No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force

100 Squadron was first formed in February 1917. It was the first night bomber squadron and served on the Western Front as part of the Independent Air Force, undertaking long-range missions behind enemy lines.
At the end of hostilities it moved to Abbeville in northern France where it remained for 10 months before being posted to Dublin during the Irish War of Independence. The Squadron returned to England in 1922. Although designated as a bomber Squadron, from 1930 it began joint exercises with the Royal Navy equipped with torpedoes. In 1933 the Squadron received the new Vickers Vildebeest specifically designed for carrying torpedos, and was officially redesignated 100 (Torpedo) Bomber Squadron. On 8th December 1933 the Squadron embarked for Singapore, where they were stationed at the outbreak of the Second World War.
In December 1941 the Squadron received a number of Beaufort aircraft allocated to a new flight. However these proved to be in need of significant modification and the flight returned with them to Australia. When the Japanese advanced on Singapore ten 100 Squadron Wildebeests took off to attack enemy shipping at Endau. 100 Squadron suffered terribly, losing six of its planes. Later on that day in a last ditch effort, nine Wildebeest, from 100 and 36 Squadrons, took off to face the enemy, they encountered a number of Japanese Zero aircraft. Badly outmatched, five Wildebeest failed to return, the survivors all being from 36 Sqd. Thus 100 Squadron were wiped out except for the flight equipped with the Beauforts which was in Australia, and which went on to form the nucleus of No.100 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force.
In December 1942 100 Squadron RAF reformed at RAF Waltham (Grimsby) equipped with Lancaster MkIIIs. The first operational sortie took place on March the 4th 1943, with a mine laying (gardening) operation to St. Nazaire. The Squadron continued the heavy bombing role until the end of the war.
100 Squadron dropped a total of 18,108 tons of bombs in 3,984 individual sorties. The squadron lost 113 Lancasters during the War, costing the lives of 593 young men.

Airfields at which 100 Squadron were based:

Seletar, Singapore. 1934 to Jan 1942 (disbanded)

Grimsby, Lincolnshire. 15 Dec 42 to April 1945
Elsham Wolds Lincolnshire. from 01 April 1945

4th Sept 1939 On Alert

4th Oct 1939 Training

15th August 1941 Aircraft delivered for training

6th December 1941 New flight established

8th December 1941 Kota Bharu

19th December 1941 Beauforts returned to Australia

24th December 1941 Arrival in Australia

11th Jan 1942 Night Ops

20th January 1942 Attack on Kuantan airfield

26th Jan 1942 Japanese Invasion

31st January 1942 Evacuation

27th Feb 1942 On the Move

28th February 1942 Airbase abandoned

28th February 1942 New RAAF Squadron established

5th March 1942 Squadrons destroyed

8th March 1942 Escape from Java

12th July 1942 Attack Made

12th July 1942 Difficult Operations

15th December 1942 Squadron re-formed

4th March 1943 First operational sortie

21st April 1943 19 Aircraft lost

13th May 1943 DFC and DFM awarded

26th May 1943 100 Squadron Lancaster lost

June 1943 Third flight of Lancasters

13th July 1943 Landed at German airbase

3rd September 1943 Lancaster lost

20th October 1943 Lancaster lost

25th November 1943 New Squadron formed

17th December 1943 Black Thursday

17th December 1943 Collision

2nd January 1944 100 Squadron Lancaster lost

31st January 1944 Three Lancasters lost

25th February 1944 Lost at sea

25th March 1944 Night of the Strong Winds

25th March 1944 Lost over Berlin

28th Apr 1944 100 Squadron Lancaster lost

27th Aug 1944 100 Squadron Lancaster lost

12th September 1944 Daylight bombing

2nd January 1945 Accident during practice

5th January 1945 100+ missions

3rd February 1945 Oil refineries bombed

16th March 1945 Operation Thunderclap

2nd of April 1945 Relocated

26th April 1945 Final Ops

27th April 1945 PoW transport

29th April 1945 Operation Manna

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. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force
during the Second World War 1939-1945.

