During the Second World War, the No. 22 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operated in the torpedo bomber role over this body of water located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France?
No. 22 Squadron RAF No. 22 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operated the Westland Sea King HAR.3 and HAR.3A at three stations in the southern United Kingdom. The squadron was originally formed in 1915 as an aerial reconnaissance unit of the Royal Flying Corps serving on the Western Front during First World War. Becoming part of the Royal Air Force on its formation in 1918, it was disbanded the following year as part of the post-First World War scaling back of the RAF. During the Second World War the squadron operated in the torpedo bomber role over the North Sea and then in the Mediterranean and the Far East. Between 1955 and 2015 the squadron provided military search and rescue over the United Kingdom.
Altmark Incident The "Altmark" Incident (Norwegian: "Altmark"-affæren; German: "Altmark-Zwischenfall") was a naval incident of World War II between British destroyers and the German tanker "Altmark", which happened on 16-17 February 1940. It took place in what were, at that time, neutral Norwegian waters. On board the "Altmark" there were some 300 allied prisoners (officially internees), whose ships were sunk by the pocket battleship "Graf Spee" in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. British naval forces cornered the tanker and later the destroyer "Cossack" attacked the German ship and freed all the prisoners, killing and injuring eight German seamen with firearms and wounding ten others, five of them seriously. A British and a Norwegian sailor was also seriously wounded in the action. Germany claimed that the attack was a grave violation of international law and of Norwegian neutrality.