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6 October 2016
| On 6 October 2016 Escadron de Chasse 2/5 Ile de France, based in Orange-Caritat, celebrated its 75th anniversary. |
| Free French Squadron 340 | |||
| In October 1941, general de Gaulle signed a decree authorizing the creation of the first autonomous free French fighter unit in | |||
| Britain, the Free French Squadron 340, named “Groupe de Chasse Île de France”. Supporting the Normandy landings coverage on |
| 6 June 1944, and support missions of the Allied ground troops in Northern Europe, the 340sqn conducted 7100 sorties on Spitfires, |
| damaging 75 aircraft and dropping 400 tons of bombs. |
| From July 1949, the squadron participated in the Indochinese campaign, performing 4600 operational missions on the Bell P-63 |
| Kingcobra. In March 1951, the group took the current name of Escadron de Chasse 2/5 Ile de France, moving to Air Base 115 |
| Orange-Caritat, located in the south of France. Since then, the squadron’s primary mission has been air defense. It also performed |
| many detachments as part of the operations Manta and Epervier in Chad in the 1980s, on the Mirage F1C. From 1989, it took part |
| in the first Persian Gulf War on Mirage 2000C, ensuring with strict compliance the UN resolutions in Iraq and former Yugoslavia. |
| Nowadays, the squadron provides several types of missions including permanent air defense of the national territory, pilots |
| training assigned on Mirage 2000 and contributes to military operations in the Sahel as part of the operation Barkhane. |
| Ceremony | |||
| As part of the celebration of this event, colonel Olivier Brault, commanding the Air Base 115, and the Commander Chazelle | |||
| Thibault, commanding Ile de France squadron, organized a memorial day on 6 October on Orange air base. The ceremony was |
| chaired by Antoine Creux, General Inspector of the French Air Force. Several French and foreign squadrons were invited to this |
| celebration. Besides recalling the past of this prestigious unit, the ceremony was also the occasion to pay tribute to women and |
| men of the squadron in their daily commitment, whose main objective is to deliver high-quality training to all the crews of the |
| Mirage 2000. |
| Noted besides the Patrouille de France with its Alpha Jets were: | |||
| AT33 | Alpha Jet | ETO02.008 | |
| FA84, FA97 | F-16AM | 2w |
| FA129, FA135 | F-16AM | 2w |
| ET-197 | F-16BM | nn |
| MM7277/4-40, MM7338/4-60 | F-2000A | 4st |
| C.16-24/11-04 | EF2000 | Ala 11 |
| CE.16-01/11-70 | EF2000T | Ala 11 |
| ZG777/135 | Tornado GR4 | Marham Wing |
| ZK021 | Hawk T2 | 4sq |
| E7/705-TU, E28/705-AB | Alpha Jet | EAC00.314 |
| 5534/WJ | AS555AN | EH05.067 |
| 9/5-OJ, 83/115-YC | Mirage 2000C | instructional |
| 101/115-KE | Mirage 2000C | EC02.005 |
| 353/125-AM | Mirage 2000N | EC02.004 |
| 527/115-OR | Mirage 2000B | EC02.005 |
| 615/3-JY, 675/3-JI | Mirage 2000D | EC02.003 |
| 103/315-XT | TB-30 | EPAA00.315 |
| 113/30-IR, 138/30-GQ | Rafale C | EC02.030 |
| F-AZHK | AD-4NA | as/ex 127002/20-LN |
| F-AZKI | Bulldog T1 | as/ex XX615 |
| F-AZKM | OV-10B | ex 99+24 |
| F-AZPZ | CM170 | as/ex 413/315-PF |
| F-AZUD | PT-17 | ex 41-8047 |
| F-AZXS | P-51D | as 414237 |
| F-AYMH | FWP149D | ex 90+16 |
| F-BFMQ | L-4J | as/ex 44-80231 |
| G-LFVB | Spitfire Mk Vb | as/ex EP120 |
Credits: Shervin Fonooni
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