602 (City of Glasgow) and 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadrons, Royal Auxiliary Air Force

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

• Established (documented): Formation dates and Auxiliary status; the 16 October 1939 Firth of Forth action and the 28 October 1939 Humbie Heinkel; 603's identification as the top-scoring Battle of Britain squadron in Alcorn's verified analysis; both squadrons' later theatres and disbandment/reformation dates. These rest on Operations Record Books held by IWM and The National Archives, the RAF's own histories, and peer-reviewed/serious secondary scholarship.
• Shared/Traditional: The nickname "The Greatest Squadron of Them All" (Group Captain "Boy" Bouchier's phrase for 603); "Glasgow's Own"; the claim that 602 "served longer in the front line than any other squadron"; the attribution of Rommel's wounding to 602. These are widely repeated and plausible but rest substantially on squadron/museum tradition or single-source attribution.
• disputed Which individual pilot/squadron scored the very first kill; the popular claim that 602 was "second highest scoring" in the Battle of Britain (this uses claimed rather than verified totals and conflicts with Alcorn's verified ranking). All Battle of Britain kill-count claims should be read as claims-versus-verified, because all air forces over-claimed in 1940.

Formation and the Auxiliary Air Force identity explained

established The two squadrons were children of a specific idea. Between the wars, Lord Trenchard championed a body of civilian volunteers who would serve part-time in flying squadrons — a territorial model for air power. The Auxiliary Air Force was instituted by Order in Council on 9 October 1924, and its squadrons formed from 1925. 602 (City of Glasgow) was the very first Auxiliary Air Force squadron, formed at RAF Renfrew in September 1925; 603 (City of Edinburgh) followed at RAF Turnhouse on 14 October 1925. Both began life as day/light bomber units flying the Airco DH.9A.

established The crucial distinction from a regular RAF squadron — and the reason this card treats them as a distinct thematic subject from Cards #39–40's institutional airbase histories — is the nature of their people. Early Auxiliary pilots were expected to hold or obtain a private pilot's licence at their own expense (about £96, several thousand pounds today), and they trained in the evenings and at weekends around a town headquarters in the city itself. 603's headquarters at 25 Learmonth Terrace, Edinburgh, remains its home to this day. These were locally recruited, locally identified units: 602 was "Glasgow's Own," and the Scottish Auxiliary squadrons (602, 603 and 612 City of Aberdeen) were infused with Scottish tradition — King George V approved Grey Douglas tartan as officers' mess dress, and the loyal toast was drunk in Drambuie.

shared The popular shorthand for the pre-war Auxiliaries is the "millionaires' squadrons" — a "gentleman's flying club" of wealthy amateurs. This tag fits the London squadrons (notably 601, the "Millionaires' Squadron") far better than the Scottish units. Modern scholarship qualifies the stereotype: the provincial squadrons mixed gentry with genuine middle-class professionals. 603 drew on "the city desks of Edinburgh and the fields of the Lothians" — solicitors (Pat Gifford was a Castle Douglas solicitor), students and professionals who could afford to fly. The better characterisation for 602/603 is therefore affluent-professional with a strong civic-Scottish identity, rather than aristocratic. A further important corrective: by the Battle of Britain itself the "gentleman amateur" character had largely eroded, as many pre-war Auxiliaries had been killed in the Battle of France or posted away, and the wartime squadrons were filled out with RAFVR officers, RAF NCOs and Dominion, Czech, Polish and American pilots.

shared In the wider structure, the Auxiliaries mattered out of all proportion to their numbers. The RAuxAF's own history records that the AAF provided 14 of the 62 squadrons in Fighter Command's order of battle during the Battle of Britain, and that post-war analysis indicates the AAF squadrons "accounted for a third of all kills during the Battle of Britain" — a figure echoed by Lord Templewood, who wrote that "in the Battle of Britain they claimed one out of every three aircraft destroyed." Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, AOC 11 Group, is quoted as saying "Without the Auxiliaries we would not have defeated the Luftwaffe in 1940."

The October 1939 Firth of Forth action

established This event is separately treated in the series (Card #35, Firth of Forth Defences) from the fixed-defence angle; here it is told as the flying units' story. When war was declared, central Scotland was defended by 602 and 603, which had been "embodied" (called up) weeks earlier. 603 was at Turnhouse, still converting from Gladiators to Spitfires; 602 was at Abbotsinch, then moved east to Grangemouth (7 October) and Drem (13 October) to cover the Forth. The Royal Navy's Rosyth base and the Forth Bridge were the obvious targets.

