The Wartime Memories Project

- RAF Thorney Island during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

RAF Thorney Island



   RAF Thorney Island opened in 1938 under 16 Group, Coastal Command.

After the war the site was used as a training base and today the airfield is used by the Royal Artillery.


Squadrons stationed here during the Second World War.
  • 21 Squadron.
  • 22 Squadron.
  • 42 Squadron.
  • 48 Squadron.
  • 53 Squadron.
  • 59 Squadron.
  • 86 Squadron.
  • 129 Squadron.
  • 130 Squadron.
  • 131 Squadron.
  • 143 Squadron.
  • 164 Squadron.
  • 183 Squadron.
  • 193 Squadron.
  • 198 Squadron.
  • 217 Squadron.
  • 220 Squadron.
  • 233 Squadron.
  • 235 Squadron.
  • 236 Squadron.
  • 278 Squadron.
  • 280 Squadron.
  • 404 Squadron.
  • 407 Squadron.
  • 415 Squadron.
  • 455 Squadron.
  • 464 Squadron.
  • 487 Squadron.
  • 489 Squadron.
  • 547 Squadron.
  • 609 Squadron.
  • 612 Squadron.
  • 703 Squadron FAA.
  • 704 Squadron FAA.
  • 810 Squadron FAA.
  • 816 Squadron FAA.
  • 819 Squadron FAA.
  • 822 Squadron FAA.
  • 833 Squadron FAA.
  • 836 Squadron FAA.
  • 838 Squadron FAA.
  • 842 Squadron FAA.
  • 848 Squadron FAA.
  • 854 Squadron FAA.
  • 855 Squadron FAA.


 

6th Aug 1939 Training

4th Aug 1939 Course

9th Aug 1939 Posting

12th Aug 1939 Exercise

13th Aug 1939 Detachment

18th Aug 1939 Move

19th Aug 1939 Exercise

20th Aug 1939 Orders

22nd Aug 1939 Hospital

23rd Aug 1939 Recall

26th Aug 1939 Move Complete

6th Jan 1940 Aircraft Lost

April 1940 On the Move

15th April 1940 New aircraft

28th May 1940 Dunkirk

June 1940 Detachment

5th June 1940 On the Move

5th July 1940 On the Move

16th July 1940 Relocated for Coastal patrols

August 1940 Torpedo problems fixed

16th October 1940 Detachment

November 1940 Move

1st January 1941 Detachments

31st January 1941 Operations

February 1941 Patrols

23rd June 1941 On the Move

25th June 1941 On the move

22nd July 1941 Rearming

1st August 1941 Another Move

20th October 1941 Detachment

18th December 1941 Detachment to the Far East

17th Jan 1942 Another Move

1st Feb 1942 Crews reassigned

14th Feb 1942  Malta

June 1942 Preparations for operations

July 1942 Detachment to Malta

July 1942 Operational again

6th July 1942 Moving on

18th August 1942 Brilliant landing

19th August 1942 Dieppe Raid

20th August 1942 On the move

26th August 1942 Squadron dispersed

28th Aug 1942 Conversion to the Liberator

25th September 1942 Move to the Orkneys

October 1942 New aircraft arrive

22nd October 1942 Lost at sea

24th October 1942 Escort Duty

24th October 1942 Two Spitfires shot down

11th November 1942 Mid-air collision

18th November 1942 Spitfire seized by the Germans

20th November 1942 Relocated

13th December 1942 Conversion to the Flying Fortress

6th February 1943 On the Move

16th February 1943 Anti-submarine patrols

27th March 1943 Conversion back to the Liberator

20th April 1943 Move

11th May 1943 North Atlantic convoys

25th September 1943 Move

5th March 1944 Detachments

15th March 1944 Radio programme for Brazil

16th March 1944 Operations resumed

20th March 1944 Two ranger ops.

