Traces of World War 2 
RAF - No. 611 Squadron
10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940

      home - latest update 26 March 2008


611 SQUADRON - Fighter, Supermarine Spitfire Mk I
Fighter Command, 12 Group


History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks



No 611 Squadron was formed on 10 February 1936 at Hendon as a day bomber unit of the Auxiliary Air Force and moved to Speke on 6 May to begin recruiting personnel from Merseyside. Its first Harts arrived in June and were replaced by Hinds in April 1938. On 1 January 1939, the squadron became a fighter unit, receiving Spitfires in May.

The first of many pilot losses occurred on 28 February 1940 when Sergeant Alfred E.A. Bruce failed to return but not from enemy action. The original Spitfires were replaced by newer ones but still Mk I's in the beginning of an amazing number of aircraft changes that was to continue until the end of the War.

The Squadron utilised over 400 Spitfires from September 1939 to March 1945 but never had more than 25 on strength at any one time and normally only 20.

611 Squadron was overhead the Dunkirk beaches at the end of May to cover the withdrawal from France.

Station:
Digby 10 October 1939

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Operations and losses 10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with losses are.

30/05/1940: ?. 1 KIA or DOW
02/06/1940: Dunkirk, F. 2 Planes lost. 2 KIA

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Fatalities 01/01/1940 - 09/05/1940 (incomplete)

Sergeant Alfred E.A. Bruce, RAFVR 740984, 611 Sqdn., age 23, 28/02/1940, missing

Spitfire N3063, 27/04/1940; see RAF Commands Forum, Spitfire N3063 of 611 Sqn Crashed 27 April 1940

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30/05/1940: ?

Pilot Officer Oliver P. Croom-Johnson, RAF (AAF) 91109, 611 Sqdn., age 27, 30/05/1940, Over Wallop (St. Peter) Churchyard, UK

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02/06/1940: Dunkirk

611 Sqdn. claimed three Ju87 and three Bf109 destroyed plus one Bf109 as a probable and another damaged for the loss of two pilots.


Type:
Spitfire Mk. I
Serial number: N3055, FY-?
Operation: Dunkirk
Lost: 02/06/1940
Flying Officer (Pilot) Ralph K. Crompton (Ken), RAF (AAF) 90361, 611 Sqdn., age 24, 02/06/1940, Etaples Military Cemetery, F

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Type: Spitfire Mk. I
Serial number: N3055, FY-?
Operation: Dunkirk
Lost: 02/06/1940
Flying Officer (Pilot) Thomas D. Little, RAF (AAF), 611 Sqdn., age, 23, 02/06/1940, Castricum Protestant Churchyard, NL

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Sources

611 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Royal Air Force - 611 Squadron
RAF - Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940)
RAF History - Bomber Command
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 Spitfire Society
War over Holland

Books

P Brown 'Honour restored'
Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
A P Fergusun & J Hamlin, 'Beware! Beware! 611 Aux Squadron RAF' (Airfield Publications 2004)

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
Biplane Fighter Aces from the Second World War
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
'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
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


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This page is dedicated to the men of 611 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