The Escadrille n°73 is a French Air Force squadron which was first created in 1915 as the Détachement N49 before to become on 18th April 1916 the Détachement N73, when it was based on the airfield of Corcieux. The squadon became on 4th July 1916 the Escadrille N73, the "N" in front of the squadron number deisgnated the type of aircraft flown by the squadron, there, the "N" means the squadron was flying on Nieuport aircrafts, and on 1st November 1916, the N73 is integrated to the famous Groupe de Chasse n°12 also nicknamed l'Escadrille des Cigognes, the Stroks Squadron, which was the most victorious allied squadron during WWI with 444 official victories and 404 unofficial victories and a few dozen of aces among who celebrities such as René Fonck (75 victories, most victorious allied pilot and second of WWI behind the Manfred Von Richthofen aka "the Red Baron"), Georges Guynemer (53 victories), Armand, Pinsard (27 victories), Roland Garros (4 victories and first man who crossed the Mediterrannean sea as well as the inventor of the system which allowed a fighter pilot to fire a machine gune through the propeller) or Albert Deullin (20 victories) from the Esc.73.

On January 1917 the GC.12 received some SPAD.VII fighters, changing the name of most of its squadrons from Nieuport to SPAD, so did the N73 which then became the SPA73. The SPA73 let its place within the GC.12 to the SPA67 on 17 January 1917. During WWI, the Esc.73 would have fight over several of the deadliest battlefields of the western front such as Verdun, the Marne, the Vosges or the Somme.

During the Battle of France, the SPA73 was affected to the GC II/7, alongside with the SPA 78, also created in 1916, and was operating both Potez 630 for night missions and Morane-Saulnier 406 until May 1940 and Dewoitine 520 from May 1940 to March 1943. The squadron was quite active as, with 430 mission and 1685 sorties, the squadron get 32 victories for 5 pilots killed and 8 wounded whose 6 severly, one of the pilot of the squadron, the Sous-lieutenant René Pomier-Layrargues, even shot down the famous German ace Werner Mölders and another German pilot before to be shot down and killed at his turn in the same dogfight.
From March 1943, the squadron was reformed on Spitfire as the GC II/7 "Nice" and will contribute in all the campaign led on the Mediterranean theater and will get 30 victories for 10 pilots killed during the Campaign of Tunisia, the Campaign of Liberation of Corsica, its period of basement in Corsica, the Campaign of Italy and during the invasion of Germany during the one the squadron almost shot the 2/3 of its victories which were mostly fighter aircrafts.

After WWII, the GC II/7 "Nice" changed its mission of fighter squadron to become, on 7 September 1962, the squadron of operational transition of the French Air Force, it means that the squadron trains the new fighter pilots to learn how to be a true fighter pilot. It began its mission with the Dassault Mystère IVA before to change them with the Dassault-Dornier Alphajet in 1982 which the one its still fly from the BA 120 of Cazaux. Since 2005, the EC II/8 recieved the mission to form not only the future fighter pilots of the French Air Force, but also the ones of the Belgian Air Force which, for the occasion, received some Alphajets at the colours of their air force.



The tailfin paint was realised in 2016 on the tail of the Alphajet AT-33, one of the Alphajets of the EC II/8 with the Belgian roundels, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of both the SPA 73 "Japanese Stork" and the SPA 78 "Black Panther" (excepted that I haven't seen the painting for the SPA 78), the two squadrons which compose the EC 2/8 "Nice".