No. 89 Squadron RAF

No. 89 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron, mainly active in the fighter role during its existence.

Formation and World War I
No. 89 squadron was formed on 1 September 1917 as a training unit at Netheravon. The squadron was not used for operations and remained a training unit. It was disbanded on 4 July 1918.

Reformation and World War II
The squadron was formed again on 25 September 1941 at RAF Colerne. The squadron was equipped with the Bristol Beaufighter night fighters. The squadron moved out to Middle East to defend the Nile delta and the Suez Canal. On 3 March 1942 the squadron scored its first victory when it shot down a German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111. The squadron was active in the Mediterranean area and sent aircraft to Malta and Algiers and in 1943 sought targets over Crete and later Sicily. With the withdrawal further north of the German night fighter units the squadron moved to Ceylon. A further move in the summer of 1944 to Burma on intruder missions. The aircraft withdrew from operations to convert to the de Havilland Mosquito. Apart from leaflet dropping from Singapore there was little for the squadron to do and it was disbanded on 1 May 1946.

On jets
With the expansion of RAF Fighter Command in the mid-1950s the squadron was reformed on 15 September 1955 at RAF Stradishall equipped with the de Havilland Venom night fighter. Two years later these were replaced with the Gloster Javelin. It only flew for a year as an all-weather fighter squadron and was disbanded on 30 November 1957 when it was re-numbered as 85 Squadron.