Aldridge Norman Hubert. Flt.Sgt.
Armon A. J.T.. P/O
Barends Charles Alexander. Sgt
Bartholomew Douglas Wallace. Sgt. (d.13th Jun 1943)
Bayes Leonard Whatmore.
Bayes Leonard.
Bowden L. D.. Sgt.
Boxhall G. R.. Sgt.
Burry Frederick Charles. Flt.Sgt. (d.9th Dec 1942)
Cohen Leonard. Sgt. (d.20th October 1943)
Cooper Charles John. (d.16th March 1945)
Cowling Peter Radford. Sgt. (d.20th October 1943)
Cox D. B.. Sgt.
Curle Richard Alexander. F/Lt. (d.4th March 1943)
Edmondson Joseph Philip. Flt.Sgt. (d.16th March 1945)
Fairbairn Douglas Thomas George. P/O. (d.11th Jun 1944)
Gibb Clarence William. Sgt. (d.20th October 1943)
Gibson Hugh.
Godseff Gerald James. Sgt. (d.20th October 1943)
Goode Kenneth Frank. Sgt. (d.18th Aug 1943)
Gooravitch Jack Bernard. Sgt. (d.2nd January 1944)
Green Charles. (d.4th Oct 1943)
Hamblin DFC Harold Leonard. Sqn Ldr.
Hayton John William. Sgt. (d.4th Sept 1943)
Hodges Alfred Malcolm. Sgt. (d.21st Apr 1943)
Isaac Gordon James Ross.
Jones D..
Jones David Martyn. Flt.Sgt. (d.19th Jul 1944)
Kitchin Eric. Sgt.
Leddiman William Ernest. F/O (d.13th July 1943)
Lower Alfred William Nelson. Sgt. (d.20th October 1943)
Mazlin Cecil Graham. P/O.
McDermott Raymond Michael. W/O.
McKern Ralph Noel. Grp Capt.
McMaster Malcolm Stalker. P/O. (d.16th January 1945)
Montague James. F/Sgt. (d.21st May 1945)
Morgan DFC. Thomas Hurley. F/O. (d.4th Oct 1943)
Parker Richard. F/O (d.30th Jan 1944)
Parnell Roy Alexander. Flt.Sgt.
Parry Eric Frank. (d.27th Apr 1944)
Parry Eric Frank. Sgt. (d.27th Apr 1944)
Pendlebury Norman. Sgt. (d.24th Aug 1943)
Richardson Frederick James. Sgt (d.23rd June 1944)
Robertson John Maxwell. F/Sgt. (d.25th Apr 1944)
Robertson John Maxwell. F/Sgt. (d.25th Apr 1944)
Roots Leslie Charles. Flt. Sgt. (d.18/19th July 1944)
Sadler Anthony Graham. F/Lt..
Sadler Anthony Graham. F/Lt.
Scarbrough William Edward. Sgt. (d.15th Feb 1943)
Schaffhausen Fred.
Scurr Charles. Sgt. (d.3rd Feb 1945)
Sharpley John Eason. Flt.Sgt. (d.1st July 1944)
Simpson T. L.. P/O (d.20th Oct 1943)
Simpson Theodore Leonard. P/O (d.20th Oct 1943)
Smith Mervin Philip.
Smith Philip.
Snowden-Johnson DFC Christopher. A/Sqd.Ldr.
Storey Douglas Simpson. WO (d.20th October 1943)
Sutherland John William Elwison. Sgt. (d.19th January 1943)
Thrower Frank.
Webb John Arthur Louis. F/Lt.
Weedon R. F..
Wightman David.
Willey R. W.. Sgt.
Wilson DFC. Carl Albert. F/Lt.

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. 100 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. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force?

There are:2058 items tagged No. 100 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.

