Air Force Index

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No. 466 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force    No 466 Squadron RAAF was formed at Driffield on 10th October 1942. Although formed as an Australian squadron, it was primarily British, only gradually gaining its Australian character by the end of the war. Part of 4 Group Bomber Command, it became operative with Wellington medium bombers in January 1943, laying mines on Germany's North Sea coastline and strategically bombing German targets. Re-equipped with Halifax heavy bombers in August 1943 it continued mine-laying and night raids over Europe until the D-Day landing where it targetted military sites in Normandy. No 466 continued with a combination ground forces support and strategic bombing into 1945. In May it transferred to Transport Command but never fully converted to its transport role. Instead it was being re-equipped with Liberator heavy bombers when it disbanded on the 26th of October 1945. Between December 1942 and May 1945, No 466 flew 3,326 sorties against 269 targets; it lost 81 aircraft. Airfields No. 466 Squadron flew from: RAF Driffield, Yorkshire from the 15th of October 1942 (formed, 4 Group Bomber Command. Wellington II, Wellington X) RAF Leconfield, Yorkshire from the 27th of December 1942 (Halifax III) RAF Driffield from the 3rd June 1944 (Halifax VI) RAF Driffield from 7th May 1945 (Transport Command) RAF Bassingbourn from the 8th September 1945 disbanded 27th September 1945   14th January 1943 Pilot missing 29th May 1943 466 Squadron Wellington lost 14th Jun 1944 Aircraft Lost 12th of August, 1944 Enemy Aircraft 16th Oct 1944 466 Squadron Halifax lost 29th Nov 1944 Enemy Aircraft 3rd March 1945 Operation Gisela 9th Apr 1945 Halifax Lost 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. 466 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. Barclay Joseph Thomas. Flt.Sgt. Barrow William. Sgt. (d.1st Mar 1943) Bourke Patrick John. F/Sgt. (d.11th April 1944) Horton Gregory. Johnson James Thomas Frederick. F/Sgt. Large DFC Leslie David. F/O. Latham Francis Graham. Sgt. (d.5th May 1943) Marlow Ronald. McCosker DFC. Gerald Bede. F/O. Nicholls Thomas Archibald. LAC. Scafe Charles Owen. Flt.Sgt. Walker DFC. Leonard Arthur. 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. 466 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. 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Gerald Bede McCosker DFC. 466 Squadron Gerald McCosker (Dad) was born in Inverell on 27th November 1916, initially living on the family farm. Later the family moved into the nearest town where he became a baker in his father's bakery. Final education at De La Salle College at Armidale where he excelled at cricket, tennis and football, later representing Inverell District at Country Week Cricket Carnival in Sydney at age 21. Bede first applied to join RAAF in 1940 but was rejected then accepted in April 1942, commencing training in April and first flying experience at Benalla in September. Advanced to: Wirraways in Feb 43, Oxfords in Sept 43, Wellingtons in Mar 44, Hallifax Mk. 2 in June 44 then to 466 Squadron at Driffield in Sugust 44. His First Op. was on 16th of August 1944 to Kiel as 2nd pilot. Tour of Ops of 37 sorties (20 night and 17 day) was completed on 13th of March 1945 a total flying time 622 hours 10 minutes. He met Marion Lily Holdridge who was serving with the ATS in the Royal Observer Corps from Derby and they were married on 4th of November 1944, Dad's brother Jack also with the RAAF was best man. Dad left Liverpool on 29th of May 1945 on the Arundel Castle and was discharged on 5th of September 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with the following citation "Flying Officer McCosker has completed numerous operations against the enemy, in the course of which he has invariably displayed the utmost fortitude, courage and devotion to duty" Mum arrived in Australia, along with about fifty other war brides, on New Year's Day 1946 and they moved to a War Service Land Settlement property until 1961. The family then moved to Inverell where Dad commenced employment with the Dept of Agriculture, retiring after twenty years in 1981. During this time he was awarded the National Medal for service with SES, was President of Inverell Legacy for many years and later spent many years volunteering at St. Vincent de Paulle. Mum passed away in 1990 and Dad in 1998. They are survived by four sons and three daughters. Add to this record. F/Sgt. James Thomas Frederick Johnson 466 Squadron Jim Johnson joined the Royal Australian Air Force to fight for King and Country. He thought he would like to fly. As he was newly married he told his family he could earn enough money to buy a house when the war was over. There were four boys in the family, three