152 SQUADRON - Fighter, Supermarine Spitfire Mk I
History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks
No. 152 Squadron reformed on 1st October 1939. At Arklington as a fighter squadron equipped with Gladiators most of the flying to begin with took place on Tutors and Harts. Two months later it began to receive Spitfires and went operational on 6th January 1940, flying coastal and convoy patrols.
On 29th january 1940 it had an inconclusive combat over the North Sea, but five days later it scored with a HE III destroyed over the coast. A further victory later that month, again another Heinkel, but the Commanding Officer. Sqn Ldr. F.W.C. Shute was lost due to his engine failing over the sea. This made way for Sqn Ldr. P.K. Devitt.
The squadron carried on with sector patrols and increased night flying.
On the 12th July 1940 the squadron moved South to R.A.F. Warmwell in Dorset for the defense of Portland Naval Base. This now put 152 Sqn. in group 10 HQ, Rudlof Manor, Box, Wilts. Note: R.A.F. Warmwell was formerly known as Woodsford but was renamed in 1938. 152 duties were covering the Channel, South Coast and being drawn into the London Battles, although it was really too far to make a full contribution to these, it continued on the defensive throughout the Winter.
Commanding Officer
Squadron Leader P.K. Devitt, Mar 1940 - Nov 1940
Stations Arklington 1 October 1939
Warmwell 12 July 1940
Squadron Code:
UM
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Operations and losses 10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with fatal losses are.
05/06/1940: Convoy Patrol. 1 Plane lost, 1 DOI
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Losses 01/01/1940 - 09/05/1940 (incomplete)
Squadron Leader Frederic W.C. Shute, RAF 32020, 152 Sqdn., age unknown, 29/02/1940, missing
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05/06/1940: Convoy Patrol
Type: Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I
Serial number: K9896, UM-?
Operation: Convoy Patrol
Lost: 05/06/1940
Pilot Officer (Pilot) Bewsher E. Bell, RAF 41653 (NZ), 152 Sqdn., age 20, 07/06/1940, Catterick Cemetery, UK
Pilot Officer Bell was flying from West Hartlepool, County Durham, to Catterick, Yorkshire on 5 June 1940, possibly returning from an operation. His plane crashed when its undercarriage struck a dispersal pen during landing. Pilot Officer Bell died in Catterick Hospital the next day from severe spinal injuries.
Sources: CWGC; Norman L.R. Franks, RAF Fighter Command losses: Volume 1, 1939-1941, Midland Publishing Limited, 2nd edition, 2008; Errol W Martyn, 'For Your Tomorrow: a record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915'. Volume One: Fates 1915-1942, Volplane Press, Christchurch, 1998
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Sources
152 (Hyderabad) Fighter Squadron
Air of Authority - 152 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
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
RAF Battle of Britain - 152 Squadron
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
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Books
Norman L.R. Franks, RAF Fighter Command losses: Volume 1, 1939-1941, Midland Publishing Limited, 2nd edition, 2008
Cecil Lewis 'Sagittarius Rising' (RFC 1918) (Peter Davies 1936)
Errol W Martyn, 'For Your Tomorrow: a record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915'. Volume One: Fates 1915-1942, Volplane Press, Christchurch, 1998
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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
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
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)
Foreign Aircraft Landings in Ireland 1939-1946
Håkans aviation page (from Sweden, in English)
'High flight', poem by John Gillespie Magee
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
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
RAF Upwood
De Slag om de Grebbeberg (Dutch)
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
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This page is dedicated to the men of 152 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
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