No.613 Sqn RAF - Squadron Details

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No.613 Sqn RAF - Squadron Details - Aviation Directory

No.613 Sqn RAF

Name : No.613 Sqn RAF
Founded : 1st March 1939
Disbanded : 10th March 1957
Country : UK
Fate : Disbanded 10th March 1957
More Details : City of Manchester (Auxiliary)

Semper parati - Always ready
Known Code Letters : , QJ, Q3, RAT, SY, ZR,

Known Service Details :
Pilot or Aircrew	Rank	Start of Service	End of Service	Known Dates	Aircraft	Airframes	Notes
K. H. Blair	Flight Lieutenant	1943	unknown		Mosquito
Bernard Walter Brown		unknown	unknown		Hector

Pilots and Aircrew for : No.613 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

Barthropp, Paddy
Click the name above to see a profile of Barthropp, Paddy

Died : 16 / 4 / 2008

Barthropp, Paddy

At the outbreak of war Paddy flew obsolete Hinds, Hectors and Lysanders in combat, but converted to Spitfires and joined 602 Squadron at Tangmere. During the Battle of Britain he flew with some of the great aces - Douglas Bader, Sailor Malan, and Bob Stanford Tuck. In 1941 he was a Flight Commander with 610 Squadron. Continuing to fly Spitfires, now with 122 Squadron based at Hornchurch, he flew fighter sweeps and escort missions. On 17th May 1942 he was shot down over St Omer. He baled out but was captured, spending the next three years as a POW. One of the RAFs best known and best loved characters, though the bane of certain senior officers, Paddy Barthropps RAF service spanned the period from bi-planes to supersonic jets. Joining the RAF in 1938, his first squadron was 613 flying Hinds, Hectors and Lysanders. In 1940 he was released to fly Spitfires with 602 Squadron where he shared in the destruction of two aircraft. He was posted to 610 Squadron, and then to 91 Squadron, shooting down two Bf 109s during summer 1941 and receiving the DFC. In August 1941 he returned to 610 Squadron as a flight commander. He was shot down three times, the third time being taken prisoner ofwar. He had by then brought his total to 9. Scraps in the air were accompanied by scrapes on the ground, and appearances in Magistrates Courts for disorderly conduct. Addicted to fast cars and lively ladies - and the sworn enemy of stuffed shirts everywhere - he was the irrepressible life and soul of any party, and a persistant thorn in the side of overweening authority as the Germans were to discover. The war over, he was posted to the Empire Test Pilots School where he flew over a hundred different types of plane in ten months. Soon, he was out in the Sudan and in serious trouble again - under arrest after taking a hippo to an upper-crust party. As a boy, he had been taught to ride by champion jockey Steve Donaghue and now, posted to Hong Kong, he rode winners on the track at Happy Valley, and seriously thought of turning professional. Then it was back to the U.K. to take up an appointment as a Fighter Station Commander, and to lead the Coronation fly-past over Buckingham Palace. He left the RAF to set up his own luxury car-hire firm. He died on 16th April 2008.

Blair, K. H.
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Blair, K. H.

Flight Lieutenant K.H.Blair served with No 85 Squadron in France . Blair destroyed two He 111's on the 10th of May 1940 and was awarded the D.F.C. on the 31st of May 1940. During the Battle of Britain Blair scored five more victories with No 151 Squadron. In 1943 he took command of No 613 Squadron wich had become a Mosquito unit and specialized in precision daylight attacks. At the end of his tour K.H.Blair received the Bar to his D.F.C.

Brown, Bernard Walter
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Died : 23 / 1 / 2017