established On 16 October 1939, twelve Ju 88s of I./Kampfgeschwader 30, led by Hauptmann Helmuth Pohle, attacked warships in the Forth — German intelligence wrongly believing there were no Spitfires in Scotland. It was the first German air raid on Britain of the war. 602 and 603 scrambled. Two Ju 88s were shot down into the sea: as the RAuxAF's own history records, "the first credited by Fighter Command to Flt Lt Pat Gifford of Red Section, 603 Sqn. The second was credited to Flt Lt G.C. Pinkerton of 602 Sqn." Pohle's own aircraft, attacked by Pinkerton and Archie McKellar, came down; Pohle survived to become the first German POW of the war. Aboard the destroyer HMS Mohawk, fifteen men were killed and about thirty injured, and her captain, Commander Richard Jolly, was mortally wounded — bringing his ship safely back to Rosyth before he died. Fighter Command signalled "First blood to the Auxiliaries." A Junkers Ju 88 thus became the first enemy aircraft brought down by RAF Fighter Command in the Second World War.

established Twelve days later, on 28 October 1939, a He 111 of KG 26 on reconnaissance was intercepted by 602 and 603 and crash-landed near Humbie, East Lothian — the "Humbie Heinkel," the first German aircraft to come down on British soil (the 16 October victims fell into the sea). Archie McKellar was credited. A persistent myth conflates the two events; they were entirely separate incidents. Both actions are documented in the squadrons' Operations Record Books, copies of which are held by the Imperial War Museum.

The Battle of Britain examined with rigour

established Both squadrons spent the first part of 1940 on defensive duties in Scotland, then rotated south into 11 Group at the height of the battle: 602 to Westhampnett (Tangmere sector) in mid-August, 603 to Hornchurch on 27 August, where it was thrown into the fighting the next day and lost three pilots.

established 603 and the "top-scoring squadron" claim. This is the central mythbusting point, and here the popular claim survives scrutiny — with caveats. The most rigorous public analysis is historian John Alcorn's statistical re-check of RAF squadron claims against surviving German loss records (published in Aeroplane Monthly, 1996, revised as "Battle of Britain Top Guns Update," July 2000). Alcorn's revised table places 603 (City of Edinburgh) first with 57.5 credits, ahead of 609 Squadron on 51.5 and the famous 303 (Polish) Squadron third on 45 — all three flying Spitfires. That makes 603's "top-scoring squadron" reputation an Established claim on the best available evidence, not mere squadron pride. Group Captain "Boy" Bouchier, CO at Hornchurch, called 603 "perhaps the greatest squadron of them all," the phrase that became the title of David Ross, Bruce Blanche and Bill Simpson's definitive two-volume history; the RAuxAF's own history likewise records 603 (under Squadron Leader George Denholm) as "acclaimed the top-scoring squadron, with 58 kills." The essential caveat: even "verified" figures are estimates, all air forces over-claimed in 1940, and Alcorn could not attribute roughly 30 kills to any unit, so exact rankings carry uncertainty.

shared 602 and the "second highest toll" claim. The 602 Squadron Museum states that 602 "served longer in the front line than any other Squadron during the Battle of Britain and scored the second highest toll of enemy aircraft," and a squadron-historian talk cited a figure of 102 kills, "second to the Poles." These are Disputed: they rest on claimed rather than verified totals and do not match Alcorn's verified ranking (603, 609, 303), which does not place 602 second. The "longest in the front line" point is plausible given 602's continuous Westhampnett deployment from August to December 1940, but it is a squadron-sourced assertion. The honest position is that 602 fought hard and effectively throughout the battle, but the specific "second highest" ranking cannot be confirmed against the verified record.

established Notable pilots. 603's roster is remarkable: Flight Lieutenant Brian Carbury, a New Zealander, claimed 15½ victories to become one of the highest-scoring aces of the battle (five in one day on 31 August 1940); Pilot Officer Richard Hillary, shot down and badly burned on 3 September 1940, wrote the classic memoir The Last Enemy (1942); Gerald "Stapme" Stapleton later shot down Franz von Werra; Squadron Leader George Denholm commanded. 602's Battle of Britain CO was Squadron Leader Sandy Johnstone (later Air Vice-Marshal); Archie McKellar, who flew with 602 in 1939, went on to become an "ace in a day" and one of the battle's highest scorers with 605 Squadron before his death on 1 November 1940. Both squadrons paid heavily: 603 lost 13 pilots during the summer of 1940.

