No.4 GROUP
Formed on April 1, 1937 at Mildenhall with a nucleus from No. 3 Group
staff, No. 4 Group HQ took over the bomber airfields in north-east
England when it moved to Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire, in June that year.
As with other group headquarters, after the commencement of hostilities
No. 4 was moved from an airfield station to a requisitioned stately
home, from April 1940 the new location for the group being Heslington
Hall near York. The group was to operate the Whitley, then considered
a heavy bomber, and by September 1939 there were some 70 in six squadrons
at three airfields. A few new Wellington-equipped squadrons served
with the group during the next three years but No. 4 had been chosen
to become an all-Halifax group. The first of these four-engined heavies
was received in November 1940 but the last Whitley was not replaced
until early 1943. Eventually there were 11 squadrons with some 340
Halifaxes at nine airfields in the York area. During the war No. 4
Group aircraft flew a total of some 61,500 sorties dropping approximately
200,000 tons of bombs and 7,000 sea mines.
