Officers from No XIII Squadron of Britain's Royal Air Force held a short but poignant ceremony last week during which they laid up the squadron’s old standard at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Valletta.

No XIII Squadron operated from RAF Luqa, Malta, between 1965 and 1972 with three versions of the British-built English Electric Canberra.

The squadron had arrived from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus in 1965 and remained on the island until just six months before the RAF base closed, where it then established its new home at RAF Wyton in the UK.

Canberras flew hundreds of reconnaissance missions from Malta during the tense years of the Cold War, keeping a watchful eye on the Soviet Union’s military presence in the Mediterranean.

Having relinquished its Canberras, the squadron went on to operate the Tornado GR1, and after a brief period of inactivity, was reformed in 2021 and flies the MQ-9 Reaper drone on operations in the Middle East from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

The squadron’s officers also participated in a wreath laying ceremony at the Mtarfa Military Hospital to pay respects to their former squadron colleagues who perished in the line of duty during their time in Malta.