| No. 106 Squadron RAF | |
|---|---|
 No. 106Squadron badge | |
| Active | 30 September 1917 – 8 February 1919 1 June 1938 – 18 February 1946 22 July 1959 – 24 May 1963 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Air Force |
| Mottos | Latin:Pro Libertate ("For Freedom")[1] |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Guy Gibson |
| Insignia | |
| Squadron Badge | A lion sejant, rampant, holding a banner charged with an astral crown.Based on the crest of the County Borough ofDoncaster, the squadron being stationed near there at the time of adopting the badge.[2] |
| Squadron Codes | XS (May 1939 – September 1939) ZN (September 1939 – February 1946) |
No. 106 Squadron RAF was aRoyal Flying Corps andRoyal Air Force squadron active from 1917 until 1919, throughoutWorld War II and during theCold War from 1959 until 1963.
Formed as No. 106 SquadronRFC, atAndover, Hampshire, on 30 September 1917. It was initially intended to be a corps reconnaissance squadron but after training in May 1918 it was not sent to theWestern Front but to Ireland to help with the developing troubles there. It served in army co-operation and policing roles for eighteen months before being disbanded atFermoy, on 8 October 1919. The squadron next appeared in June 1938, when it was re-formed as No. 106 (Bomber) Squadron.[3]
The squadron reformed on 1 June 1938 atRAF Abingdon[4] from a nucleus provided by a flight fromNo. 15 Squadron. Initially equipped withHawker Hinds, it began to receiveFairey Battles on 8 July before moving toNo. 5 Group atRAF Thornaby on 1 September[4] and, temporarily, moving toRAF Grantham on 26 September before returning to Thornaby on 14 October 1938.[4] From May 1939 the squadron began re-equipping withHandley Page Hampdens together withAvro Ansons to assist in the conversion process.[3] The squadron leftRAF Thornaby on 19 August 1939 for armament training atRAF Evanton and, on 1 September, moved toRAF Cottesmore.[4]
At the outbreak of the Second World War the squadron was flying Hampdens withNo. 5 Group in a training role which continued up until 1 March 1941 when it reverted to front-line status and began regular night bombing operations againstFortress Europe, flying its first bombing raid onCologne, although it had taken part in someminelaying prior to that.[3]
After a short spell in early 1942 withAvro Manchesters, No. 106 Squadron started replacing them withAvro Lancasters in May,[3] but it did not convert completely to Lancasters before some of the squadron's Manchesters had participated in thethousand-bomber raids on Cologne,Essen andBremen during the summer of 1942. In October it contributed ten Lancasters to No. 5 Group'slow-level epic dusk raid on theSchneider Works atLe Creusot and two more, one of them piloted bycommanding officerGuy Gibson, to a subsidiary raid onMontchanin.
In June 1943 it took part in the first "shuttle bombing" raids onFriedrichshafen andLa Spezia - code-namedOperation Bellicose - and thefamous attack against theV-2 rocketresearch facility at Peenemünde. Among the targets attacked in 1944 were a coastal gun battery atSaint-Pierre-du-Mont and theV-1 flying bomb storage sites in the caves atSaint-Leu-d'Esserent.
In December 1944, it made a 1,900-mile round trip to bomb theGerman Baltic Fleet atGdynia, while in March 1945, it was represented in the bomber force that so pulverised the defences ofWesel just before theRhine crossing thatCommandos were able to seize the town with only 36 casualties. In April 1945, came the last of the squadron's operations of the war – a bombing raid on an oil refinery atTønsberg in Norway, and a simultaneous minelaying expedition in theOslofjord.[3]
During World War II, No. 106 Squadron operated on 496 nights and 46 days, flying 5,834 operational sorties. In so doing it lost 187 aircraft – a percentage loss on sorties flown of 3.21 – but on the credit side its gunners claimed 20 enemy aircraft destroyed, 3 probably destroyed and 29 damaged. A total of 267 decorations were won by the squadron, including aVictoria Cross awarded to SergeantNorman Cyril Jackson for conspicuous bravery during an attack onSchweinfurt on 26/27 April 1944.[2]
AfterVE Day,No. 467 Squadron RAAF arrived atRAF Metheringham to train with No. 106 Squadron for theplanned invasion of Japan but the end of the war made this redundant and the squadron was used to flyPOWs and troops home, principally from Italian bases,[3] until it finally disbanded at Metheringham on 18 Feb 1946.[5]
The squadron was reformed – as 106(SM) Sqn. – on 22 July 1959 as one of 20 Strategic Missile (SM) squadrons associated withProject Emily. The squadron was equipped with threePGM-17 Thorintermediate-range ballistic missiles and based atRAF Bardney.[3] In October 1962, during theCuban Missile Crisis, the squadron was kept at full readiness, with the missiles aimed at strategic targets in theUSSR. The squadron was disbanded on 24 May 1963, with the termination of the Thor Program in Britain.[3]
| From | To | Aircraft[6] | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1918 | January 1919 | Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 | |
| January 1919 | October 1919 | Bristol F2B Fighter | |
| June 1938 | July 1938 | Hawker Hind | |
| July 1938 | June 1939 | Fairey Battle | |
| May 1939 | September 1939 | Avro Anson | Mk.I |
| May 1939 | March 1942 | Handley Page Hampden | |
| March 1942 | June 1942 | Avro Manchester | |
| May 1942 | February 1946 | Avro Lancaster I & III | Mk.I & III |
| July 1959 | May 1963 | Thor IRBM |
Line drawings of aircraft operated
| From | To | Station | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 1938 | August 1939 | RAF Thornaby | |
| August 1939 | September 1939 | RAF Evanton | Detached here in Aug 1939 and moved, early in Sep 1939 |
| September 1939 | October 1939 | RAF Cottesmore | |
| October 1939 | February 1941 | RAF Finningley | |
| February 1941 | September 1942 | RAF Coningsby | |
| October 1942 | November 1943 | RAF Syerston | |
| November 1943 | February 1946 | RAF Metheringham |
