Bomber/Training - Bristol Blenheim I and IV, Avro Anson
History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks
The squadron reformed at Abingdon on 7 January 1936 when 'C' Flight of No 40 Squadron was raised to squadron status, although it was attached to No 40 until July. Equipped with Hinds, it moved to Hucknell in August 1936 and Bassingbourn in May 1938, where it re-equipped with Blenheim Is. However, the outbreak of war did not see the squadron becoming operational, instead it was designated a Group Pool squadron and was involved in training crews for the other squadrons in the group. This came to an end on 8 April 1940, when it was absorbed into No 13 Operational Training Unit.
When the squadron reformed next, it was in the night bomber role at Driffield on 1 April 1941. Equipped with Wellingtons, it began operations in May and continued these a part of No 4 Group until February 1942. On October 1941 a detachment was sent to Malta for attacks against targets in North Africa and Italy, moving to Egypt in January 1942, where it was reunited with its ground echelon. The detachment was then informed that it was being renumbered as No 158 Squadron but on the 31th this was rescinded and the Driffield based component was renumbered 158, with the Middle East element retaining the number 104.
Location
2 May 1938-18 September 1939: Bassingbourn
18 September 1939-8 April 1940: Bicester
back up
Losses 01/01/1940 - 30/06/1940
02/01/1940: 1 DOAS
back up
02/01/1940
Sergeant Colin Keiller, RAF 363152, 104 Sqdn., age 33, 02/01/1940, Halton (St. Michael) Churchyard, UK
Died on Active Service - not operational related
back up
Sources
Air of Authority - 104 Squadron
Air Force POWs 1939-1945
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Bail-outs for 1940
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
German claims and Allied losses, May 1940 -
Laurent Rizzotti
The London Gazette
No. 104 Squadron (RAF) during the Second World War
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
RAF Bomber Command - 104 Squadron
Royal Air Force - 104 Squadron
RAF against odds (Time, USA, 27/05/1940)
RAF - Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940)
RAF Museum: British Military Aviation in 1940
RAF Order of Battle, France, 10th May 1940
Royal Air Force History Section
The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945
The Second World War - a day by day account
The War in France and Flanders, 1939-1940, by Major L.F. Ellis, 1954
back up
Books
Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
back up
Links
Discussion Groups
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
RAF Commands Forum
Other
Abbreviations used in the Royal Air Force
Code Names & RAF Vocabulary
Air Aces
AirRecce - The story of photographic reconnaissance
Airwar over Denmark
Allied World War II Casualties in the Netherlands
Armée de l'Air - Order of Battle,
10th May 1940
Australian Wargraves
Axis History Factbook
Battle-of-Britain.com
De Belgen in Engeland 1940-1945 (in Dutch)
Belgian Aviation History Association Archaeological Team
Biplane Fighter Aces from the Second World War
The Bristol & District Blitz War Memorial - A register of those who lost their lives due to enemy action in Bristol and surrounding districts, 1940-1944
British Aircraft Directory
British Aviation Archaeological Council - Books and research links
Canada's Air Force History
HMS Cavalier
Ciel de Gloire (in French)
RAF Squadrons
CWGC Cemeteries Germany
CWGC Cemeteries Netherlands
Czechoslovak airmen in
the RAF 1940-1945
Danish WW2 Pilots
Dutch Pilots in RAF Squadrons
Eagles Squadrons (American pilots in the RAF)
Feldgrau.com - research on the German armed forces 1918-1945
Foreign Aircraft Landings in Ireland 1939-1946
'High flight', poem by John Gillespie Magee
Holocaust Memorial Day and Channel Islands Occupation Memorial
I Remember (in Russian and English)
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, poem by W.B. Yeats
Jagdgeschwader 27 (in German)
Luchtoorlog ('Arial War', in Dutch, with many photos)
Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
The National Ex-Prisoners of War Association
Naval History.net
Nordic Aviation during WW2
Order of Liberation (in French/English/Spanish)
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
RAF Upwood
RAF WWII 38 Group Squadrons Reunited
De Slag om de Grebbeberg (Dutch)
Test Flying Memorial
Warbird Alley
War over Holland
World War II Aircraft wrecksites in Norway
www.bomber-command.de
Aircraft crashes on the North Yorkshire Moors, England
Bills-Bunker.de
The Lancastershire Aircraft Investigation Team
Luftfahrt-Archäologie in Schleswig Holstein (in German)
North East Diary 1939-1945
Wartime Leicester and
Leicestershire
The Aerodrome -
Aces and Aircraft of World War 1
WW1 Cemeteries
back up
This page is dedicated to the men of 104 Squadron.
© Bart FM Droog / Rottend Staal Online 2008. Permission granted for use of the data gathered here for non commercial purposes, if this source is mentioned with a link to http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/index.html
|