Page 15 - John George Blair

97 (Straits Settlements) Squadron

No. 97 Squadron, RFC, was formed at Waddington, Lincolnshire, on 1 December
st
1917, and in the following summer went to France equipped with Handley Page
0/400s to undertake night-bombing operations with the Independent Force. It made
th
its first raid on 19/20 August and by the end of the war had flown 91 bombing
sorties (the majority into Germany), dropped 64 tons of bombs-including three 1,650-
pounders.

Re-equipped with DH10s, No. 97 went to India in the summer of 1919 and
subsequently operated on the Waziristan frontier and flew the first air mail services in
India (Bombay-Karachi).

st
No. 97 was re-numbered 60 on 1 April 1920, and next appeared in September
1935, as a night-bomber squadron at Catfoss. Some of the main events in its
subsequent history can be summarized as follows: June 1938, (at Leconfield, East
Yorkshire) ceased to be an operational squadron and became part of an Air
Observers' School.

March 1939, became a No. 4 Group Pool squadron; Sep 1939, moved to Abingdon
and joined No. 6 (Training) Group; April 1940; merged with 166 Squadron and SHQ
Abingdon to form No.10 OTU; May 1940, re-formed at Driffield East Yorkshire in No.
4 Group as a Whitley heavy bomber squadron but disbanded again same month;