No. 120 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF

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No. 120 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron was a joint Dutch and Australian fighter squadron of World War II.

[edit] History

No. 120 (NEI) Squadron was formed at Canberra on 10 December 1943, with much of the Squadron's personnel coming from the recently disbanded No. 119 (NEI) Squadron. Like the other two joint Australian-Dutch squadrons the Dutch authorities provided No. 120 Squadron's aircrew and aircraft (obtained via Lend Lease) while the groundcrew were Australian. No. 120 (NEI) Squadron was fully equipped with P-40 Kittyhawk fighters in January 1944 with the Squadron's Dutch pilots being trained in Australian procedures by No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit.

While it had originally been planned that No. 120 (NEI) Squadron would be based in the Northern Territory and operate alongside No. 18 (NEI) Squadron this did not eventuate, and the Squadron was instead ordered to deploy to Merauke on the south coast of Dutch New Guinea. This deployment was, however, delayed when the Squadron made an emergency deployment to Western Australia in March 1944 in response to a feared Japanese attack on Fremantle (see: Axis naval activity in Australian waters).

No. 120 (NEI) Squadron began moving from Canberra to Merauke in April 1944 and was declared operational on 9 May 1944. After a period of training the Squadron began flying combat missions in late June. Due to the limited Japanese presence in the region these missions were limited to strafing attacks on Japanese positions. Due to the declining Japanese threat the Squadron became non-operational on 14 February 1945.

In May 1945 No. 120 Squadron was re-activated and redeployed to Biak Island on the New Guinean north coast. From this base the Squadron escorted other Allied aircraft and continued to make strafing attacks on Japanese positions and ships.

Following the end of the war No. 120 (NEI) Squadron continued to fly surveillance and escort flights out of Biak. The RAAF component of the Squadron was disbanded on 30 October 1945 and the Squadron came under the operational command of the Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force on 20 June 1946. The Squadron saw active service against Indonesian Nationalists during the Indonesian National Revolution and was disbanded on 1 March 1950 following the end of Dutch rule in Indonesia.

[edit] Aircraft operated

[edit] References

Royal Australian Air Force flying squadrons
Main series

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 41 42 43 60 66 67 71 73 75 76 77 78 79 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 92 93 94 99 100 102 107 292
Empire Air Training Scheme squadrons

450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 466 467
Joint Netherlands-Australian squadrons

No. 18 (NEI) No. 119 (NEI) No. 120 (NEI)
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