During 1917, the Squadron transferred to long-range reconnaissance and high-altitude bombing with newly received DH4s. After moving to Germany as part of the occupation forces, No. 25 Squadron returned to the UK and disbanded in January 1920.
The Squadron reformed at Hawkinge three months later and at this time, No. 25 was the only home-based fighter unit! With the exception of a 10-month detachment to Turkey during the Chanak crisis of 1922/23, No. 25 Squadron spent the inter-war years at Hawkinge with various fighters including Grebes, Siskins and Demons. The Squadron moved to Northolt in August 1939 and began night patrols with Blenheims, before assuming convoy protection duties in 1940. In 1942, after briefly flying Beaufighters, Whirlwinds and Havocs, Mosquitos were employed on intruder flights and night fighter patrols with occasional bomber escort duties. By the end of World War II, the Squadron was almost exclusively flying bomber support missions.
After the war, the night-fighter Mosquitos remained on strength until 1951 when they were finally replaced by Vampires. A mix of two Meteor night-fighter variants replaced the Vampires in 1954 and remained with the Squadron until it was disbanded in June 1958. Barely a week later, on 1 July 1958, No. 153 Squadron at Waterbeach was renumbered No. 25 and the same mix of Meteors (NF12s and NF14s) was flown until all-weather Javelin fighters arrived in early 1959. In November 1962, the Squadron again disbanded, this time until October 1963, when the Squadron was reformed at North Coates as the first operational Bloodhound surface-to-air guided missile unit. In 1970, the Squadron moved to Bruggen with detached Flights based at Laarbruch and Wildenrath, remaining in Germany until 1983 when the unit returned to the UK with bases at Wyton, Barkston Heath and Wattisham. The Bloodhounds were withdrawn from service on 1 August 1989 and the Squadron reformed the same day at Leeming as a Tornado F3 squadron. During its time at Leeming, the squadron has had operational tours in the Gulf, providing air and groundcrews for the detachment of Tornado F3 based in Saudi Arabia on a rotational basis with other air defence squadrons. This ceased following the Operation Telic in 2003.


Battle Honours
Home Defence 1916, Western Front 1916-1918*, Somme 1916, Arras, Ypres 1917*, Cambrai 1917*, Somme 1918*, Lys, Hindenburg Line, Channel and North Sea 1939-1941, Battle of Britain 1940*, Fortress Europe 1943-1944*, Home defence 1940-1945*, France and Germany 1944-1945*.


(Honours marked with an asterisk, may be emblazoned on the Squadron Standard)



Source - MoD