Later Second World War service

shared 602 returned to Scotland in December 1940, moved south again in 1941, and in 1943 joined the newly forming 2nd Tactical Air Force. Under command including Paddy Finucane (briefly, in early 1942 — later the RAF's youngest wing commander) and later the South African Chris Le Roux, it flew fighter and fighter-bomber operations. During the Normandy campaign, on 17 July 1944, 602's Spitfires strafed a German staff car carrying Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, fracturing his skull and removing him from the battlefield; the RAF credits 602 (and specifically Le Roux), though there are several rival claimants — this is a Shared/Traditional attribution. Recalled to the UK, 602 attacked V-2 rocket sites in the Netherlands with pinpoint low-level raids before disbanding at Coltishall in May 1945. Its pilots included the future broadcaster Raymond Baxter and the French ace Pierre Clostermann.

established 603 left Scotland for the Mediterranean, its Spitfires flown off the US carrier USS Wasp to reinforce Malta in April 1942; after four months its remaining aircraft and pilots were absorbed into 229 Squadron. Rebuilt on Beaufighters, it flew anti-shipping and escort work along the North African coast and over the Aegean, before returning to the UK and disbanding on 15 August 1945.

Postwar history and legacy

established Both squadrons reformed as RAuxAF day-fighter units on 10 May 1946 (602 at Abbotsinch, 603 at Turnhouse), flying Spitfires and then de Havilland Vampire jets — until the government disbanded all twenty RAuxAF flying squadrons on 10 March 1957, ending the auxiliary fighter tradition. The numberplates were later revived in the reserve force: 603 reformed in Edinburgh on 1 October 1999 (now a Force Protection squadron of RAF Regiment and RAF Police reservists at Learmonth Terrace); 602 reformed in Glasgow on 1 July 2006 (now a General Service Support squadron at Kings Park). Both remain active in 2025–26; 602 marked its centenary with civic and cathedral events in Glasgow in September 2025.

established Their memory is well kept. The 602 Squadron Museum Association (its physical museum, latterly at the Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum, closed in April 2023, with the collection preserved and displayed online) maintains "Glasgow's Own" heritage; there is a 602 Squadron memorial at Kelvingrove. 603's memorial — a replica Spitfire on a granite wall at Newbridge/Ingliston near Edinburgh Airport (the former Turnhouse) — carries Churchill's words "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Both squadron badges appear on the Battle of Britain Monument in London, and 603's Battle of Britain Spitfire markings (XT-L, Stapleton's aircraft) were carried by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's P7350 in 2007–08.

• 602 was the first Auxiliary Air Force squadron ever formed, making it the founding unit of today's RAF Reserve.
• On 3 April 1933, two 602 pilots — Squadron Leader Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (Lord Clydesdale), flying a Westland PV-3, and Flight Lieutenant David McIntyre, in a Westland PV-6 — took off from Purnea in northeast India to make the first flight over Mount Everest.
• The first shots of the air war over Britain were fired on the morning of 16 October 1939 by 602's George Pinkerton and Archie McKellar — and they missed; the Heinkel escaped to Sylt. The kills came later that afternoon.
• Hauptmann Helmuth Pohle, who led the Forth raid, became the first German prisoner of war of the conflict.
• 603's Richard Hillary wrote The Last Enemy, one of the most famous first-person accounts of the Battle of Britain, while recovering from terrible burns; he was later killed in a 1943 training crash.
• 603's aircraft were flown to besieged Malta off the deck of the American carrier USS Wasp in April 1942.
• A 602 Squadron pilot is officially credited by the RAF with the strafing attack that wounded Rommel in Normandy in July 1944 — though the claim is contested.
• Queen Elizabeth II was Royal Honorary Air Commodore of 603 Squadron until her death in 2022.

• Disputed: who scored the "first kill of the war". Individual credit is genuinely contested. The fairest reading credits the squadrons jointly: 603 (Gifford) and 602 (Pinkerton) for the two Ju 88s downed on 16 October 1939, and 602 (McKellar) for the Humbie Heinkel on 28 October.
• Myth: the Forth raid and the Humbie Heinkel were the same event. They were separate incidents, twelve days apart; the 16 October aircraft fell into the sea, and the Humbie Heinkel was the first to come down on British soil.
• Disputed: exact Battle of Britain league tables. 603's top place rests on Alcorn's verified analysis (57.5 credits, top of his 2000 table). But every Battle of Britain kill figure is an estimate; all sides over-claimed (the Luftwaffe roughly twofold), and about 30 kills could not be attributed to any unit.
• Disputed: 602 was the second-highest-scoring squadron. The claim uses claimed, not verified, totals and conflicts with the verified ranking (603, 609, 303).
• Disputed: "The Greatest Squadron of Them All". A genuine contemporary quotation (Group Captain Bouchier of 603), but a subjective accolade, not a measure.
• Disputed: 602 wounded Rommel. The RAF credits 602 and Chris Le Roux, but there are rival claimants.
• Myth: the Scottish Auxiliaries were "millionaires' squadrons". The class stereotype fits the London squadrons (601) far better; 602 and 603 were affluent-professional units with a civic identity, and by 1940 the pre-war amateur character had already eroded.