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> Units and Formations
Flying Squadrons
5 Sqn
6 Sqn
8 Sqn
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10 Sqn
11 Sqn
12 Sqn
15 Sqn
18 Sqn
21 Sqn
22 Sqn
23 Sqn
25 Sqn
27 Sqn
29 Sqn
33 Sqn
35 Sqn
39 Sqn
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49 Sqn
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57 Sqn
61 Sqn
64 Sqn
65 Sqn
68 Sqn
69 Sqn
70 Sqn
71 Sqn
73 Sqn
75 Sqn
81 Sqn
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85 Sqn
88 Sqn
90 Sqn
92 Sqn
97 Sqn
100 Sqn
101 Sqn
103 Sqn
104 Sqn
106 Sqn
109 Sqn
110 Sqn
111 Sqn
112 Sqn
113 Sqn
116 Sqn
121 Sqn
133 Sqn
136 Sqn
139 Sqn
141 Sqn
142 Sqn
143 Sqn
144 Sqn
148 Sqn
149 Sqn
150 Sqn
151 Sqn
153 Sqn
154 Sqn
166 Sqn
170 Sqn
189 Sqn
198 Sqn
199 Sqn
203 Sqn
206 Sqn
207 Sqn
209 Sqn
210 Sqn
211 Sqn
214 Sqn
222 Sqn
227 Sqn
228 Sqn
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235 Sqn
236 Sqn
248 Sqn
249 Sqn
251 Sqn
253 Sqn
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255 Sqn
256 Sqn
264 Sqn
266 Sqn
280 Sqn
288 Sqn
300 Sqn
301 Sqn
302 Sqn
303 Sqn
305 Sqn
307 Sqn
309 Sqn
310 Sqn
349 Sqn
350 Sqn
401 Sqn
402 Sqn
404 Sqn
407 Sqn
409 Sqn
410 Sqn
411 Sqn
412 Sqn
415 Sqn
416 Sqn
420 Sqn
421 Sqn
430 Sqn
438 Sqn
439 Sqn
441 Sqn
442 Sqn
443 Sqn
452 Sqn
455 Sqn
460 Sqn
463 Sqn
467 Sqn
486 Sqn
503 Sqn
504 Sqn
527 Sqn
528 Sqn
532 Sqn
538 Sqn
542 Sqn
550 Sqn
576 Sqn
601 Sqn
609 Sqn
613 Sqn
616 Sqn
617 Sqn
619 Sqn
625 Sqn
626 Sqn
627 Sqn
630 Sqn
Heavy
Conversion Units
1654
HCU
1656 HCU
1660 HCU
1661 HCU
1662 HCU
1665 HCU
1667 HCU
1668 HCU
21 HGCU
Advanced
Flying Schools
201
AFS
Advanced
Flying Units
12
AFU
15 AFU
Flying
Training Schools
1 FTS
2 FTS
3 FTS
6 FTS
7
FTS
12 FTS
1 Lancaster Finishing School
Central Flying School
Operational
Training/
Conversion Units (Fighter)
6
OTU
53 OTU
56 OTU
Air
Armament Schools
1
AAS
2 AAS
Empire Central AS
Other
schools
1 Gp Aircrew School
1 Ground Defence School
1 Air Observers School
Central
Gunnery School
5 Gp Anti Air School
Other units
Bomber Command
Coastal Command
Fighter Command
HQ No 5 Group
HQ No 23 Group
1485
Gunnery Flight
2782
Defence Sqn
178 Support Unit
399 Signals Unit
Nationality
based Sqns
My father learned to fly in England in the RAF after leaving the Canadian Army, flew with 97 Squadron as a copilot out of Woodhall Spa for a few operations in September 1942. He died in November 07 (3 months shy of his 89th birthday)
My mother, who died in 2005, was a WAAF plotter, first commissioned WAAF officer at RAF Wigtown, station cipher officer and first WAAF on the station, was previously a survivor of the Battle of Britain at RAF Biggin Hill, the most bombed fighter station in England.
She and my father met at this No. 1( AOS ) navigator training station, RAF Wigtown in Scotland about 10 minutes after she arrived and they were together from that day for the next 64 years and after 4 children.
Being the only WAAF there for the next 6 months or so, she finished her connection with the station as a Section Officer at the end of November 1942 after 2-1/2 years in the military. At age 22 she was in charge of a 250 contingent of WAAFs at the station. She met my father on the first day of arrival and about a year later they were married. By then he had already been posted to the Navigator Selection Board at the Spa Hotel, Harrogate.....she found out she was pregnant, put in for a release from her commission, and made plans to be back with her husband by Christmas....
He, in the meantime, was posted to 97 Squadron at Woodhall Spa as a second pilot, finally filling his dream of getting into a little combat, something he wanted to do since trying to join the RCAF back in Canada in 1939 but ended up in Non Permanent Active Militia ( a reserve force) and then the Canadian Army Signal Corps when war was declared. All he wanted to do was fly.
He fooled the doctor with his eye test, was accepted as a (1) pilot & (2) Air Observer {navigator} candidate with the RAF instead. He was saved from being killed in France because of Dunkirk as the Canadians were next due to go over. He was saved by his bad eyesight that got him into training command rather than front line fighters or bombers and it was only when they realized that they needed 2nd pilots desparately to keep planes and crews in the air after the pilot was shot up that he saw the opportunity to see some combat when the note went around for volunteers.
Travelling through flak at 1500 to drop bombs on a airplane factory was enough to qualify him as a combat pilot and when the short tour was over, he was back at Harrogate but, this time, as a member of the Pilot Selection Board before being released 6 months later to join the RCAF and return to Canada in July 1944 after 4-1/2 years in the UK, only to be grounded and stranded here, unable to get back to England.
Once again, his pregnant wife, with their second child
(me), was left behind. My children have to honour to say that both their
parents were born in England all their four parents were in the RAF during
WWII, three as officers, one of the three as a station doctor. The doctor
retired from the RAF in the 80s as an Air Commodore and head of eye medicine
for the RAF. Prince Charles and I share a common connection since we
both had our eyes tested by him....which knowledge of... and about 2
pounds sterling would buy me a cup of coffee in most fancy coffee shops
here in Canada today....the young girl behind the counter would probably
say..... "Prince who?....from where?.......Where is that? " <chuckle> How
quickly we grow old....
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