FlyPast 02.2018

GLORY DAYS PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES

50 FLYPAST February 2018

NIGHT-TIME

WARRIORS

DECEMBER 1955 SAW 253 (HYDERABAD) SQUADRON AT RAF

WATERBEACH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, OPEN ITS DOORS TO THE CAMERAS

AND SHOW OFF ITS RARELY SEEN DE HAVILLAND VENOM NF.2S. THIS

SQUADRON – WITH THE MOTTO ‘COME ONE,

COME ALL’ – FORMED IN 1918, AND SERVED

WITH DISTINCTION IN THE BATTLE OF

BRITAIN AND OTHER THEATRES DURING

WORLD WAR TWO.

A portrait of the crews of 253 Squadron, together with their aircraft.

Following disbandment in 1947, 253 Squadron

briefl y reformed in the role that these images

capture. By September 1957, it had disbanded

again for the fi nal time, with its Venoms going

for scrap soon after. Here, one of the squadron

pilots climbs out of his aircraft with his

navigator waiting on the tarmac.