Country United Kingdom Role photo reconnaissance | Branch Royal Air Force | |
Active 1 February 1943 – 14 September 1945 Part of Mediterranean Air Command Squadron Badge heraldry No badge known to have been authorised | ||
No. 682 Squadron RAF was a photo reconnaissance squadron of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
History
The squadron was formed on 1 February 1943 at Maison Blanche, Algeria from No. 4 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) RAF. It was at first equipped with Spitfire PR.IVs and -shortly- Mosquito PR.IVs and PR.VIs, and later flew the Spitfire PR.XI in support of the campaign in Tunisia, Sicily, and then Italy. The squadron supported the invasion of Italy and carried out sorties over Yugoslavia including special reconnaissance for army and commando operations. In 1944 the squadron began to target southern France and it moved detachments to France in September 1944, receiving the superlative photographic reconnaissance version of the Spitfire, the PR.XIX. It returned to cover the Italian campaign and also operated over Greece. With the war over the squadron carried survey flights until it was disbanded on 14 September 1945 at Peretola, Italy.