No 602 Squadron, the first Auxiliary Air Force Squadron,
was formed on 12 September 1925 with its Headquarters at Renfrew Aerodrome.
In 1933 they moved to Abbotsinch. In April 1939 the Squadron was re-equipped
with Spitfire's. At the start of
the war they moved first to Grangemouth and then to Drem. It was from this
station that Spitfire's from No
602 Squadron flew to attack enemy aircraft near the Forth Bridge on the
16th October 1939. That afternoon they shot down a Junkers
Ju 88 over the sea near Crail (this may well have been the first
enemy aircraft to be shot down over Britain in the Second World War). The
pilot was Flight Lieutenant George Pinkerton from Millerston, Glasgow.
No 602 Squadron moved from the Drem Satellite Station
to Westhampnett, in the Tangmere Sector to exchange with No
145 Squadron on the 13th of August 1940. |
