# No. 61 Squadron RAF

No. 61 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was first formed as a fighter squadron of the British Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. It was reformed in 1937 as a bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force and served in the Second World War and afterwards into the jet age, until disbanded in 1958.

## History
### First World War

No. 61 Squadron was formed at RAF Rochford, on the outskirts of Southend, Essex, in July/August 1917 as one of the first single-seater fighter squadrons of the London Air Defence Area, intended to counter the German daylight air raids. It was equipped with the Sopwith Pup. The squadron first went into action on 12 August, when a formation of ten Gotha G.IV bombers approached the Thames Estuary. Sixteen Pups of No. 61 Squadron took off to intercept them and, together with aircraft from other squadrons, succeeded in turning the enemy back. However, two bombs had been dropped near No. 61's hangars on Rochford Aerodrome, five more at Leigh-on-Sea, seven at Westcliff, and 17 in Southend itself. In 1918 the squadron was re-equipped with SE5s, but before the Armistice was signed it began to change over to Sopwith Camels. The squadron used these and from January 1919 also some Sopwith Snipes until disbanded on 13 June 1919.

### Second World War

No. 61 Squadron was re-formed on 8 March 1937 as a bomber squadron, and in World War II flew with No. 5 Group, RAF Bomber Command. The squadron's first operational mission was on 25 December 1939, comprising an armed reconnaissance over the North Sea by 11 Hampden bombers. This was followed on 7/8 March 1940 by the first bombing mission, when one Hampden, during a security patrol of Sylt-Borkum-Norderney, bombed an enemy destroyer which opened fire on it.
The unit took part in many notable operations including:
* the first bombing raid on a German land target (Hörnum, 19/20 March 1940);
* the first big bombing raid on the German mainland (Mönchengladbach, 11/12 May 1940): (RAF records record about half of the 36 'planes hit their targets, and four people killed on the ground; one of whom was a British woman living in Germany).
* the first bombing raid on Berlin (25/26 August 1940);
* the attacks on Le Creusot and Peenemünde (17 October 1942 and 17/18 August 1943, respectively);
* the successive drainings of the Dortmund-Ems and Mittelland Canals (late 1944);
* the attack on Wesel just before the crossing of the Rhine (23/24 March 1945).
Beginning operations with Hampdens, the squadron converted in July 1941 to the more modern Manchesters and later (spring 1942), Lancasters. Four of its Lancasters; ED860 "N-Nan", EE176, JB138, and LL483, each became veterans of more than 100 operational sorties. Records show that in the case of the first three aircraft, the long road to their centuries included participation in the raid on 3/4 November 1943, when Flight Lieutenant William Reid of No. 61 Squadron won the Victoria Cross.
In the summer of 1942 No. 61 was twice loaned to RAF Coastal Command for anti-submarine operations in the Bay of Biscay. It was detached from its base in Rutland to St Eval in Cornwall, and on the very first occasion that it operated from there, 17 July, a crew captained by Flight Lieutenant PR Casement (Lancaster I R5724) became the first Bomber Command crew to bring back irrefutable evidence that they had destroyed a U-boat at sea, in the form of a photograph showing the crew of U-751 in the water swimming away from their sinking vessel.
The squadron's last operational mission in World War II was on 25/26 April 1945, when 10 Lancasters bombed an oil refinery and tankerage at Vallø (Tønsberg), and four other Lancasters aborted. The last mission before VE Day was on 6 May 1945, when the squadron's Lancasters ferried 336 ex-POWs home to the UK from Europe.

### Post-war

No. 61 Squadron re-equipped with Avro Lincolns in May 1946. These saw action in Malaya as part of Operation Firedog and in Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising. The squadron became an English Electric Canberra squadron at RAF Wittering in 1954. These took part in the Suez crisis of 1956. No. 61 disbanded on 31 March 1958.

## Aircraft operated

| From | To | Aircraft | Variant |
| Aug 1917 | Jan 1918 | Sopwith Pup | |
| Dec 1917 | Oct 1918 | Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 | SE.5a |
| Oct 1918 | Jun 1919 | Sopwith Camel | |
| Jan 1919 | Jun 1919 | Sopwith Snipe | |
| Mar 1937 | Apr 1937 | Hawker Audax | |
| Mar 1937 | Jan 1938 | Avro Anson | Mk.I |
| Jan 1938 | Mar 1939 | Bristol Blenheim | Mk.I |
| Feb 1939 | Oct 1941 | Handley Page Hampden | Mk.I |
| Jul 1941 | Jun 1942 | Avro Manchester | Mk.I |
| May 1942 | May 1946 | Avro Lancaster | Mks.I, III |
| Oct 1942 | Mar 1943 | Avro Lancaster | Mk.II |
| May 1946 | Aug 1954 | Avro Lincoln | B.2 |
| Aug 1954 | Mar 1958 | English Electric Canberra | B.2 |

## Bases operated from

| From | To | Base |
| Jul 1917 | Jun 1919 | RAF Rochford |
| Mar 1937 | Jul 1941 | RAF Hemswell (Detachment at Wick during Nov-Dec 1939) for ops with Coastal Command ) |
| Jul 1941 | Oct 1941 | RAF North Luffenham |
| Oct 1941 | May 1942 | RAF Woolfox Lodge |
| May 1942 | Nov 1943 | RAF Syerston (Detached to RAF St Eval on loan to Coastal Command in July and again in August 1942) |
| Nov 1943 | Feb 1944 | RAF Skellingthorpe |
| Feb 1944 | Apr 1944 | RAF Coningsby |
| Apr 1944 | Jun 1945 | RAF Skellingthorpe |
| June 1945 | Jan 1946 | RAF Sturgate |
| Jan 1946 | May 1951 | RAF Waddington |
| Jul 1947 | Dec 1947 | RAF Hemswell (Detachment) |
| Dec 1950 | Apr 1951 | RAF Tengah, Singapore (Detachment) |
| May 1951 | Aug 1953 | RAF Waddington |
| Aug 1953 | Jun 1955 | RAF Wittering |
| Mar 1954 | Jun 1954 | RAF Eastleigh, Kenya (Detachment) |
| Jul 1955 | Mar 1958 | RAF Upwood |
| Oct 1956 | Jan 1957 | Nicosia, Cyprus (Detachment) |