entering the armed forces and the fourth son was too young. One of his brothers went into the army and the other also went into the air force. The war stayed with him all of his life. The older he got the more he was affected by the experience of bomber command and the loss of young life. Add to this record. Flt.Sgt. Joseph Thomas "Jock" Barclay 466 Squadron On reaching my eighteenth birthday I had to register for National Service and as my father had served in the Navy during World War One and my younger brother, Danny, was already at sea in the Merchant Navy, I looked forward to serving in the Navy also. However, I was very dismayed to find I had been placed on the Reserved Occupation Register and was destined to work on munitions for the duration of the war. Later I heard that if I volunteered for aircrew duty in the Royal Air Force I could get away to war if I passed the examinations and so with some other apprentices we volunteered and I'm glad to say I passed for pilot training. However, the selection board suggested that, as I was engineering trained, there was a new aircrew trade which took half as long as pilot training so I opted for that. At that time there was an outbreak of typhoid in Scotland so I was put on deferred service. I then left the Home Guard and joined the Air Training Corp whilst waiting to be called up. Meanwhile, I attended the ATC in the building that was later Bellevue Secondary School where I got some Navigation, Morse training etc. In the interim period I was sent to the old Waverley Market and employed in modifying the famous jeeps, working ten hour shift on constant nights when after six weeks I was told to report to Padgate Induction Centre and from Padgate to Blackpool South Shore for basic training which included drill, sports, square bashing, rifle range then to the school at Squires Gate training school for the Flight Mechanics course which lasted approximately three months before being posted back to Squires Gate again for the Fitters to Engines course, again for approximately three months with periods of Sentry Duty etc then from there onto RAF St. Athan, Glamorgan in Wales whilst waiting to join the Flight Air School. I was then aged twenty. Whilst waiting we were drilled for one week in order to attend the Military Funeral of two Canadian Airmen who had crashed on the Welsh mountains and were laid to rest in St Athan. Once we completed our training at St Athan we were lined up and told that if anyone didn't want to go on to train for the Flight Engineers course, which meant, of course, that you would be in the front line conflict, you could choose instead to stay on and train as an Engine Fitter which meant that you would be working as Ground Crew. Along with most others I decided to go ahead with the Flight Engineers Course since I was really keen to fly. We had been made aware of the potential danger of flying but most of the men stayed in line like myself. It was then that my Mother realized what a dangerous job it was and made me a wee kiltie doll as a lucky charm which I kept in the pocket of my uniform every time that we flew. However, some one stole it. I went sick with impetigo so lost the crew I'd had been training with. When I recovered I was posted to a conversion unit at Marsden Moor where there were airmen who were already trained and that is where I met Andrew Currie from Glencorse in Midlothian. We had to find our own air crew to fly with and when Andrew & I were at the Mess waiting for dinner to be served we spotted two Australian crew so asked them if they looking for Flight Engineers which they were and that is how I became part of 466 Squadron (RAAF) together with Fred Pope (Pilot), John Downs (Navigator), Charlie Wilson (Bomb Aimer), Tom Roe (Wireless Operator), Nick Hewitt (Rear Gunner), Ed Dalton (Mid Upper Gunner) an all Australian Air Crew and myself! And so began my Tour of Service which in the October and November of 1943 began with dual circuits, three engine flying and two engine flying practice, Solo Fighter Affiliation etc and by early December we were Bombing and Firing quickly followed by a bomb load to X country. By early January 1944 we were involved in Air to Sea firing and by mid February Ops to Berlin. By the end of March we had flown to Stuttgart, Fighter Affiliation 2 Spitfires, Keil Harbour Mining, Berlin Bombing, Essen Bombing, Nuremburg Bombing. By this time my friend, Andrew Currie, together with all his crew, had been shot down and killed. They had only been flying for about three weeks or so. April 1944 Ottignes Bombing 11,000lb H.E. three motor landing Dusseldorf Bombing holed by flak Villeneuve St Georges Bombing Aulnoye, France Bombing Acheres Bombing. May 1944: Marlenes, Belgium Bombing Mantes, Gassicourt Bombing Mosalines, France Bombing Mosalines, France Bombed