Brown, Bernard Walter

Flight Lieutenant Bernard Walter Brown was accepted for a short service commission in 1938, and after being accepted arrived in England in September, training at 5 E&RFTS, Hanworth and in late January 1939 he was posted to 5FTS, Sealand. He then went to No 1 School of Army Co-Operation at Old Sarum for a course on Lysanders in August 1939, and soon after joined 613 Squadron. Bernard Walker Brown was flying one of six Hectors detailed to dive-bomb gun emplacements near Calais. On the way to the target, he test-fired his forward gun but a fault caused the muzzle attachment to fly off, penetrate the fuselage and hole the main fuel tank. He jettisoned his bombs and turned back and make a forced-landing. In August 1940 he volunteered for Fighter Command, converting to Spitfires. He joined 610 Squadron at Biggin Hill. In late September he went to 72 Squadron, but on the 23rd was shot down by a Bf 109. He bailed out of the aircraft, badly wounded. Returning to active duty in November 1940, he was posted to 8FTS, Montrose for an instructor's course, after which he went to Rhodesia, subsequently instructing at Cumalo. In 1943, he trained with Transport Command, becoming a ferry pilot. He flew between the United Kingdom and the Middle East. He transferred to the RNZAF in January 1944 and by the end of the year was flying Halifaxes. He was released in 1945 to fly Dakotas with BOAC and later joined BEA, flying with the airline until his retirement in 1972.

Rowland, John
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Died : 22 / 11 / 2-14

Rowland, John

Squadron Leader John Rowland, who has died aged 94, was awarded the DFC twice in three days in 1943; later, on completion of 50 bombing operations, he received the DSO. Rowland joined No 12 Squadron in June 1943 at the height of what became known as the Battle of the Ruhr – a sustained campaign against the huge industrial complexes in the region. Over the next five months he attacked most of the major cities. He went to Cologne twice before sorties to Gelsenkirchen, Duisberg and Essen. On the night of July 25, an intense campaign was directed against Hamburg. The radar countermeasure “window” (small aluminium strips dropped to confuse enemy radar) was used for the first time and proved very effective in reducing bomber losses. Rowland flew on three of the four raids that devastated the city and the Blohm and Voss shipyard. In the middle of August, Bomber Command launched the first phase of the Battle of Berlin, a campaign that was to be waged with great intensity throughout the winter of 1943-44. Rowland flew on the first attack on the night of August 23, a sortie of almost eight hours . Throughout the autumn, he attacked other large cities including Nuremburg, Frankfurt and Munich. On October 8, the target was Hanover. Just before reaching the city, his Lancaster was engaged by a German night fighter and badly damaged. His rear gunner was killed but he decided to press on to the target, which he bombed successfully Rowland had just been awarded the DFC for “his skill and courage” when it was announced that he had been awarded a Bar for his gallant conduct during the two sorties to Hanover. John Naunton Rowland was born in Cardiff on December 28 1919. He attended Cheltenham College before gaining a cadetship to the RAF College Cranwell. On the outbreak of the Second World War, his course was cut short and, after graduating as a pilot, he joined No 613 Squadron. The squadron flew antiquated Lysander aircraft in the Army co-operation role and Rowland was rushed into service. He made a number of trips to Calais as the British Expeditionary Force fought a rearguard action before the evacuation from Dunkirk. In September 1940, Rowland started a three-year period as a flying instructor before joining No 12 Squadron. After his first tour on Lancasters and a period as an instructor, Rowland returned to the bombing campaign as a flight commander on No 625 Squadron. The squadron was heavily involved in flying operations in the build-up to D-Day, when the French railway system and storage areas were key targets. He also attacked V-1 flying bomb sites, and on the night of D-Day he bombed the large gun batteries at Vire. On June 30 1944, 118 Lancasters attacked the railway yards at Vierzon near Orleans. The Pathfinder force had great difficulty identifying the target, and the orbiting Lancasters came under heavy attack. Rowland feared the worst and told his crew “to keep a good lookout”. They survived but 14 Lancasters were lost, nearly 12 per cent of the force. Rowland attacked more flying bomb sites and the huge secret weapons facility at Wizernes before the campaign against Germany was resumed. After completing his 50th operation – to Calais, the scene of his first war sortie – Rowland was rested. He was awarded a DSO. In December 1944 he was seconded to BOAC, flying from Bristol. He remained with the airline after the war and flew routes to West Africa, the Middle East and to India. He was one of the first pilots to land at Heathrow Airport after its opening, remembering it as “a field with a long runway and marquees for passengers and customs clearance”. After a number of years, he left to join the family hotel business. He always claimed that leaving BOAC was his greatest regret. In the post-war years, Rowland befriended a number of former Luftwaffe night fighter pilots and attended their reunions. In later life he planted a tree at his old airfield at Wickenby in Lincolnshire in memory of his rear gunner. In 2011 he wrote his memoirs, Return Flights in War and Peace.