page_title: No. 40 Squadron RAF
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: No. 40 Squadron RAF / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: IWM caption&#160;: Vickers Wellington aircrews of No. 40 Squadron RAF being briefed at Foggia Main, Italy, before undertaking a bombing raid on the railway yards at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
context_page_description: No. 40 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was formed in 1916 at Gosport as No. 40 Squadron Royal Flying Corps and was disbanded for the last time in 1957. The squadron also included many non-British members, including volunteers from the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force.
context_section_description: No. 40 operated Bristol Blenheim Mk IV light bombers from RAF Wyton from December 1939 until November 1940, when it converted to Vickers Wellingtons in the night bombing role. On the 14  April 1940 one of the Squadrons Blenheims (L9207) was taken on an unauthorized flight by AC2 JFB Lewis and crashed in the Thames Estuary. His body was not found and he is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial. After operating a detachment in Malta from October 1941, the squadron moved there in February 1942, the remaining UK-based element being renumbered No. 156 Squadron RAF.
  It later moved to Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and then, in December 1943, to Italy.  They participated in the successful Allied invasion of Sicily, concluding in August 1943. The Squadron re-equipped with Consolidated Liberators in March 1945.
caption: Wellington aircrew of 40 Squadron are briefed at Foggia Main, Italy, before a bombing raid on railway yards at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
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