No. 268 Squadron RAF
squadron of the Royal Air Force
No. 268 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force squadron raised during the First World War and in the Second World War operated the North American P-51 Mustang on tactical reconnaissance missions over occupied Europe and in support of the D-Day landings.
History
First World War
The squadron was formed at Kalafrana, Malta in August 1918 as an anti-submarine warfare patrol unit, flying Sopwith Baby, Short 184, Short 320 float planes and Felixstowe F.3 flying boats. In October 1918, the squadron provided the nucleus of 433 and 434 (Seaplane) Flights, which were also based at Kalafrana and used Short 184 seaplanes. After a short period of service as independent entities, the flights returned to 268 Squadron in March 1919. The squadron patrolled the Mediterranean surrounding Malta and had only one recorded combat action, an unsuccessful attack on a U-boat on 14 November 1918; the squadron was disbanded on 11 October 1919. The Squadron commanding officer was Major A. M. Cave.
Second World War
The squadron number was reactivated in April 1939 but no action was taken to reform the squadron until late in 1940. No. 268 Squadron was reformed at Westley Aerodrome near Bury St Edmunds in England on 30 September 1940 as an Army Co-operation Command squadron, flying Lysander Mk.II, Tiger Moth and Magister aircraft.
The public source identifies “No. 268 Squadron RAF” as squadron of the Royal Air Force. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Squadron, squadron and Royal.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7043253. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1919, 1939 and 1940.
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This entry incorporates text from “No. 268 Squadron RAF” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.