No 23 Squadron

Equipped with Avro Ansons, No 23 Squadron formed as a Citizen Air Force unit at Laverton, Victoria in May 1938. The Unit was reformed at Richmond, New South Wales, and after being equipped with Wirraways and Hudsons, began reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols off the East Coast of Australia.

No 23 Squadron moved to Queensland in May 1943 and soon received an allocation of P-39 Airacobra fighters. With the departure of the Hudsons, the Squadron's order of battle now stood at six Airacobras and eighteen Wirraways.

By June the Squadron was again re-equipped, this time with Vultee Vengeance dive-bombers. After a period familiarisation with the new aircraft, the Unit began combat operations in February 1944, when the Vengeances struck targets around Saidor in support of American ground forces.

Operations continued throughout the month, and despite the unit delivering its strikes with great accuracy, No 23 Squadron along with other RAAF Vengeance Squadrons, was withdrawn to the Australian mainland. On its return to Australia the Squadron was reduced to a cadre unit pending the allocation of Liberator heavy bombers.

No 23 Squadron Liberators deployed to the Northern Territory in April 1945, and from here the Squadron carried out reconnaissance and anti-shipping operations until the end of the War.

On 10 May 1945, a very successful strike was conducted when six Liberators struck the Flores Islands, destroying and a number of vessels and extensively damaging Japanese facilities. Another successful raid occurred on 2 June when the Liberators destroyed four camouflaged Japanese aircraft at Cape Chater airfield on Timor.

After Japan's surrender the Squadron participated in supply drops to Allied POWs still in Japanese hands before evacuating these POWs to Australia.

In April 1948, No 23 Squadron reformed as a Citizen Air Force squadron, and continues to provide support for Permanent Air Force activities in the Brisbane region.

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