No. 138 Squadron

Motto: "For freedom".
Badge: A sword in bend, the point uppermost severing a reef knot. The design symbolises the squadron's activities in the liberation of occupied territories.
Authority: King George VI, August 1944.

No. 138 Squadron, RAF was formed on 30th September 1918. It was mobilising as a fighter-reconnaissance squadron at Chingford when the war ended and disbanded in February 1919. In it's next incarnation from August 1941, No. 138 was reformed at Newmarket as a "special duties" squadron.

The squadron's Second World War activities began in 1941 after the formation of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - an organisation whose function was to promote sabotage against the enemy by stimulating subversive activities, spreading political discontent, disorganising and dislocating communications. The agents, ammunition and equipment to achieve this were dropped inside enemy territory, the first being flown by Lysanders of No. 419 Flight (later No. 1419 Flight) which formed at North Weald in August 1940.

Very quickly the task grew too big for a solitary flight and although Bomber Command was hard pressed at that time for aircraft and crews, it was decided that the strategic importance of sabotage operations warranted the formation of a full squadron. Thus it was that in August 1941, No. 138 Squadron was re-formed at Newmarket from the nucleus of No. 1419 Flight to do the job; it was now designated No. 138 (Special Duties) Squadron.

For more than three and a half years the squadron ranged Europe from Norway in the north to Yugoslavia in the south and at times far into Poland. First with Whitleys and Lysanders, then with Halifaxes and later with Stirlings it flew out from Newmarket, Stradishall and Tempsford with, agents, arms, explosives, radio sets and all the other equipment of the saboteur, parachuting them down at rendezvous points where reception committees of local underground members waited. Another, but far less frequent, type of "cloak and dagger" operation undertaken by No. 138 - beginning in September 1941 - was the "pick up" in which the aircraft (always a Lysander) landed to collect some prominent public man, or an agent, or special plans and articles. During 1942 the squadron operated with the bomber force when not required for special duties.

Early in March 1945, after "repeated requests from Headquarters Bomber Command", No. 138 Squadron was switched from special duties to the main force of No. 3 Group. It went to Tuddenham, re-equipped with Lancasters and, before the European war ended, flew 105 sorties on 9 bombing missions and dropped approximately 440 tons of bombs on the enemy. No. 138 also carried out food-dropping operations over Holland and POW repatriation flights during which it brought home nearly 2,500 men before VE Day.

Bomber Command WWII Bases:

• Tuddenham : Mar 1945 onwards

Bomber Command WWII Aircraft:

• Avro Lancaster B.I : Mar 1945 onwards

Code Letters:

• Not known (possibly "NF").

First Bombing Mission in WWII:

• 29th March 1945 : 3 Lancasters bombed the Hermann Goring Iron Works & Coke Ovens at Hallendorf.

Last Operational Mission in WWII:

• 22nd April 1945 : 14 Lancasters bombed Bremen.

Last Mission before VE Day:

• 7th May 1945 : 16 Lancasters dropped food supplies to Dutch at The Hague.

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