The Wartime Memories Project

- No. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War -


Air Force Index
skip to content


This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.


If you enjoy this site

please consider making a donation.




    Site Home

    WW2 Home

    Add Stories

    WW2 Search

    Library

    Help & FAQs


 WW2 Features

    Airfields

    Allied Army

    Allied Air Forces

    Allied Navy

    Axis Forces

    Home Front

    Battles

    Prisoners of War

    Allied Ships

    Women at War

    Those Who Served

    Day-by-Day

    Library

    The Great War

 Submissions

    Add Stories

    Time Capsule

    TWMP on Facebook



    Childrens Bookshop

 FAQ's

    Help & FAQs

    Glossary

    Volunteering

    Contact us

    News

    Bookshop

    About


Advertisements











World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

No. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force



August 1939 

3rd Sept 1939 On the move

13th Dec 1939 Moving again

11th March 1940 Accident

10th May 1940 Aircraft lost

11th May 1940 Deployed to France

13th May 1940 Three aircraft lost

14th May 1940 Aircraft lost

15th May 1940 Aircraft lost

16th May 1940 Squadron Leader killed

17th May 1940 Aircraft lost

18th May 1940 Aircraft lost

19th May 1940 Aircraft damaged

20th May 1940 Ops in France

30th May 1940 Move to Scotland

3rd Sept 1940 Rest period

10th Oct 1940 Ops

7th Jan 1941 Back on Ops

3rd April 1941 Move to the south

23rd June 1941 Ground attack role

9th Aug 1941 On the move

February 1942 Interception of bomber raids

April 1943 New aircraft: new role

14th May 1943 On the move

28th June 1943 Hurricane Pilot lost on shipping attack

1st July 1943 Typhoons lost

16th August 1943 Ramrod raid accounts differ

10th October 1943 Promotion and new arrival

9th November 1943 Ops from Manston

28th Dec 1943 Moved and re-equipped

14th Feb 1944 V1 flying bomb interception

6th March 1944 On the move

28th April 1944 Relocated

12th June 1944 V1 flying bombs

21st Sept 1944 Prepared to go overseas

28th Sept 1944 Into Europe


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



Logbooks



Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession?

If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you.

View Logbook entries



Those known to have served with

No. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Barr MC DFC. Andrew William.
  • Churchill DSO, DFC. Walter Myers.
  • Hunt Clifford Dennis. P/O. (d.5th June 1942)
  • Joyce DFM. Ernest Leslie. Sq.Ldr. (d.17th June 1944)
  • McNair DFC & Bar. Robin John.

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

Records of No. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force from other sources.



The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

Announcements



  • The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
  • 28th March 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263784 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
  • Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQ's
  • The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
    If you enjoy this site

    please consider making a donation.


Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.



We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates.

If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page.


Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home.

If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.





Want to know more about No. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force?


There are:2035 items tagged No. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force 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.


Walter Myers Churchill DSO, DFC. 3 Squadron

My brother and I as very small boys were allowed to visit Debden in 1942. We were taken around the airfield in a Bren gun carrier, going over a ditch and hedge. Included in the visit was the radio room where we were encouraged to speak to a pilot on patrol over the North Sea. I remember the incredible noise as, standing on the Tarmac, a Hurricane or maybe a Spit was warmed up for takeoff. We sat on a windowsill of the mess when the airfield was beaten up by (enemy?) fighters.

My father had fought in France, The Battle of Britain and later was sent by Park as AOC Malta in 1942 where he was recorded Missing in Action 1942. He flew with 3, 605 and 71 Squadrons. I am now 81 and some of my memories might be a little coloured!

James Churchill



Sq.Ldr. Ernest Leslie "Nipper" Joyce DFM. 122 Squadron (d.17th June 1944)

Nipper, Ernest Joyce flew around 190 operations with 73 Squadron. Previously he had flown 54 operations with 3 Squadron. With 73 Squadron Nipper had 9 victories - four day and five night. Later with 122 Squadron he destroyed another aircraft, He111. He destroyed 10, probably destroyed two and damaged 8. His victories with 73 Squadron were all whilst flying Hurricanes, these being two Me 109s, two CR42S and five Ju88s. He was in command of 73 Squadron in 1943 as it converted to Spitfires. He was awarded the DFM in August 1942.

John Stackhouse



P/O. Clifford Dennis Hunt 607 Squadron (d.5th June 1942)

Clifford Hunt was posted to Padgate Air Crew as a Pilot Under training, on the 12th of September 1939. On the 3rd of November 1939 he was posted to Wick, then on the 28th of December 1939 to 4 I.T.W., Hastings by the end of the year his rank was A.C.2, Pilot U/T. Clifford joined No.13 O.T.U. (Bomber Command)on the 20th of May 1940 and on the 10th of June was posted to 50 Group (pool) then to 8 S.F.T.S. at RAF Montrose on the 10th of August 1940. He qualified as a pilot on the 26th of October 1940 and was posted to 56 O.T.U. (Fighter Command) on the 4th of November, transferring to 22 Squadron at North Coates, Lincolnshire on the 9th of December 1940, then to 607 Squadron at RAF Usworth, Durham on the 16th. On New Years eve 1940 he was promoted to the Rank of Sgt. Pilot. His service record notes he held this rank when at Skitten, Caithness with No. 607 Squadron on the 26th of May 1941. On the 26th of June 1941 he was posted to No. 3 Squadron for Flying Duties at Stapleford Tawney in Essex, On the 18th of July 1941 he was granted a commission as Pilot Officer for duration of hostilities. He joined No. 174 Squadron for Flying Duties at Manston in Kent, on the 10th of March 1942, this is confirmed in Cliff's diary entry for 10/3/1942, with the note that it was a Fighter Bomber Squadron. On the 8th of May 1942 he was promoted to Flight Commander (Flight Lieutenant) and on the 5th of June 1942 Clifford was killed on Active Service.

A D Hunt







Recomended Reading.

Available at discounted prices.









Links


    Suggest a link
















    The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.

    The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.

    If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.



    Hosted by:

    The Wartime Memories Project Website

    is archived for preservation by the British Library





    Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
    - All Rights Reserved

    We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.