No. 514 Squadron

Group
3 Group
Home station
RAF Waterbeach

About

No. 514 Squadron formed at RAF Foulsham in September 1943 as a heavy-bomber unit of No. 3 Group, and soon moved to RAF Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, which was its home for the rest of the war. It flew the Avro Lancaster — at first the unusual Mark II, fitted with Bristol Hercules radial engines instead of the more familiar Merlins, and later the Merlin-engined Mark I and Mark III.

From Waterbeach the squadron flew over 3,600 operational sorties in the main offensive against Germany before disbanding in August 1945. Its motto was Nil obstare potest — “nothing can withstand”.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including History of War — No. 514 Squadron (RAF) in the Second World War and Wikipedia: No. 514 Squadron RAF. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Avro Lancasters of No. 514 Squadron RAF, lined up at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, before taking part in a daylight attack on fortified villages east of Caen, in support of the Second Army's armoured offensive in the Normandy battle area (Operation GOODWOOD)..
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Devon S A (Flt Lt) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CL4214.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Operation MANNA. Ground crew loading food supplies into slings for hoisting into the bomb bay of an Avro Lancaster of No. 514 Squadron RAF at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. Between 29 April and 7 May 1945, Lancasters of Bomber Command dropped 6,672 tons of food to the starving populace of a large area in Western Holland still in German hands.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Goodchild A (F/O) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH15159.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. An Avro Lancaster B Mark I or III of No. 514 Squadron RAF based at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, releases its bombs through cloud, during a daylight attack on a flying-bomb launch site at Les Catelliers in northern France, ("Noball" Operation), as another aircraft behind it prepares to bomb.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Breeze (?) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CL560.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Avro Lancaster B Mark IIs of No. 514 Squadron RAF taxy onto the main runway at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, for a daylight attack on fortified villages east of Caen, in support of the Second Army's armoured offensive in the Normandy battle area (Operation GOODWOOD).
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Devon S A (Flt Lt) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CL4213.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Four Avro Lancasters of No. 514 Squadron RAF flying over complete cloud cover during a daylight attack on fortified villages east of Caen, in support of the Second Army's armoured offensive in the Normandy battle area (Operation GOODWOOD).
ⓘ licence & creditStanley Devon / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CL4198.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPa3ems / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bathmen_cemetery-H.S._Delacour.JPGView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPa3ems / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bathmen_cemetery-G.D._Savage.JPGView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPa3ems / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bathmen_cemetery-_R.G._Picton.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPa3ems / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bathmen_cemetery-_A.C._Benham.JPGView source & full licence →
IWM caption : An Avro Lancaster B Mark I or III of No. 514 Squadron RAF based at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, releases its bombs through cloud, during a daylight attack on a flying-bomb launch site at Les Catelliers in northern France, ("Noball" Operation).
ⓘ licence & creditBreeze (?) : Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:514_Squadron_Lancasters_over_France_1944_IWM_CL_560.jpgView source & full licence →

Operations flown

Aircraft (6)

SerialCodeTypeFate
DS836 JI-L Avro Lancaster Lost on operations
LL645 JI-R Avro Lancaster Lost on operations
LL683 JI-P Avro Lancaster Lost on operations
LL696 JI-A Avro Lancaster Lost on operations
LL698 A2-J Avro Lancaster Lost on operations
LL738 JI-D Avro Lancaster Lost on operations

No service records linked to this squadron yet. Aircraft, crews and sorties will appear here soon.

Further reading & sources

External sites — facts only are reused here; their text and images remain their authors'.