No 635 Squadron

Motto: "Nos ducimus ceteri secunter" ("We lead, others follow").
Badge: In front of a roundel nebuly a dexter gauntlet holding three flashes of lightning. The mailed fist indicates a heavy striking force while the flashes of lightning suggest the provision of light/or target identification. The background of nebuly indicates the clouds in the sky.
Authority: King George VI, August 1945.

No 635 Squadron was formed at Downham Market, Norfolk, on 20th March 1944, from "B" Flight of No 35 Squadron and "C" Flight of No 97 Squadron. Equipped with Lancasters, it formed part of the Pathfinder Force (No 8 Group) and during the period March 1944, to April 1945, took part in many major bombing attacks. Following its final wartime bombing mission it helped to drop food to the starving Dutch, repatriate British ex-POWs to Great Britain and ferry British troops home from Italy.

On 17th August 1945, Squadron Leader IW Bazalgette, DFC, a pilot of No 635 Squadron, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry during a daylight raid on Trossy-St. Maximin on 4th August 1944.

A point of special interest about No 635 Squadron is that it was selected to undertake the operational trials of the Lancaster VI. It received five of these rather unique Lancasters-all of them in July/August 1944-and used them as shown below:

JB675/U : One sortie (abortive) against Hamburg 18/19th Aug 1944. Subsequently allotted to No 7 Squadron.
JB713/Z : Completed two sorties-first one against Bremen 10.8.44. Missing from third sortie (Hamburg) 18/19th Aug 1944.
ND418/Q : First sortie Bremen 10.8.44. Ninth and last sortie Cologne 28.10.44. Subsequently allotted to No 582 Squadron.
ND558 : Not used on ops. Subsequently allotted to Rolls-Royce.
ND673/V : First sortie Bremen 10.8.44. Twenty-fifth and last sortie Neuss 27/28th Nov 1944. Subsequently allotted to RAE Farnborough.

Bomber Command WWII Bases: Formed 20.3.44 as No 635(B) Sqn from "B" Flt of No 35 Sqn & "C" Flt of No 97 Sqn

• Downham Market : Mar 1944 onwards

Bomber Command WWII Aircraft:

• Avro Lancaster B.I, B.III, B.VI : Mar 1944 onwards

Code Letters:

• "F2"

First Operational Mission in WWII:

• 22nd/23rd March 1944 : 10 Lancasters attacked Frankfurt.

Last Operational Mission in WWII:

• 25th April 1945 : 4 Lancasters attacked gun batteries on island of Wangerooge, and 14 Lancasters attacked Berchtesgaden and another Lancaster whose load hung up over aiming point dropped it on Prien instead.

Last Mission before VE Day:

• 7th May 1945 : 11 Lancasters ferried 243 ex-POWs home to UK from Belgium.

 

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