Air Force Index

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No.  66 Squadron, Royal Air Force  A second Spitfire Squadron  No 66 Squadron was formed at Filton in 1916 and moved to France in March 1917 as a fighter unit. In November 1917 it was sent to Italy to engage with the Austrian front. In March 1919 it returned to the UK where it disbanded in October 1919. On 20 July 1936 No 66 Squadron was reformed at Duxford from C Flight of No 19 Squadron. In November 1938 its Gauntlets were replaced and 66 Squadron was re-equipped, becoming the second squadron to be equipped with Spitfires. The Squadron was engaged in the defence of troops withdrawing from Dunkirk, took part in the Battle of Britain and served over all of Britain in defence and attack roles. Equipped as a fighter-bomber, it moved into occupied Europe after D-Day. Airfields No. 66 Squadron flew from: RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire from 3rd September 1939 RAF Horsham St. Faith, Norfolk from 16th May 1940 RAF Coltishall, Norfolk from 29th May 1940 RAF Kenley, Surrey from 3rd September 1940 RAF Gravesend, Kent from 10th September 1940 RAF West Malling, Kent from 30th October 1940 RAF Biggan Hill, Kent from 7th November 1940 RAF Exeter, Devon from 24th February 1941 RAF Perranporth, Cornwall from 27th April 1941 RAF Portreath, Cornwall from 14th December 1941 RAF Ibsley, Hampshire from 27th April 1942 RAF Tangmere, Sussex from 3rd July 1942 RAF Ibsley from 7th July 1942 RAF Tangmere from 16 August 1942 RAF Ibsley from 20th August 1942 RAF Zeals, Wiltshire from 24th August 1942 RAF Ibsley from 23rd December 1942 RAF Skeabrae, Orkney from 9th February 1943 RAF Church Stanton, Somerset from 28th June 1943 RAF Redhill, Surrey from 10th August 1943 RAF Kenley, Surrey from 13th August 1943 RAF Perranporth, Cornwall from 17th September 1943 RAF Hornchurch, Essex from 8th November 1943 RAF Llanbedr, Merioneth from 22nd February 1944 RAF North Weald, Essex from 1st March 1944 RAF Bognor, Sussex from 31st March 1944 RAF Castletown, Caithness from 8th May 1944 RAF Bognor from 14th May 1944 RAF Tangmere, Sussex from 22nd June 1944 RAF Funtington, Sussex from 6th August 1944 RAF Ford, Sussex from 12th August 1944 B16 Villonsles Buissons, France from August 1944 B33 Camp Neuseville, France September 1944 B57 Lille/ Wambrechies, France October 1944 B60 Grimbergen, NL, December 1944 B79 Woensdrecht, NL December 1944 RAF Fairwood Common, Glamorganshire from 20th February 1945 B85 Schijndel from March 1945 B105 Twente April 1945 (disbanded 30th April 1945)  A second Spitfire Squadron 12th Sep 1939 Postings 25th April 1940 On patrol 12th May 1940 Sweep over the Netherlands 13th May 1940 Dogfight over Holland 16th May 1940  Relocated 28th May 1940 Pilot lost 29th May 1940 Relocated 2nd June 1940 Spitfire shot down 10th July 1940 Battle of Britain begins 29th July 1940 Battle of Britain 19th August 1940 Airfields attacked 3rd September 1940 Move 4th September 1940 Battle of Britain 5th September 1940 Battle of Britain 7th Sept 1940 Battle of Britain 9th Sept 1940 London Blitz begins 11th Sept 1940 Relocated 14th Sept 1940 Battle of Britain 15th Sep 1940 Battle of Britain Day 18th Sept 1940 London bombed 27th Sep 1940 Aircraft Downed 8th October 1940 Reconnaissance flight formed 30th Oct 1940 Squadron moved 24th February 1941 Sent west 27th April 1941 Move 2nd June 1941 Readiness 4th July 1941 Shipping strike role 12th August 1941 Attack on Cologne 20th August 1941  German aerodrome bombed 21st August 1941 Bomber escort 20th September 1941 Escort duties 12th October 1941 Shipping sighted 25th Nov 1941 Operations 24th March 1942 Mid-air collision 19th Aug 1942 Dieppe Raid 9th February 1943 Move to Orkney 28th June 1943 New role 30th July 1943 Mid-air collision over Dunkirk 10th August 1943 Relocated 17th Sept 1943 Training Exercises 6th June 1944 D-Day sorties August 1944 Into France September 1944 Advance 20th Feb 1945 Recuperation 10th March 1945 Move 30th April 1945 Squadron disbanded 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.  66 Squadron, Royal Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. Brunner DFC. John Edward. Flt.Lt. Mather John. Sgt. (d.27th Oct 1940) Smith Arthur Dumbell. Sgt. (d.6th September 1940) 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.  66 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. 22nd April 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 263973 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.  66 Squadron, Royal Air Force? There are:2044 items tagged No.  66 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. Flt.Lt. John Edward Brunner DFC. 66 Squadron Jack Brunner served with 66 Squadron. Add to this record. Sgt. Arthur Dumbell Smith RAF Kenley 66 Sqdn. (d.6th September 1940) Sgt Arthur Smith bailed out wounded during combat on 4th September and died in hospital of his wounds on the 6th. B Fishe Add to this record. Sgt. John Mather 66 Squadron (d.27th Oct 1940) After extensive research a group of us who live locally are organising a tribute to Johnny Mather who crashed on Sunday 27th October 1940. Local artist, Malcolm Pettit, who actually retrieved the crashed Spitfire remains in the 1970s and filmed the removal of the engine, had created a painting of the incident using maps and photos of the period. Johnny is pictured heading down vertically towards the village of Hildenborough, Nr Tonbridge Kent while his leader circles his plane calling out his call sign. Unfortunately he did not recover and crashed behind the Half Moon public house. His body was recovered at the time and is buried at Ifield cemetery. The painting which has now been reproduced onto prints and also contains photos of Johnny being presented to the King, and various members of his squadron will be unveiled on a permanent wall in the Half Moon public house. A fly past of a Spitfire piloted by Peter Monk is also being arranged. There has always been a mystery about his death, as some locals heard gunfire shortly before his plane dived into the ground. Official records put it down to oxygen failure. What we require, if possible, is to see if we can find a survivor of that period, whether it be ground crew or what to unveil the plaque and picture. Many thanks and hope to hear something favourable Roger Knowles Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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