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- No. 117 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

No. 117 Squadron Royal Air Force



 

30th April 1941 New Squadron formed in Sudan

3rd November 1941 Relocated and requipped

18th November 1941 Supply lines

15th February 1942 Malta supplied

1st March 1942 Civilian aircraft pressed into service

5th March 1942 General Alexander taken to Burma

15th April 1942 Re-equipped

1st June 1942 Situation Report

1st July 1942 Blenheims transferred

15th August 1942 Replacement aircraft

21st August 1942 Poor cooperation

1st September 1942 Situation Report

19th November 1942 Big supply operation

9th January 1943 Relocated

6th March 1943 On the move

13th April 1943 Into Tunisia

23rd May 1943 Back to Libya for renewal

3rd June 1943 Delivery Flight shot down

15th June 1943 Detachment to Fez

28th June 1943 Supply runs

1st July 1943 Desert hardships

10th July 1943 Trip to Gibraltar

17th July 1943 Supplies transported into Sicily

3rd September 1943 Move to Sicily

2nd October 1943 Move into Italy

1st November 1943 Move to India

6th November 1943 Supply drop training

19th January 1944 Move to the Burma front

5th March 1944 Landing

6th March 1944 Operation Thursday

12th March 1944 On the Move

14th March 1944 Move to Imphal

18th March 1944 Operation Thursday

23rd March 1944 Supplies dropped

29th March 1944 Siege of Imphal

29th March 1944 Supplies to beseiged garrison town

11th April 1944 Sustained attack

17th April 1944 Night fighters brought in

June 1944 Passage across India

1st June 1944 Lost without trace

6th June 1944 New C.O. appointed

25th June 1944 Moving south through Burma

1st November 1944 Rest and recuperation

10th December 1944 Back on ops

15th April 1945 Into Burma

19th August 1945 Move to Rangoon

3rd September 1945. PoWs returned from Malaya

8th September 1945 Plane Crashed Carrying POWS


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



Logbooks



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Those known to have served with

No. 117 Squadron Royal Air Force

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Smith Harry Allman. P/O

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. 117 Squadron Royal Air Force from other sources.



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Want to know more about No. 117 Squadron Royal Air Force?


There are:2047 items tagged No. 117 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.


P/O Harry Allman Smith 108 Squadron

Wellington bomber 108 with many ops recorded

Harry Allman Smith, Pilot Officer 108 Squadron, 2nd July 1942 – 26th November 1942

My father Harry Smith joined the New Zealand Air Force in May 1941. He arrived in England from New Zealand via Canada on Christmas Eve 1941 and after various training courses involving spells at Honnington, South Cerney and Harwell/Mount Farm disembarked in the Middle East on 3rd June 1942 to join 108 Squadron. He served with the squadron as second pilot, flying Wellington 1c bombers from their desert airfield, based at Kilo 40, Kabrit, often at night. His targets were based around Tobruk, including the airfield, port and shipping, battlefields and transport movements in the area. His log book of course mostly just records times and dates and targets as well as statistics such as flying hours although he did occasionally note instances of “Caught in searchlight” “ Heavy flak” and on his 39th ops “Close call”. First pilots he flew with included Sgt Brookes, Ft Sgt Murray but mostly P/O Gunn. His last operational flight was a bombing raid on Heraklion airfield on Crete on November 23rd 1942, which was his 40th op. Also recorded were the aborted ops, usually due to an aircraft problem such as “port engine u/s” “dynamo u/s”, when the bomb load would be jettisoned on the way back to base. His last two flights (non ops) with 108 Squadron recorded in his Flying Log were in late November on 26th and 29th with Flight Sgt Murray as 1st Pilot, the laconic comments in the log book being respectively “Bags of fun” and “Cooks Tour”. Overall flying hours with 108 Squadron totalled 532.35 hrs. Of these Day Ops hour total was 26.55 hrs and Night Ops 213.35 hrs (He did 3 further bombing ops with 37 Squadron before transfer to 117 Squadron)

Stephanie Santaana







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