WHAT’S THE STORY?
THE highest honour a city can bestow was awarded to Squadron 603 of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force at a ceremony in Edinburgh yesterday.

Air Marshalls and members of the squadron saluted the Lord Provost as they received the Freedom of the City, before they marched down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

There they were received by the Queen, who is currently in Edinburgh for Royal Week and is the Honorary Air Commodore to the squadron.

SNP Lord Provost and Veterans Champion Frank Ross said: “The 603 Squadron has become an integral part of this city’s long and proud history.

“For decades we have proudly thought of them as ‘Edinburgh’s Squadron’, and in this centenary year of the Royal Air Force, it feels particularly fitting to show our pride and gratitude with this lasting tribute.”

WHY ALL THE FUSS?
THE question should by why was this honour not bestowed before?

For in the fight against Hitler’s Nazis, 603 Squadron more than distinguished itself, becoming the first RAF squadron to shoot down a German bomber and then going on to perform outstandingly in the Battle of Britain.

They really were the “First of the Few” and that first victory took place during the very first air raid on the Forth which was in range of German long-range bombers.

On October 16, 1939, a section of 603 was scrambled and shot down a Junkers Ju-88 bomber into the North Sea east of Dalkeith, the first German aircraft to be shot down over British territory since 1918.

The downing was achieved by Patrick “Patsy” Gifford, 29, a solicitor from Castle Douglas.

Gifford’s light-hearted war cry was “ninety in third” as he drove a high-speed sports car.

He was flying one of the relativey new Spitfires when he brought down a Luftwaffe Junkers 88 dive-bomber targeting Rosyth’s Royal Navy Home Fleet.

Some 18 more German aircraft were downed off the east coast before the Battle of Britain started and 603 was summoned.

BUT WASN’T THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN FOUGHT OVER KENT AND LONDON?
YES, but as a tried-and-tested unit with successes already recorded, 603 went south and was deployed to RAF Hornchurch to take part in the Battle of Britain.

To its immense credit, 603 became the leading scoring squadron of the entire battle, but 13 pilots lost their lives in the conflict.

One 603 “ace” George Carbury shot down five German planes in one day.

A BIT MORE OF THE HISTORY, PLEASE
THE 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force was formed in 1925 as a light bomber squadron, flying from RAF Turnhouse which is now Edinburgh International Airport.

The squadron converted to fighters and was equipped with the Spitfire by the time the Second World War began. After the Battle of Britain, 603 was deployed to defend Malta.

The pilots later saw service over Sicily in 1943, South East Europe the following year aand then France and Germany in 1945.

The squadron was disbanded at the end of the war, but was reformed as a Force Protection and Operations Support Squadron in 1999.

Famous members included the Earl of Selkirk, a wartime RAF leader whose elder brother the 14th Duke of Hamilton served with 602 City of Glasgow squadron and once flew a plane over Mount Everest.