26th March 1944 Typhoon pilot killed

1st April 1944 Stand down from ops

1st April 1944 Return to Tangmere

3rd April 1944 Relocated

6th April 1944 Ham and eggs

11th April 1944 Relocated to Practice Camp

22nd April 1944 Rocket Firing Practice

23rd April 1944 Rocket ops

25th April 1944 Successful attack

26th April 1944 Wing sortie over Dieppe

27th April 1944 V1 launch site attacked

29th April 1944 Railway hit at Le Havre

30th April 1944 Three sorties

1st May 1944 Typhoon Pilot survived crash landing

2nd May 1944 Australian pilot killed

3rd May 1944 Wing attack on railway target

6th May 1944 Old hands posted

7th May 1944 River shipping attacked

9th May 1944 Another shipping attack

10th May 1944 Night flying training

11th May 1944 Maximum effort

12th May 1944 Two sorties

13th May 1944 Road and railcommunications attacked

18th May 1944 ME109's shot down

19th May 1944 Difficult flight ends well

21st May 1944 USAAF Thunderbolts chased by Typhoons

23rd May 1944 Pilot killed at Bayeux

24th May 1944 DSO awarded

24th May 1944 Two ops

25th May 1944 D-Day preparations

27th May 1944 Radio communications sites bombed

28th May 1944 C/O Taken Prisoner

28th May 1944 Two sorties

29th May 1944 ME109's shot down

2nd June 1944 Two ops and a dance

3rd June 1944 Aircraft painted

5th June 1944 Three ops and a secret lecture

6th June 1944 Killed in borrowed aircraft

6th June 1944 D-Day - 3 Typhoon pilots lost

7th June 1944 Ground attack sorties

8th June 1944 Bad weather

10th June 1944 Wing Commander killed

13th June 1944 Evening sorties

14th June 1944 Beachhead airfield used

18th June 1944 Move

18th June 1944 Relocated between ops

22nd June 1944  Relocation

6th July 1944 Killed in crash landing

25th July 1944 VIP escort

6th February 1945 Move into France


If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.



Those known to have served at

RAF Thorney Island

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Heffernan Daniel Joseph. F/O
  • Jenssen Sigurd Gerhardt. Flt/Sgt. (d.19th August 1942)
  • Shaw Lawrence. F/Lt.
  • Tilley Stanley Charles Clifford. Sgt.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List



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Want to know more about RAF Thorney Island?


There are:112 items tagged RAF Thorney Island available in our Library

  These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.


F/O Daniel Joseph Heffernan New York 415 squadron

I have some photographs and documents from the late Major D J Heffernan USAF, Formally a Graduate of Loyola College. He served in the RCAF and then joined the USAAF after the USA entered the war. He was an Air Gunner in the RCAF with 415 Squadron based at Thorney Island, Hampshire, and a Gunnery leader/instructor in the USAAF based at Sudbury Suffolk UK. He kept a war diary during his USAAF service that shows although an American he had been schooled in flying and airmanship in a different culture than the one he later joined. He was a dedicated flyer and took the fight to the enemy, enjoyed the camaraderie and uniformed life in general even being a little bit of a dandy. He was pre-war a stock-broker in New York and although he did not have to involve himself in the war he joined the RCAF as an Airman Air Gunner at the age of 30+. He flew most of his 300 hours of operations in Hampdens and Wellingtons then a couple or more trips as an Aircrew Observer/Gunner in B 24s and possibly an odd trip in a B 17.He was divorced in the USA sometime in the early 1940s but re-married in England to a local Hampshire lady during the war.

After the war he and his wife returned to the US to Travis Air Force Base but he sadly died of Tuberculosis in 1953. A short purposeful life lived it would seem to the full.

D Donaldson-Davidson



Flt/Sgt. Sigurd Gerhardt Jenssen 129th (Mysore) Squadron (d.19th August 1942)

Sigurd Jenssen was aged 24 when he died.

Rod Coote



Sgt. Stanley Charles Clifford Tilley Photographic Section

In 1939 Dad, Stanley Tilley was stationed at Thorney Island and I remember seeing a photo of a Blenheim back from a low level attack on shipping with some ships rigging stuck in its wings.

Peter C Tilley



F/Lt. Lawrence Shaw 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron

Lawrence Shaw served in 612 Squadron from 15th Feb 1942 to 9th Aug. 1942 in Reykjavik, 11th Aug. 1942 to 15th Sept. 1942 in Thorney Island, 16th Sept 1942 to 7th Dec. 1942 in Wick & again 4th Feb 1943 to 17th Apr. 1943 in Wick. 18th Apr. 1943 to 27th May 1943 in Davidstow Moor, 11th June 1943 and finally 1st Jul 1943 in Chivenor. In among the above dates, flights are also recorded with 144 Squadron 8th Dec. 1942 to 21st Jan. 1943 from Leuchars.

Philip Shaw







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