RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary

No. 150 Squadron
Motto: "Always ahead".
Badge: In front of a cross voided, two arrows in saltire, the points uppermost. The cross is adopted in reference to the arms of Greece where the unit formed. The arrows symbolise service as a fighter squadron. The motto is in Greek.
Authority: King George VI, March 1939.

No. 150 Squadron, RFC, was formed at Salonika, Macedonia, on 1st April 1918, as a fighter squadron and subsequently operated both in Macedonia and Turkey. Disbanded in 1919 it was re-formed in England as a bomber squadron in 1938 and equipped with Fairey Battles. In the early months of the Second World War No. 150 served with the Advanced Air Striking Force in France and in May 1940, was one of the Battle squadrons which attacked the Meuse bridges in an attempt to stem the German advance. It was withdrawn to England in June 1940, and by the end of the year was flying Wellingtons and playing its part in the strategic night-bombing offensive. In December 1942, after having flown 1,717 sorties from the United Kingdom with Battles and Wellingtons, the squadron moved to North Africa and subsequently took part in the Tunisian, Sicilian and Italian campaigns.

No. 150 was disbanded (in Italy) early in October 1944, but re-formed in England a few weeks later as a Lancaster heavy-bomber squadron, and between 11th November 1944 and 25th April 1945, flew 827 operational sorties, and dropped more than 3,827 tons of bombs on enemy targets. In so doing it lost 8 aircraft and 40 aircrew. After finishing bombing operations the squadron was employed on dropping food supplies to the starving Dutch people, transporting ex-P0W's from Belgium to England, and also ferrying personnel from Italy to this country.

Bomber Command WWII Bases:

Apr 1939-Sep 1939
- Air echelon detached to France (Challerange) in Sep 1939.
Ecury-sur-Coole, France : Sep 1939-May 1940
- Detachment ("B" FIt) at Perpignan/La Salanque in Mar 1940.
Pouan, France : May 1940-Jun 1940
Houssay, France : Jun 1940
Air echelon returned to UK (Abingdon) later in Jun.
Stradishall : Jun 1940-Jul 1940
Newton : Jul 1940-Jul 1941
Snaith : Jul 1941-Oct 1942
Kirmington : Oct 1942-Jan 1943

13 Wellingtons & crews plus some ground crew were sent to North Africa (Blida) in Dec 1942. The home echelon at Kirmington subsequently flew two operations & then, on 27th Jan 1943, merged with the home echelon of No. 142(B) Sqdn to form No. 166(B) Sqdn.
Re-formed 1.11.44 as No. 150(B) Sqdn at

Fiskerton : Nov 1944
Hemswell : Nov 1944 onwards

Bomber Command WWII Aircraft:

Fairey Battle : Aug 1938-Sep 1940
Vickers Wellington IC and III : Oct 1940-Jan 1943
Avro Lancaster B.I and B.III : Nov 1944 onwards

150 Squadron Wellington B Mk Ic

Code Letters:

During the 1938 Munich crisis No. 150 was allotted the code letters "DG". In WW2 its Battles and Wellingtons were coded ''IN'', and its Lancasters "IQ".

First Operational Mission in WWII:

10th September 1939 : Reconnaissance of Franco-German frontier by 3 Battles.

First Bombing Mission in WWII:

10th May 1940 : 4 Battles despatched in 2 sections of 2 to bomb a German troop column on Luxembourg-Echternach road. 1st section not heard from again. 2nd section did not find column on above-mentioned road but attacked column on Luxembourg-Geuenmacher road instead. 1 of these a/c FTR.

Last Operational Mission in WWII:

25th April 1945 : 16 Lancasters bombed Berchtesgaden.

Last Mission before VE Day:

7th May 1945 : 18 Lancasters dropped supplies to Dutch at Rotterdam.

Date Last Updated : Wednesday, April 6, 2005 2:40 AM

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