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No.38 Sqn RAF |
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Name : No.38 Sqn RAF Founded : 1st April 1916 Disbanded : 31st March 1967 Country : UK Fate : Disbanded 31st March 1967 More Details : Ante lucem - Before the dawn |
Known Service Details : | |||||||
Pilot or Aircrew | Rank | Start of Service | End of Service | Known Dates | Aircraft | Airframes | Notes |
unknown | unknown | Officer Commanding, No 38 Sqn. | |||||
unknown | unknown | ||||||
Flight Lieutenant | 1950 | 1954 | |||||
| Pilots and Aircrew for : No.38 Sqn RAF | ||
| A list of all aircrew from our database who are associated with this squadron. A profile page is available by clicking their name. | ||
| Name | Info | |
| Adams, Cyril Douglas Click the name above to see a profile of Adams, Cyril Douglas
| Adams, Cyril Douglas CB - 1 Jan 1948, OBE - 13 Mar 1942, MiD - 17 Mar 1941, MiD - 11 Jun 1942, MiD - 2 Jun 1943, MiD - 8 Jun 1944, MiD – 1 Jan 1946. (T) 2 Lt: 21 Jul 1918, Plt Off: 1 Aug 1919, Fg Off: 16 Sep 1919, Flt Lt: 1 Jan 1927, Sqn Ldr: 1 Feb 1936, Wg Cdr: 1 Jan 1939, Act Gp Capt: xx xxx 1940?, (T) Gp Capt: 1 Jun 1941, Act A/Cdre: 25 Sep 1944, Gp Capt (WS): 25 Mar 1945, (T) A/Cdre: 1 Jan 1946, Gp Capt: 1 Jan 1946, A/Cdre: 16 Nov 1949. 1918: Flight Cadet, RFC/RAF 21 Jul 1918: Pilot (Aeroplane & Seaplane Branch), RAF 16 Sep 1919: Granted a short Service Commission (Aeroplane Branch) in the rank of Flying Officer 18 Mar 1920: QFI, No 1 FTS. 28 Nov 1922: Granted a Permanent Commission in the rank of Flying Officer. (with seniority from 16 Sep 1919) 22 Sep 1925: Personnel Staff, HQ Iraq Command 12 Sep 1927: Air Staff (PT & Games), HQ RAF Halton 5 Feb 1936: Officer Commanding, No XV Sqn. 15 Aug 1938: Air Staff, HQ Bomber Command. 8 Feb 1939: Officer Commanding, No 38 Sqn. 1 Dec 1939: SOA, HQ No 3 (Bomber) Group. | |
| Bennett, Tom Click the name above to see a profile of Bennett, Tom
| Bennett, Tom Born in 1919, Tom Bennett was a specialist navigator with 30 ops with 49 Sqn Lancasters followed by selection for Leonard Cheshires elite Mosquito Marker Force within the legendary 617 Sqn. Following the D-Day landings on 5 - 6th June, there was a very great danger that the Germans would reinforce their troops with their reserves Panzer tank corp. These had been stationed at Calais due to the Germans belief that the invasion would come at that point. The only way to get the Panzer through to the Beachhead at Normandy was via the French Saumur tunnel. 617 squadron were assigned to destroy this and were led by the famous Leonard Cheshire VC OM DSO DFC. He used 3 Mosquitoes as a marker force for the main 617 Bomber Force and the dropping of flares was so accurate that one of the Lancasters put a 12000 tall boy straight through the roof of the tunnel and the tunnel was not reopened until 1946. Thomas Ben Bennett was born in 1919 in Poplar. After a civilian career as a clerk he volunteered for military service in 1939. Called up in the spring of 1940, he was told that he did not qualify for pilot training as his maths was not sufficiently strong to enable him to cope with aerial navigation. Instead he would train as a wireless operator/air gunner. Tom's Morse skills were insufficient, with the result that he only qualified as an Air Gunner. Service life being what it is, he was then offered, and took, an opportunity to re-muster a navigator. (There were later to be a number of times over Germany when he wished he had taken the advice of the Wing Commander at Uxbridge). After an initial course on Ansons and Blenheims at Jurby, Isle of Man, in April 1942 he was transferred to No. 19 OTU, Kinloss, where he would team up with his pilot Gerry Fawke. His first operational posting was to No. 49 Sqn at Scampton in June 1942. He considered himself fortunate in that they had just declared Manchesters non-operational as he arrived and that the Squadron was converting to Lancasters. On an early operation to Duisburg, their aircraft was coned and only violent evasive action by Fawke saved the day. During a low level operation against Wismar in September 1942, he received a slight flesh wound from shrapnel and was admitted to RAF Hospital Rauceby Fawke and Bennett took part participated in the daylight Le Creusot attack of 24 October 1942 During that month Tom was recommended for the DFM and subsequently awarded a commission. Further trips followed, to include Berlin and targets in Italy. The crew were just about to depart on their 30th operation, against Bremen, when they were prevented from taxying out by Charles Whitworth, Scampton's Station Commander, who told them that they would not be going, and that their tour was over. Tom was then screened and posted for duties at No. 1661 CU, thence to HQ No. 5 Group at St Vincents, Grantham, before being sent to No. 1654 CU, Wigsley as an instructor. Promoted to Flying Officer in April 1944, he had just arrived on No. 83 Sqn at Wyton, a Pathfinder Squadron, when he received a phone call informing him that he was to team up with his former captain at the Mosquito Training Unit at Warboys, prior to transfer to 617 Sqn. As one of the Mosquito Marker crews Tom and Gerry Fawke were to help perfect the low level marking technique against increasingly defended