From the time of the Munich Crisis in October 1938, operational RAF aircraft were identified by a two-letter combination denoting the squadron, with a third letter for the individual aircraft. Worn on the fuselage, these 'unit codes' were usually separated from the aircraft letter by the roundel: AB-Z for example. From quite early on in World War Two, senior officers such as station commanders or wing leaders of group captain and wing commander rank began to identify their personal aircraft with their own initials. This was often in the style of the unit code - one of the first being Wg Cdr Douglas Bader, whose Spitfire Mk.II was marked D-B. As squadron leaders, such personnel did not generally have this privilege, but some circumvented the system by adopting a distinctive symbol in place of an aircraft letter, by far the most common being a question mark displayed thus: AB-?. It was never particularly common, though several units - most notably 112 Squadron -often used the'?' between 1942-56.
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