Coastal Defence Installations. Hasselt, Belgium Bombed Marshall Yards. Fighter Attacks Boulogne Marshall Yards. Practice Bombing: DCO And so it continued.. Colline Baumont Gun Battery Ops. Bourg Leopold Army Barracks. June 1944 OAmiens Railway Junction Evercy Troop Concentration Sterkrade ( Ruhr ) Bombed on 3 engines St.Martin L'Hortier Siracourt heavy flak Oismont/Neuville-Au-Bois, France Le Grand, Rossignol, France D.N.C.O Port Inner feathered . July 1944 Oismont - Neuville Bois (P. Plane Base) Marquise Mimoyecques Les Landes Vielles St Neuves: Sannerville ( Second Front) Ardouval France. August 1944 The Chapelle Notre Dame but unable to bomb, landed at Marsden. Marsden Moor to Base: L'Isle Adam near Paris and Foret De Nieppe, near Lille. By then we had completed the expected length of a Tour and survived, unlike many of our Compatriots. We were then asked to continue on and fly as a Transport Plane. In this capacity and for the next fourteen months until my discharge on the 1st October 1946 I flew to Algiers, the Azores, Morroco, USA (New York, Washington, Dallas, Nashville, San Diego), Canada (Nova Scotia, Montreal), Newfoundland (Gander), Egypt (Cairo & Rabat), Labrador (Goose Bay), Iceland (Reykjavick), Mid Pacific (Canton), Fiji Island, Australia (Sydney), New Zealand (Auckland) Scotland (Prestwick). I saw the world which I would not otherwise have seen. From there back to Civvie Street to complete my Engineering Apprenticeship with the New Welding and Engineering Company based in Annandale Street, Edinburgh where I remained all my working life rising through the ranks, first to Foreman then to Works Manager until I retired in March 1988 aged 65 years of age. I am writing this now aged 91. Joseph Barclay. Liz Butchart Add to this record. Sgt. Francis Graham Latham 466 Squadron (d.5th May 1943) Sergeant Francis Latham was the son of Edward James Latham and Charlotte Emily Latham of Sutherland, New South Wales, Australia. Aged 21 he is buried in the De Wijk General Cemetery, Drenthe, Netherlands. S Flynn Add to this record. Gregory Horton 466 Squadron Gregory Horton served in 466, 199 and 171 Squadrons. Carl Add to this record. F/Sgt. Patrick John Bourke 466 Sqdn. (d.11th April 1944) Patrick Bourke was my uncle but died well before I was born in 1963. His grandparents, my maternal great grandparents emigrated to Australia from Clare county in Ireland. My mother, Patrick's sister, was only about five years old when Patrick died. William Morgan Add to this record. F/O. Leslie David Large DFC 466 Sqdn. Leslie Large DFC served with Royal Australian Air Force in 466 Squadron. Pauline Graves Add to this record. LAC. Thomas Archibald "Nick" Nicholls 466 Sqdn. I often wondered why my mother called my dad Nick, when his name was Tom. The reason was that it was his nickname in the RAF during the war when they had first met. My dad was a ground crew mechanic in the RAF and worked with the RAAF Squadron 466 at both Driffield and Leconfield. He worked as an aircraft engineer for the rest of his life. He told me that he enjoyed going up for a 'spin' with the pilots when they weren't on missions - apparently it was customary (given the time) for pilots to offer mechanics a quick flight after they had been working on a problem engine. If they declined they would be told 'get back under the bonnet and take another look, when you're ready to go up then it's fixed'! When my mother heard about these 'spins' she made him a tiny bear, no bigger than a matchbox, as a good luck mascot. One of the pilots took a shine to it and borrowed it every time he went on a mission, he would sit it on the dashboard in the cockpit so it could 'see' where it was going. It must have brought him luck as the pilot returned the bear and himself safely home every time. My dad said he was the proud owner of the only bear that ever bombed the Nazis. I'm afraid I don't know the names of anyone else in his war-time photographs. Sadly he passed away in 1994 and, as is often the case, I wished I'd asked him more about his war-time experiences because I don't even know the name of the pilot - but I still have the bear. Lynda Nicholls Add to this record. Flt.Sgt. Charles Owen Scafe 466 Sqd. My Father Flight Sargent Charles Owen John Scafe was shot down over Germany in late December 2044. Prisoner of Stalag 4B, he was liberated the following April Samantha Scafe Add to this record. Sgt. William Barrow 466 Squadron Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (d.1st Mar 1943) William Barrow died aged 20 years whilst serving with 466 Sqd. He was the Son of Thomas William P. and Hannah Barrow (nee Brown) of Jarrow William is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial. Vin Mullen Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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