Bomber Command No.15 Squadron

No. 15 Squadron

15 squadron badge Motto: "Aim Sure"
Badge: A hind's head affrontée erased at the neck between wings elevated and conjoined in base. The badge was based on a design previously used by the squadron. The squadron was equipped with Hind aircraft in 1936.
Authority: King Edward VIII, May 1936.

No. 15 Squadron, RFC, was formed at South Farnborough, Hampshire, on 1st March 1915, with personnel from No. 1 Reserve Squadron and the Recruits Depot and its first CO was Captain PB Joubert de la Ferte. The squadron crossed to France in the following December equipped with BE2c's for army co-operation duties, and served on the Western Front until the armistice. The excellent photographic, artillery co-operation and contact patrol work which it rendered in assisting the Fifth Army during attacks on the Ancre Salient in January 1917, earned the special recognition of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, C-in-C of the Expeditionary Force. In 1918 one of the squadron's RE8s (it was re-equipped with RE8s in June 1917) performed the remarkable feat of shooting down three out of four German attackers.

In February 1919, the squadron returned to England and in December of that year it was disbanded at Fowlmere.

Re-formed as a bomber squadron March 1924, at Martlesham Heath, No. 15 became part of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE), and until 1934 was engaged on experimental work - and bomb ballistic trials. In June 1934, it was transferred - in name only - to Abingdon and there re-formed as an effective day bomber squadron flying Hawker Harts. In 1936 its Harts gave way to Hawker Hinds, and in the following year it was re-equipped yet again, this time with Fairey Battles.

On 2nd September 1939, the day before the outbreak of war, the squadron's 16 Battles flew to France as part of No.71 Wing of the Advanced Air Striking Force. Subsequently the Battles made many valuable reconnaissance flights, first from Bétheniville and, later, from Vraux. Bad weather curtailed operations and early in December 1939, No. 15 returned to England to re-equip with Blenheim IVs at Wyton.

On 14th April 1940, the squadron left Wyton for the satellite airfield at Alconbury and from there, in the afternoon of 10th May, the day that the Germans invaded Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, it flew its first wartime bombing mission: eight Blenheims bombed Waalhaven airport near Rotterdam, which had been captured by German paratroops. From this attack all the Blenheims returned safely, although some were seriously damaged. When the squadron flew its next mission, a raid on the Albert Canal at Maastricht, on 12 May, it took a severe knock: only six aircraft and crews (half the total force) returned - and those aircraft that did come back were badly damaged.

Towards the end of 1940 No. 15 Squadron converted to Wellingtons and on the night of 2lst/22nd December used them for the first time-for a raid on the dockyards at Bremen. The squadron continued to operate with Wellingtons until the following April, when it became the second squadron to receive Stirlings. Its first mission with Stirlings was an attack on Berlin on the night of 30th April/1st May. The Stirling 'MacRobert's Reply' (N6086 "F-Freddie"), given by Lady MacRobert in memory of her three sons killed flying, was used by the squadron during the period October 1941 - January 1942. From the squadron Operations Record Book it seems that this aircraft made only twelve operational sorties - the first one on 12/13th October 1941, and the last on 29th January 1942, when, as part of a No. 15 Squadron detachment operating from Lossiemouth, it attempted (and, like the other aircraft, failed) to bomb the Tirpitz in Trondheim fjord. It was subsequently damaged in an accident at Lossiemouth and after being repaired was allotted to No. 101 Conversion Flight and thence to No. 1651 Conversion Unit. Early in 1943 it was written off.

In August 1942, the squadron moved to Bourn, and in December 1943, re-equipped with Lancasters at Mildenhall. During the period May 1944 to April 1945, No. 15 Squadron's Lancaster I, LL806 "J-Jig", one of the most famous Lancasters in Bomber Command, flew 134 operational sorties and was in the air for 765 hours.

In the autumn of 1944 No. 15 became one of the few specialised squadrons to undertake daylight precision bombing through cloud with the aid of the airborne radar equipment known as G-H.

The squadron flew its last wartime bombing mission on 22nd April 1945, when it attacked Bremen, but before the Germans finally surrendered it dropped food supplies over Holland. In seven days prior to VE Day it dropped sufficient rations for 26,000 people. In one sense this was a "repeat performance", for in March 1941, aircraft of the squadron en route to targets in Germany had dropped over populous areas of Holland small packets of tea sent from Batavia, Dutch East Indies, containing messages of hope for the Dutch people.

Personnel of the squadron earned one OBE, three DSOs, 124 DFCs, six bars to DFCs, one AFM, one CGM and 77 DFMs.

Bomber Command WWII Bases: