The ASTRAL CROWN on a FOUNTAIN - a heraldic representation of Water, selected as aBadge for this Command, is to symbolise its many functions over the sea. The motto "Constant Endeavour" was coined from a message from the War Cabinet received by the Air Commanding-in-Chief from the Secretary of State for Air on the success achievedby COASTAL COMMAND in the Anti-U-boat warfare.
In 1943, the battle against the U-boat, which had ravaged our crucial supply routes, was at its height. In those grim days, it was recognized that the need, above all else, was to win and retain command of the seas.
In that victory RAF Coastal Command, with its comrades from the Commonwealth, played a decisive role with half of the U-boat sinkings credited to its aircrews. Its strike wings, which bore some of the RAF's heaviest losses, disabled more than 1,000,000 tons of shipping.
Crews flew from the Arctic Circle to the Southern Oceans and from the Atlantic to the Far East. Both at home and overseas, Commonwealth and Allied Air Forces shared the dangers.
These men and women, 'all of one company', served with skill and fortitude. Their gallantry is epitomised in the four Victoria Crosses, three awarded posthumously, and one George Cross (awarded to a WAAF corporal) won by members of Coastal Command.
Since the Second World war, maritime operations have been undertaken during the Korean War; the Malaya Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation; in support of the Beira Patrol; in the Falklands and the Gulf War; the Balkans and in support of the continuing war against terrorism.
Throughout the Cold War, when the nuclear threat was at its greatest, maritime 'over the horizon' air operations served successfully to counter the Soviet threat.