Air Force Index

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No. 143 Squadron Royal Air Force    No 143 Squadron formed at Throwley Aerodrome in February 1918 as a home defence unit to be used against possible German air raids against the south-east England. The unit saw no combat and on 31 October 1919 it disbanded. The Squadron was reformed in Coastal Command at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland in June 1941. It immediately received Beaufighter aircraft, aircrew and ground staff from 252 Squadron, and an additonal flight of Blenheim IV bombers, and was quickly deployed on maritime reconnaissance and patrols. The Squadron continued this task from Scotland and from airfields in England throughout the war. It moved to the South Coast to provide anti-shipping patrols in the English Channel before and after D-Day. It returned to the North Sea and was re-equipped with Mosquitos in October 1944 when the squadron moved to northern Scotland to join the Banff strike wing, and focussed on shipping strikes on the Norwegian and Danish sea areas for the remainder of the war. Airfields 143 Squadron flew from: 15th June-1st July 1941: Aldergrove 1st-21st July 1941: Thornaby 21st July-1st September 1941: Dyce Detachment 21st July-3rd August 1941 Malta 1st September-1st December 1941: Sumburgh Detachment 28th November-18th December 1941 Malta 1st-18th December 1941: Dyce 18th December 1941-15th April 1942: Aldergrove 15th April-1st June 1942: Limavady 1st June-1st July 1942: Thorney Island 1st July-27th August 1942: Docking 27th August 1942-28th August 1943: North Coates Detachment 1st August 1942-28th August 1943 Dyce Detachment 1st August 1942-28th August 1943 Castletown 28th August-10th September 1943: St. Eval 10th September 1943-1st February 1944: Portreath 1st February-25th May 1944: North Coates Detachment 5th March 1944-25th May 1944 Manston Detachment 5th March 1944-25th May 1944 Thorney Island Detachment 5th March 1944-25th May 1944 Wick Detachment 5th March 1944-25th May 1944 Tain 25th May-5th September 1944: Manston 5th September-23rd October 1944: North Coates 23rd October 1944-May 1945: Banff   15th June 1941 New Coastal Command Squadron formed 1st July 1941 Relocated 21st July 1941 Moves 23rd July 1941 Ship sunk 24th July 1941 Supply Convoy reaches Malta 30th July 1941 Attack on Sardinia 2nd August 1941 Italian airfields attacked 3rd August 1941 Attack on Italy 14th August 1941 Crashed on landing 27th August 1941 Mid-air collision 10th September 1941 Move to Shetland 6th December 1941 Lost in N Africa 18th December 1941 Return 15th April 1942 Training Squadron Relocated June 1942 Preparations for operations July 1942 Operational again 27th August 1942 Anti-shipping Strike Wing formed 20th November 1942 Strike Mission not a success 18th April 1943  Strike Wing attacks convoy 29th April 1943  Shot down by convoy flak 7th May 1943 Ditched with engine trouble 1st Jun 1943 Training 2nd Jun 1943 Recces 3rd Jun 1943 Recces 4th Jun 1943 Recces 5th Jun 1943 Good Weather 6th Jun 1943 Training 7th Jun 1943 Recce 8th Jun 1943 Poor Conditions 9th Jun 1943 Aircraft Lost 10th Jun 1943 Recce 11th Jun 1943 Rescue 12th Jun 1943 Recce 13th June 1943 Shot down by flak 13th Jun 1943 Attack Made 14th Jun 1943 Training 15th Jun 1943 Training 16th Jun 1943 Award 17th Jun 1943 Enemy Aircraft 18th Jun 1943 Poor Conditions 19th Jun 1943 Convoy Sighted 20th Jun 1943 Convoy Sighted 21st Jun 1943 Standing By 22nd Jun 1943 Attack Made 23rd Jun 1943 Equipment 24th Jun 1943 Training 25th Jun 1943 Air Sea Rescue Patrol 26th Jun 1943 Air Sea Rescue Patrol 27th Jun 1943 Attack Made 28th Jun 1943 Posting 29th Jun 1943 Patrol 30th Jun 1943 Exercise 18th July 1943 Convoy attacked twice 1st August 1943 Lost on recce flight 28th August 1943 Squadron reunited in Cornwall 10th September 1943 Strike Wing for the Western Approaches 10th February 1944 Back to the North Sea 21st February 1944 Hit by flak 23rd February 1944 Ditched off the Lincolnshire Coast 5th March 1944 Detachments 23rd April 1944 Crashed on exercise 25th May 1944 D-Day preparations 2nd September 1944 Four aircraft destroyed on night patrol September 1944 Return to North Coates 12th September 1944 Missing off Dutch coast 23rd October 1944 Move back to Scotland 7th November 1944 First Mosquito Op 14th November 1944 Norwegian ships attacked 5th December 1944 Attack on shipping in Norway 7th December 1944 Wing attack on shipping beaten off 10th December 1944  Ship attacked without loss 12th December 1944 Airfield and ships attacked 16th December 1944 Two Mosquitos lost 26th December 1944 Shipping attack onNorway 28th December 1944 Ship sunk 31st December 1944 Ships sunk but Mosquito lost 9th January 1945 Attack on ship in Norway 11th January 1945 ASR aircraft loss 15th January 1945 Five Mosquitos lost on shipping raid 25th January 1945 2 killed in Mid-air collision 12th February 1945 Uneventful attack on shipping 7th March 1945 Collision over the Kattegat 12th March 1945 Shot down on shipping patrol 17th March 1945 Mosquitos shot down 23rd March 1945 Three Mosquitos shot down in Norway 30th March 1945 Five ships sunk in harbour 2nd April 1945 Ships damaged 5th April 1945 Two Mosquitos lost on shipping strike 9th April 1945 Three U Boats sunk and four Mosquitos lost 11th April 1945 Shipping sunk and damaged 19th April 1945 U-Boat sunk 21st April 1945 Chance encounter with German bombers 2nd May 1945 U-Boat and Minesweeper sunk 4th May 1945 3 ships sunk and 3 Mosquitos lost 21st May 1945 U-Boat search patrols 1st June 1945 Squadron renumbered 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. 143 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. 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. 143 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. 18th 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 263925 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. 143 Squadron Royal Air Force? There are:2095 items tagged No. 143 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. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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