Leonard Bayes 18 Squardron

My Father, Leonard Bayes joined the RAF in 1935. In the early hours of the 21st of January, 1936, he was a member of the duty crew at RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk when, following the death of King George V at nearby Sandringham, the ill-fated new King, Edward VIII, arrived to fly off to London. He was in no great hurry and chatted pleasantly to the people there, until an official suggested that they really should leave. No doubt the new King was dreading the formalities awaiting him. They then climbed into a De Havilland Rapide and it took off for the Metropolis. Dad therefore witnessed the first ever flight by a reigning Monarch.
Dad served in 18 Squadron at Upper Heyford flying Hawker Harts and at the ourbreak of WWII, he was stationed at Seletar, Singapore with 100 Squadron, equipped with Vickers Vildebeests. Heading home to the UK for training, he stopped off at Egypt, where he helped to re-assemble the long range flight Vickers Wellesleys. He then went on to Crete, where he missed the evacuation and was captured by the Germans. He ended up in Stalag Luft III, and was part of the evacuation March in January 1945. He was eventually repatriated in May 1945.

Jack Bayes

Add to this record.

Sgt. Eric Frank Parry 100 Squadron (d.27th Apr 1944)

My Grandad, Sergeant Eric Frank Parry was killed in WW2, he was a member of 100 Squadron and died on 27/04/1944. Unfortunately my Mum was so young, only two, when he died so she didn't get to know him and only recently when my nan died did she get to know some details about him. So far I have taken her to Kleve to see his War Grave, I have managed to obtain birth, marriage and death certificates for him and last year I had his medals issued to her which she has never seen before nor knows what happened to them. My Mum has asked for a picture of a Lancaster Bomber, (the plane he flew in) he was a gunner, and my husband suggested that whilst you can get hold of pictures of a Lancaster Bomber anywhere, wouldn't it be nice to get a picture of one with the correct initials on the side that he would have had on his plane. How I can obtain anymore details about where he was stationed, the flight he was on when killed but most importantly where I may be able to get hold of a picture with the correct initials on etc. it would be the missing piece of a rather difficult jigsaw.

Lynne Darroch

Add to this record.

Hugh Gibson 100 Squadron

My Dad, Hugh Gibson, was an RAF Flight Engineer with 100 and 355 Squadrons between 1944 and 1946.

Linda Storey

Add to this record.

Sgt. Jack Bernard Gooravitch 100 Squadron (d.2nd January 1944)

Jack Gooravitch was my late father's uncle. He served with the Royal Air Force in WW2 flying with 100 Squadron. The story goes that Jack signed up without his father's permission and when his father found out, he said that they were going to go to the enlisting office and tell them he was underage, which he was. Jack then said to his father that if he did, he will just sign up somewhere else. He apparently said 'I want to fight the Nazis'. Jacky was Jewish.
He died 2nd of January 1944 and is buried Hanover War Cemetery in Germany.

Jeremy Sieglar

Add to this record.

Sgt Frederick James "Jim" Richardson 100 Squadron (d.23rd June 1944)

Frederick James Richardson was my grandfather. He was shot down during a raid on rail communications at Reims in a Lancaster 111 JB289 and crashed at Hautvilliers-Ouville, Somme. Other crew members lost on the mission were:
Sergeant Ronald Sidney Bond
Sergeant Robert Henry Knowles
Flight Sergeant Sydney Mansfield
Sergeant Maurice Stanley Pegler
Flying Officer Charles Henry Tidby
Sergeant John William Willson
They are remembered at the St Pierre Cemetery, Amiens, France

Elaine Humphreys

Add to this record.

Flt.Sgt. Norman Hubert Aldridge 100 Squadron

Norman Aldridge served with 100 Squadron. I think his days of playing football in the Prisoner of War camp must have been instrumental in his signing up for West Bromwich Albion. I have a copy of the Soccer matches played 1943-1945 compiled by the Scotsman. Also photos signed on the back by the England players. They are all wearing England shirts. Where did they come from? He never smoked so exchanged his cigarettes for chocolate etc. I understand that they got extra rations for playing in the team.

Anne Donely

Add to this record.

Flt.Sgt. John Eason Sharpley 100 Squadron (d.1st July 1944)

John Sharpley's Lancaster was shot down on 1 July 1944 5km NNE of Lamotte Buevron, France - hit by flak. I do not know if any of the crew survived.
John was killed and was buried in Vouzon Communal Cemetary, 3 miles East of Lamotte Buevron, according to CWGC he was the only airman to be buried there.
The crew were:
1. Flt. Sergt John Eason Sharpley RAFVR
2. P.O. William Kay RAF
3. Sgt H. Dale RAF
4. Flt. Sgt Fred H. Fulsher RCAF
5. Flying Off. J. D. Frink USAAF
6. Sgt Ernest Harrop RAF
7. Sgt William E. Struck RCAF

Philip Haley

Add to this record.

