24 Squadron
	Motto:	Per Noctem Per Diem
	Meaning:	By Night, By Day

The only SAAF Squadron to operate the Buccaneer -24 Squadron - home of the 'Pirates'.

The Buccaneer pilots and navigators of No. 24 Squadron (unofficial motto: `Hit the floor, it's 24') referred to one another as `the Pirates' - appropriate, considering the type-name of the aircraft they flew and their primary task which was to swoop down on and knock out enemy shipping.

No.24 Squadron was formed on March 5,1941 by renumbering No. 14 Squadron, which had operated in Kenya and Abyssinia during the Fast African campaign, and replacing its Hawker Hartbeests with Maryland light bombers - subsequently replaced by Bostons during the ensuing Western Desert campaign.

The last Boston mission was flown on November 8, 1943. The squadron was then re-equipped with Marauder Mk Is from December 1943 onwards, and then with Marauder Mk Ills. The last operation of the war was flown on April 25, 1945, after which the squadron was attached to No. 3 Wing SAAF with its Marauders converted to transports. On November 6, 1945 No.24 Squadron was disbanded, but re-formed the following April as a regular medium bomber squadron flying B-34 Venturas out of Air Force Station Bloemspruit, near Bloemfontein. 

In 1948 a part-time Active Citizen Force element flying Harvards was added to it, and when No. 24 Squadron was disbanded for the second time, on January 1,1951, the part-time pilots became the nucleus of No.8 Squadron, flying Harvards till they were replaced by Impala Mk I jets in the early 1970s. No. 24 Squadron itself remained in suspended animation, however, till it was re-formed at RNAS Lossiemouth in May 1965. 

The squadron served in the Bush War and retained its maritime strike capability until the disbandment of the squadron on 31 March 1991 and the retirement of the Buccaneer.