655 Squadron

Formed at Old Sarum in Dec 1942 with 3 officers from the Scottish Horse, as an RAF Air Observation Post unit, it was initially equipped with Auster Is, then moved to Gatwick and exchanged them for Auster IIIs before embarking for North Africa. Several moves followed as 655 Squadron fought its way up the Italian mainland, providing a few detatchments for operation in Yugoslavia towards the end of WWII. It disbanded on 31 Aug 1945.

It re-formed as a rotary wing unit at Detmold in West Germany with the Alouette II in 1962, transferred in from 10 Flt at Dheklia and was also parent to 23 Flight Skeeters (at Munster). It absorbed 1 Flight in Jan 1964 preparing it for service with 4 Div Aviation HQ until 1969, and then took on 18 Flight Alouette II, when it became the 1 (BR) Corps Aviation Squadron.

It later operated the Sioux AH.1 and the Beaver AL.1 while detaching to Northern Ireland in Feb 1973 for the first of 4 tours. It was re-established from 666 Sq at Topcliffe on 1 Nov 1978 when its main duty was in support of 5th Field Force (a Brigade sized formation in BAOR at Osnabruck). It sent a 4 airframe Scout AH.1 detachment to Aldergrove in Oct 1979, finally moving its remaining Scouts and Gazelle AH.1s to Omagh, that Dec.

During the summer of 1982, the Scout was replaced by the Lynx AH.1 and the unit moved to Shackleton Barracks at Ballykelly. A move to RAF Aldergrove took place in 1991 and around this time 655 Squadron relinquished its Gazelles to become a Lynx-only unit, re-equipping with the AH.7 variant later that year.

655 Squadron is part of 5 Regiment, Army Air Corps (5 REGT AAC).