Flt.Sgt. Frederick Charles Burry 100 Squadron (d.9th Dec 1942)

Frederick Burry served with 100 Sqn R.A.F based at Selatar, Singapore. He became a Prisoner of War at the fall of Singapore and died on the 9th December 1942. He is buried in the War Cemetery at Yokohama

Rod Bentley

Add to this record.

Charles John Cooper 100 Squadron (d.16th March 1945)

Charles Cooper as pilot, flew Lancaster PB117, HW-D on 16th of March 1945 from Grimsby on night flight to Nuremberg Germany but was shot down 30 miles south of destination crashing into forest near Eysolden, Bavaria. There were no survivors from the crew who are all buried in Durnbach War Cemetery south of Munich.

Roger Brown

Add to this record.

Grp Capt. Ralph Noel McKern 547 Squadron

Wing Commander Ralph Noel McKern was OC 547 Squadron at RAF Station Davidstow Moor, Camelford, Cornwall from May 1943 to April 1944. Prior to this he completed refresher flying and staff duties with HQ 18 Group Coastal Command (July 1942 to April 1943) after spending several weeks in a transit camp at Karachi, India.
He needed the time spent here for he had been OC 62 Squadron RAF in Malaya for a short period following time spent as OC 100 Squadron RAF at Seletar. McKern was posted to Australia with other 36 and 100 Squadron pilots and aircrew in November 1941 to ferry Australian-built Beauforts to Singapore. He flew one of these aircraft to Seletar, arriving on 6/12/41, and he ferried another Beaufort back to Australia shortly afterwards as these aircraft could not be used operationally due to numerous defects.
From 547 Squadron he undertook liaison duties on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth, Admiral Little, for the invasion of France. From September 1944 to April 1945 he was:
OC RAF Milltown,
OC 295 Wing in West Africa during May-July 1945,
August 1945 to August 1946 he was Staff Officer with 228 (Administrative) Group, Calcutta;
Staff Officer i/c Administration with 64 Group at York from October 1946 to August 1948,
RAF Staff College at Bracknell from August 1948 to February 1949,
Far East Air Force Singapore, Personnel Administration from April 1949 to August 1951,
OC RAF Changi Singapore from August 1951 to February 1952 (rank of Group Captain),
OC Western Zoyland to May 1954,
25 Group RAF Manby Staff Officer i/c Administration.

He died at Scone in 1959.
The interesting thing about Ralph is that he completed a 12 month apprenticeship with the Bank of Scotland, West End Branch in Edinburgh before starting on his Air Force career. On 26 June 1931 he was appointed to a short service commission for flying duties with the rank of Pilot Officer, July 1931 to June 1932 he was at 2 FTS Digby, Lincs, for pilot training, 1 Squadron at Tangmere for flying duties up to August 1935, Central Flying School, Upavon for flying instructor's course September to December 1935,7 FTS Peterborough for instructional duties January-September 1936, 36 (TB) Squadron at Seletar, Malaya as a pilot, Air HQ Air Staff Singapore, January 1939 to December 1941 OC 100 (TB) Squadron. And the rest they say is history.

Kim Fawkes

Add to this record.

Recomended Reading.

Available at discounted prices.

The Wartime Memories Project
- No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War -

No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force

Logbooks

Those known to have served with
No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force
during the Second World War 1939-1945.

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

Announcements

Want to know more about No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force?

Recomended Reading.

Links

The Wartime Memories Project - No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War -

No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force

Logbooks

Those known to have served with No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Forceduring the Second World War 1939-1945.

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

Announcements

Want to know more about No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force?

Recomended Reading.

Links

The Wartime Memories Project
- No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War -

Those known to have served with
No. 100 Squadron Royal Air Force
during the Second World War 1939-1945.