The Wartime Memories Project

- No. 455 Squadron Royal Australian 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. 455 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force



   No 455 Squadron was formed at Williamtown, New South Wales on the 23rd of May 1941 and consisted of RAAF ground staff for a Wellington Bomber squadron. It established itself in Britain in No 5 Group Bomber Command in June 1941. Awaiting its Williamtown contingent, it was equipped with Hampdens in July and flew its first operational flight in late August 1941 against Frankfurt. It was the first Australian bomber squadron to form in Britain and was employed in both bombing and minelaying, attacking the German Fleet in 1942. No 455 was transferred to Coastal Command in April 1942 in a torpedo-bombing role. While with Coastal Command, it sent detachments to Skitten, Wick, Sumburgh, Vaenga in Russia, all between May 1942 and April 1944. No 455 was equipped with Beaufighters in October 1943 operating against German shipping off Norway and in the Baltic Sea until the end of the war. The squadron was disbanded on 25th May 1945

Airfields No. 455 Squadron flew from:
  • RAAF Williamtown NSW from the 23rd May 1941 (formed in Australia)
  • RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire from the 6th of June 1941 (Hampden I)
  • RAF Wigsley, Nottinghamshire from the 8th of February 1942
  • RAF Leuchars, Fife from the 21st April 1942 (Coastal Command. Hampden I, Beaufort Ia, Beaufighter X)
  • RAF Langham, Norfolk from April 1944
  • RAF Dallachy, Caithness from the 19th of October 1944
  • disbanded the 25th May 1945


 

29th Aug 1941 Aircraft Lost

15th Sep 1941 Aircraft Lost

5th Nov 1941 Aircraft Lost

7th November 1941 Aircraft Lost

8th Nov 1941 455 Squadron Hampden lost

30th Nov 1941 Aircraft Lost

2nd Jan 1942 Aircraft Lost

13th August 1942 Operation Orator launched

2nd September 1942 Prepared for move to Russia

4th September 1942 Eight Hampdens lost on flight to Russia

6th September 1942 Move to Russia completed

14th September 1942 False alarm

27th September 1942 PRU Spitfire shot down

1st October 1942 Aircraft gifted to the Russians

22nd October 1942 Return from Russia

29th April 1943 Fruitless search for U-Boat

4th August 1944 Very quiet

7th December 1944 Wing attack on shipping beaten off

9th February 1945 Black Friday

26th April 1945 Shot down in Norway


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. 455 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

  • Catanach DFC. James. Sqd.Ldr. (d.29th March 1944)
  • Gordon Tony.
  • Jenkins Maurice A.. Sgt. (d.6/7th Nov. 1941)

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. 455 Squadron Royal Australian 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.
  • 28th 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 263784 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. 455 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force?


There are:2020 items tagged No. 455 Squadron Royal Australian 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.


Sqd.Ldr. James Catanach DFC. 455 Squadron (d.29th March 1944)

James Catanach completed nine perilous missions with Bomber Command, before his unit, No. 455 Squadron, RAAF, was transferred to Coastal Command in April 1942. By June, 20-year-old Catanach had been promoted Squadron Leader, the youngest in the Royal Australian Air Force, and been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), his squadron's first.

On 2nd of September 1942, sixteen Hampden torpedo-bombers of No. 455 Squadron set out from RAF Sumburgh in the Shetland Islands. Their destination, Vaenga (now Severomorsk), Russia. Allied shipping convoys bound for the Soviet port of Murmansk always suffered heavy casualties. No. 455 crews were tasked with transferring their aircraft to the Soviets who could use them protect the incoming ships. Catanach's aircraft, AT109, was forced down en-route, however, and he and his crew were captured near Norway. Imprisoned at Stalag Luft III, Sagan (Zagan, modern Poland), Catanach was among 75 Allied airmen take part in the legendary Great Escape, on 24th of March 1944. Seventy-three prisoners were recaptured. Fifty of these including Catanach were executed by the Gestapo in bloody retribution.

Neil Sharkey



Tony Gordon 455 Squadron

My father, Tony Gordon flew with Sgt M N Stokes in 455 Squadron and was also a POW from 7th of Nov 1945. I am trying to contact Sgt Stokes grandaughter, Tara Dickens. If anyone knows Tara can she please get in touch.

Drew Gordon



Sgt. Maurice A. Jenkins 455 Sqn (d.6/7th Nov. 1941)

Maurice A Jenkins was a pilot with 455 Squadron.








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.