No. 5 Group

Bomber Command

No. 5 Group was a main-force bomber group based in Lincolnshire and often regarded as the elite of Bomber Command, operating with a degree of independence under Air Vice-Marshal the Hon. Ralph Cochrane. It flew Handley Page Hampdens and Avro Manchesters before standardising on the Avro Lancaster, and was the home of No. 617 Squadron, the ‘Dam Busters’. The group pioneered low-level visual marking and its own precision-bombing methods, and dropped many of the war’s heaviest weapons, including the Tallboy and Grand Slam.

Squadrons (16)

Squadron	Name	Home station
No. 9 Squadron	—	RAF Bardney
No. 44 Squadron	Rhodesia	RAF Waddington
No. 49 Squadron	—	RAF Fiskerton
No. 50 Squadron	—	RAF Skellingthorpe
No. 57 Squadron	—	RAF East Kirkby
No. 61 Squadron	—	RAF Skellingthorpe
No. 106 Squadron	—	RAF Metheringham
No. 189 Squadron	—	RAF Fulbeck
No. 207 Squadron	—	RAF Spilsby
No. 227 Squadron	—	RAF Bardney
No. 463 Squadron	RAAF	RAF Waddington
No. 467 Squadron	RAAF	RAF Waddington
No. 617 Squadron	Dambusters	RAF Woodhall Spa
No. 619 Squadron	—	RAF Strubby
No. 627 Squadron	—	RAF Woodhall Spa
No. 630 Squadron	—	RAF East Kirkby