targets, starting with the French rail yards of Juvisy and La Chapelle, then targeting targets in Germany, including Munich. Returning to their forward operating base at Manston after the latter trip on 24/25 April, the crew discovered to their chagrin that their markers had hung up and were still there suspended in the bomb bay.Transferring to the Lancaster for Operation Taxable, Tom was one of the key navigators responsible for perfecting the pattern of overlapping orbits and perfect timing that were vital to the operation's success. Such was Tom's desire to see recognition for ALL the Squadron's navigators that he was later to lobby Leonard Cheshire to campaign for a retrospective award, but without success. Reverting to the Mosquito and their marking role, the crew participated in the attack on the Saumur tunnel, and Le Havre. The Squadron then switched to daylight attacks on the large V-weapon sites at Watten, Wizernes, Mimoyecques and Siracourt, before again targeting U-boat pens and port facilities. During one of the latter operations, an attack on the Gueydon at Brest, after diving to low level Fawke opened fire on a vessel with the Mosquitos cannon and machine guns, prompting Tom to comment You've just killed four German sailors in LA PALLICE. Later operations also saw the crew armed with cameras to photograph proceedings, and he made the only known image of one of the Squadron s Mustangs as he used up footage filming Wg Cdr Cheshire formating on his Mosquito. With the Squadron's marker role now firmly established with No. 627 Sqn, Gerry Fawke and Tom returned to the Lancaster. Tom became Squadron Navigation Officer during August 1944, and was responsible for overseeing navigation for the first two Tirpitz operations and the attacks on West Kapelle and the Kembs dam. The latter would be Tom's final operation on the strength of 617 Sqn. Posted as Station Navigation Officer, Woodhall Spa at the end of October 1944, he was still able to keep an eye on his successor and in February 1945 flew with the Squadron on two further operations. He would later recall: I flew 62 trips, that's why I tell people I'm lucky to be alive. But I lost a lot of friends and you always remember them as they were — young men.Post war Tom remained in the RAF, serving with the RAF Delegation in Greece in 1949 and later with No. 38 Squadron, flying Lancasters on Maritime Reconnaissance in the Mediterranean. His final posting saw him as Wing Adjutant of the RAF's Initial Training School before he left the Service, as a Squadron Leader, in March 1955. | |
| Chalmers, George Alexander Click the name above to see a profile of Chalmers, George Alexander
| Chalmers, George Alexander George Alexander Chalmers was born on February 12 1921 at Peterhead in Scotland. He was educated at Aberdeen Academy before working briefly at a local Crosse & Blackwell factory and joining the RAF as a boy entrant. After boy's service and qualifying as a wireless operator and air-gunner, Chalmer joined the RAF in 1938. Geogre Chalmers was posted to No 10, a two-engine Whitley bomber squadron at Dishforth, Yorkshire, from where he took part in leaflet-dropping operations over Germany after the outbreak of war. On 1st March 1940 He was the air gunner in Whitley K9026 which took off at 17.30hrs, the crew were briefed to carry out a leaflet dropping operation over Berlin. On their return they ran low on fuel and one of the aircraft's engines cut out on approach to land at Dishforth. The aircraft undershot and hit the ground some 400 yards east of the base at 03.10hrs on 2nd March 1940. Damage was sustained to the aircraft's inner fuel tanks, leading edge of the port wing and the starboard undercarriage and undersurfaces were damaged but it was repaired. The records suggest that for this operational flight this aircraft had been borrowed from 78 Squadron by 10 Squadron and flown by a 10 Squadron crew. In August 1940 Chalmers transferred to No 7, the RAF's first four-engine Stirling bomber squadron which was operating from Leeming. There followed a spell with No 35, a four-engine Halifax bomber squadron, with which Chalmers was fortunate to survive an attack on the battle cruiser Scharnhorst at La Rochelle - his captain managed to make base despite being severely wounded and piloting a badly-damaged aircraft. When he joined 617 Squadron he was a Flight Sergeant and served as wireless operator on Lancaster AJ-O during the Dambusters raid which was piloted by Bill Townsend. Awarded the DFM for his part in the attack on the Ennepe Dam he was commissioned a few months later and awarded the DFC after 65 operations. In 1946 Chalmers was granted an extended service commission, and served in No 617 and No 12 Squadrons until 1950, when he was posted to No 38, a Lancaster squadron in the Middle East. He was released as a flight lieutenant in 1954, and served in the Reserve until 1961. Meanwhile, he had joined the civil service at Harrogate, where he worked for the Ministry of Defence dealing with the RAF's technical requirements. In this period his advice was much valued in the sphere of flight refuelling. On his retirement from the MoD in 1984, the company Flight Refuelling hosted a farewell party for him at which he was hailed as an "expert in specialised spares procurement", especially in relation to a refuelling system of outstanding value used by the RAF in the Falklands conflict. Sadly, George Chalmers passed away in August 2002 aged 81. | |
