No. 115 Squadron RCAF
Introduction '''No. 115 Squadron''' was a Royal Canadian Air Force Canadian Home War Establishment (HWE) Squadron that operated during World War II.
Operational history No. 115 Squadron flew anti-submarine patrols along the coasts of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska as part of Western Air Command.On 7 July 1942, Flight Sergeant PMG W. E. Thomas and the crew of Bristol Bolingbroke maritime patrol aircraft No. 9118 sighted a target breaking the surface and emitting white "smoke" in the Pacific Ocean  northwest of the Queen Charlotte Islands. At first thinking it was a whale, they quickly concluded that they could see the underwater silhouette of submarine at least  in length and attacked, dropping a single  or  (sources disagree) bomb from an altitude of  which landed just forward of the submarine's conning tower. They claimed to have damaged the submarine. Based on the Bolingbroke's report, the United States Coast Guard cutter , the U.S. Coast Guard-manned United States Navy patrol vessel , and the Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper  proceeded to the area on 9 July 1942 and began a search for the submarine, which ''McLane'' and ''YP-251'' claimed to sink later that day. The Bolingbroke crew shared credit with ''McLane'' and ''YP-251'' for the sinking, and in 1947 the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee identified their victim as the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine . In 1967, however, the U.S. Navy retracted this assessment because ''Ro-32'' had been inactive in Japan at the time of the sinking and was found afloat in Japan at the end of the war. The submarine reportedly sunk on 9 July 1942 remains unidentified.No. 115 Squadron disbanded at Tolfino, British Columbia, in August 1944.
Equipment *Bristol Bolingbroke I (August - December 1941)*Bristol Bolingbroke IV (November 1941 - August 1943)*Lockheed Ventura GR.V (August 1943 - August 1944)The squadron's two-letter squadron code was '''BK''' from August 1939 to May 1942, then '''UV''' until the RCAF HWE discontinued the use of squadron codes on 16 October 1942 "for security reasons".Commanding Officer's aircraft of 115 Squadron, Feb 1943 - Annette Island, Alaska
See also * List of Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons* List of aircraft of the Canadian Air Force* List of Royal Canadian Air Force stations
Notes
References ===Footnotes======Bibliography===* Bruhn, David D. ''Battle Stars for the "Cactus Navy": America's Fishing Vessels and Yachts in World War II''. Berwyn Heights, Maryland: Heritage Books 2014. *  Coyle, Brendan. "Of Ghosts and Submarines." ''Vancouver Sun''. 18 August 2008.Accessed 19 November 2021. * Kostenuk, S. and J. Griffin. ''RCAF Squadron Histories and Aircraft: 1924–1968.'' Toronto: Samuel Stevens, Hakkert & Company, 1977..* No. 115 Squadron.