The Wartime Memories Project

- No. 25 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. 25 Squadron, Royal Air Force



   No. 25 Squadron was formed at Montrose in Scotland on 25th of September 1915 and, after a short period defending London from Zepplin raids, it went to France on 20 February 1916 as a long-range reconnaissance and fighter unit. In 1917 it was re-equipped for long-range bombing missions behind enemy lines.

In May 1919 the Squadron moved into Germany as part of the Army of Occupation and remained there until December. It was disbanded on 20 January 1920 at Scopwick, Lincs, but was reformed only 10 days later at Hawkinge equipped with Sopwith Snipe single seat fighters. In September 1922 the Squadron went to Turkey, but returned to Hawkinge in the autumn on 1923. After 15 years with various single-seater fighters, in February 1938 they were replaced with the fighter version of the Bristol Blenheim. This meant a great change for the pilots as their single-engine biplanes were replaced by twin-engined monoplanes and the Squadron acquired navigators and air-gunners.

Upon the outbreak of war the Squadron was moved to London to provide night fighter defence against the expected German attacks on the city. at the same time a flight moved to Martlesham Heath to trial teh first airborne radar A.I. equipment intended to spot raiders in the air at night. However these attacks did not materialise, and by teh beginning fo 1940 it was deployed on night shipping convoy duties. When the blitz began however the Squadorn was deployed on its night fighter role, now equipped with the Bristol Beaufighter. Later it received the Mosquito, and as German attacks on Britain diminished, the Squadron took on a attack role undertaking Ranger sorties over occupied Europe. They reverted to defence to intercept and destroy the V1 flying bombs in the second half of 1944 but ended the war once again on offensive sorties over Germany.

Airfields No. 25 Squadron flew from.

  • RAF Northolt, Middlesex from 3rd September 1939
    • Detachment at RAF Martlesham Heath for radar testing until 8th October 1940
    • Detachment at RAF Filton, Avon from 15th September to 4th October 1939
  • RAF North Weald, Essex from 16th January 1940
  • RAF Hawkinge, Kent from 10th May 1940
  • RAF North Weald from 12th May 1940
  • RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk from 19th June 1940
  • RAF Debden, Essex from 8th October 1940
  • RAF Wittering, Northamptonshire from 27th November 1940
  • RAF Ballyhalbert, County Down from 16th January 1942
  • RAF Church Fenton, Yorkshire from 16th May 1942
  • RAF Acklington, Northumberland from 19th December 1943
  • RAF Coltishall, Norfolk from 5th February 1944
  • RAF Castle Camps, Essex from 27th October 1944


 

3rd Sept 1939 Experimental radar

15th Sept 1939 Escorts

26th November 1939 Fighter attack

16th Jan 1940 Night patrols

28th May 1940 Dunkirk

19th June 1940 Convoy protection

3rd September 1940 Airfields bombed

4th Sept 1940 Night defence patrols

September 1940 Battle of Britain reminiscences

30th Sept 1940 Re-equipped

8th Oct 1940  On the move

27th Nov 1940 Baedeker raids

19th December 1940 Night fighters

2nd May 1941 Aircraft Lost

5th Jun 1941 Aircraft Downed

21st Jun 1941 Aircraft Lost

16th January 1942 Relocation to Ireland

16th May 1942 On the Move

January 1943 Refitting

23rd March 1943 Farewell party

19th Dec 1943 Fighters and bombers

5th Feb 1944 Intercepting V1 flying bombs

26th Oct 1944 On the Move


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. 25 Squadron, Royal Air Force

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Baillie Alastair Stuart Hamilton. F/Lt. (d.13th June 1944)
  • Marshall DFC,DFM. Alfred Ernest. F/Lt. (d.27th Nov 1944)
  • Simpson John Milne. FO (d.13th June 1944)

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. 25 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.
  • 26th 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 263758 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. 25 Squadron, Royal Air Force?


There are:2022 items tagged No. 25 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.


FO John Milne Simpson 25 Sqd. (d.13th June 1944)

Flying Officer (Navigator/Radar Operator) Simpson was the son of Robert and Grace Ann Simpson of Montrose, Angus.

He was 22 when he died and is buried in the Brummen General Cemetery, Gelderland, Netherlands.

S flynn



F/Lt. Alastair Stuart Hamilton Baillie 25 Sqd. (d.13th June 1944)

Flight Lieutenant (Pilot) Baillie was the son of Stuart Fraser Baillie and Andrewina P. H. Baillie of Moidart, Renfrewshire; husband of Anne Baillie.

He was 30 when he died and is buried in the Brummen General Cemetery, Gelderland, Netherlands.

S Flynn



F/Lt. Alfred Ernest Marshall DFC,DFM. 73 Squadron (d.27th Nov 1944)

In TP/A N.Africa

Ernie Marshall was the son of Alfred Ernest and Hilda Beatrice Marshall, husband of Beatrice Mary Marshall of Hitchin.








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.