Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator
Archimedes, thanks for that. I think I have seen the can opener in the shield but it could be fading memory. However that prompts a second question.
Has any sqn changed its crest from one approved style to another?
208 before and during WW2 flew with a device known coloquially as the "flying shufti"; a winged human eye, which tied in well with the sqn motto "Vigilant". The Eye of Horos (? forgive my scanty classical education) also fitted well with the squadon's long connection with Egypt. When the time came to regularise matters through the Chester Herald, the legend (in my time) was that he took exception to the device because, festooned as it was with a luscious growth of lashes, it bore too close a resemblance to the female genitalia - depicted athwartships (or Chinese fashion for those who served on squadrons with an RFC background). So the device was replaced by a Sphynx (which accounts for its inscrutable smile). In addition I have a copy (from
The Sun"of a sensuous young lady sitting on the text "208 penetrates" - a relic of the Bucc era.
On 50 Sqn we were allowed to put up the "Dingos" on the fins in fluorescent plastic silhouettes for detachments to the Antipodes, although each aircraft bore the official badges of all three squadrons at Waddo.