| Tidy, Douglas Click the name above to see a profile of Tidy, Douglas
| Tidy, Douglas Sqn. Ldr. Douglas Tidy was born in 1923. Claiming to be 18 in early 1940 he joined the RAF. Defective eyesight that was discovered (despite charts learned and magic white powder’ ended his career as a tyro pilot and by the summer of 1941 he was in he Operations Room at Portreath in Cornwall, happily still with Spitfires, those of 66 and 130 Squadrons. By 1942 he was in his way to the Middle East, having flown on his first twin-engined aircraft, a Wellington of 38 Squadron, as a Wireless Operator. After an attachment to the Transjordan Frontier Force at Zerka, he joined 74 Squadron which was assisting B24s of the 98th Bomb Group, United States Army Air Corps at Ramat David in Palestine. He served under five Commanding Officers with 74 Squadron, before joining 244 Squadron with Blenheims at Sharjah in the Persian Gulf and later with Wellingtons on Masirah Island. From there he went to Aden and back to the UK with redundant aircrew to Mosquitoes at Haverfordwest. Sadly, we have learned that Douglas Tidy passed away on 14th April 2010. | |
Died : 1 / 3 / 1990Known Individual Aircraft of No.38 Sqn RAF : | ||||||||
Type | Serial | Codes | First Flew | Squadron History | Aircrew History | History Notes | Engine | Factory |
- | no information | no information | Merlin 66 | Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory | ||||
| Aircraft for : No.38 Sqn RAF | ||
| A list of all aircraft associated with No.38 Sqn RAF. A profile page including a list of all art prints for the aircraft is available by clicking the aircraft name. | ||
| Aircraft | Info | |
Lancaster 
Manufacturer : Avro Production Began : 1942 Retired : 1963 Number Built : 7377 | Lancaster The Avro Lancaster arose from the avro Manchester and the first prototype Lancaster was a converted Manchester with four engines. The Lancaster was first flown in January 1941, and started operations in March 1942. By March 1945 The Royal Air Force had 56 squadrons of Lancasters with the first squadron equipped being No.44 Squadron. During World War Two the Avro Lancaster flew 156,000 sorties and dropped 618,378 tonnes of bombs between 1942 and 1945. Lancaster Bomberss took part in the devastating round-the-clock raids on Hamburg during Air Marshall Harris' Operation Gomorrah in July 1943. Just 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action. The most successful survivor completed 139 operations, and the Lancaster was scrapped after the war in 1947. A few Lancasters were converted into tankers and the two tanker aircraft were joined by another converted Lancaster and were used in the Berlin Airlift, achieving 757 tanker sorties. A famous Lancaster bombing raid was the 1943 mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, to destroy the dams of the Ruhr Valley. The operation was carried out by 617 Squadron in modified Mk IIIs carrying special drum shaped bouncing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis. Also famous was a series of Lancaster attacks using Tallboy bombs against the German battleship Tirpitz, which first disabled and later sank the ship. The Lancaster bomber was the basis of the new Avro Lincoln bomber, initially known as the Lancaster IV and Lancaster V. (Becoming Lincoln B1 and B2 respectively.) Their Lancastrian airliner was also based on the Lancaster but was not very successful. Other developments were the Avro York and the successful Shackleton which continued in airborne early warning service up to 1992. | |
Warwick
| Warwick Full profile not yet available. | |
Wellington 
Manufacturer : Vickers Production Began : 1938 Retired : 1953 | Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a Bomber aircraft and also used for maritime reconnaissance. and had a normal crew of six except in the MKV and VI where a crew of three was used. Maximum speed was 235 mph (MK1c) 255 mph (MK III, X) and 299 mph (MK IIII), normal operating range of 1805 miles (except MK III which was 1470miles) The Wellington or Wimpy as it was known, was the major bomber of the Royal Air Force between 1939 and 1943. The Royal Air Force received its first Wellingtons in October 1938 to 99 squadron. and by the outbreak of World war two there were 6 squadrons equipped with the Vickers Wellington. Due to heavy losses on daylight raids, the Wellington became a night bomber and from 1940 was also used as a long range bomber in North Africa. and in 1942 also became a long range bomber for the royal Air Force in India. It was well used by Coastal Command as a U-Boat Hunter. The Wellington remained in service with the Royal Air Force until 1953. Probably due to its versatile use, The aircraft was also used for experimental work including the fitting of a pressure cabin for High altitude tests. The Vickers Wellington could sustain major damage and still fly, probably due to its construction of its geodesic structure and practical application of geodesic lines. Designed by Sir Barnes Wallis | |
Last edited : 15:51, May 11, 2017
Last editor : kc
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