01.002 Fighter Squadron "Storks"

Before and during World War I

Following a decision taken by the French Army General Council, in June 1912, the first flights of the French air arm were formed. One of these was established at the army camp of Avord, in Cher. Its designation, B.L. 3, arose from the aircraft type with which it was equipped, the Blériot XI. Once established, the flight moved eastward, towards Alsace. The sight of this 'migration' led to comparison with the storks which are harbingers spring in Alsace. So the name 'Cigogne' came to be associated in people's minds with B.L. 3. Alsace had been part of France until 1871 but in 1912 was part of Germany. The association therefore touched French pride.

It was not until 1916, under the pressure of the Great War in which aircraft numbers grew rapidly, that the association between the emblem and the unit became official. So that aircrews should be able to recognise other members of their own flight, in order to regroup after dispersal during fighting, the command of the Somme Combat Group, of which flight.3 was then a part, ordered that clear symbols be painted on aircraft. By this time, the flights had been grouped into squadrons. The squadron's commanding officer, Commandant Felix Brocard, chose to make reference to the Alsatian storks by using a white stork with lowered wings as the emblem on the Nieuports of no. 3 flight. He then ordered the other flights of the squadron to choose emblems using storks in other postures. The modern emblem of the squadron bears three storks at three points in the wing-beat cycle. They represent respectively Flight 3 (wings low), Flight 103 (wings high) and Flight 12 (wings spread).

See also Escadrille 3, Escadrille 26, Escadrille 103, Escadrille 12

World War II

Having distinguished itself during the Battle of France in 1940, the squadron was disbanded in August. However, it was re-formed in July 1941 and equipped with Dewoitine D.520s. In 1942, it was sent to North Africa where it took its opportunity, with other units, to join the Free French Forces and was shipped to Ayr, in Scotland. There it was designated as No. 329 Squadron RAF. On 6 June 1944, it took part in the D Day Landing and from 19 August, was again based in France, at Sommervieu, Normandy, under Captain Ozanne. At this period, it specialized in ground attack but aerial combat was still part of the job and in December 1944, the squadron was faced with its first Jet-propelled opposition. In July 1945, fifteen aircraft of the squadron took part in the victory fly-past, celebrating an honourable end to the Second World War.

Post World War II

In November 1945, the squadron, EC 1/2 Cigognes was re-established as a unit of the French Air Force. In June 1946 it left for French Indochina where it flew the Supermarine Spitfire, with the SPA 3 flight stationed at Saigon and SPA 103 at Hanoi. On its return to Metropolitan France in 1948, it was reequipped with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts.

In 1949, EC 1/2 Cigognes moved to its present base at Dijon-Longvic, at the same time reequipping with De Havilland Vampire jets, followed by the Dassault MD 450 Ouragan, then Dassault Mystère IVAs. It was in this aircraft that the squadron was engaged during the Suez Crisis in 1956. Notably, it became the first unit of the French Air Force to deploy an indigenous Mach-2 fighter, the new Mirage IIIC, on 7 July 1961. In 1968 these were replaced by Mirage IIIE.

In 1984, EC 1/2 Cigognes moved on to the Mirage 2000C. In September 1994, it received a third flight: the SPA 12. At the end of the 1990s, the squadron moved to Mirage 2000-5F.

The squadron has played a role in NATO's response to the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, providing a pair of Mirage 2000-5F (along with a pair of Mirage 2000C fighters from EC 2/5) which arrived at Poland's 22nd Air Base on 2 June 2014.

Constituent flights

Bases

Aircraft