No. 622 Squadron

Group: 3 Group
Home station: RAF Mildenhall

About

No. 622 Squadron was formed at RAF Mildenhall in August 1943 from a flight of No. 15 Squadron, and flew the Short Stirling in No. 3 Group before re-equipping with the Avro Lancaster at the end of the year. Mildenhall in Suffolk was its home throughout.

After the Stirling — on which its losses were relatively high — the Lancaster carried it through the main offensive with markedly fewer casualties. In the last weeks of the war it turned to humanitarian work, dropping food to the Dutch under Operation Manna and flying home released prisoners of war, before disbanding in August 1945.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including History of War — No. 622 Squadron (RAF) in the Second World War and Wikipedia: No. 622 Squadron RAuxAF. 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. CH15460 — Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Mechanics at work on an engine of Avro Lancaster B Mark III, LM577 'HA-Q' "Edith", of No. 218 Squadron RAF on a pan hardstanding at Chedburgh, Suffolk. "Edith's" sortie tally shows a total of 84 bombing operations achieved with Nos. 622 and 218 Squadrons, in addition to which the aircraft also flew 14 food-dropping and prisoner-of-war repatriation sorties to and from Holland in May 1945. By this time relegated to a training role, LM577 completed more flying hours than any other Lancaster on the station.

ⓘ licence & credit
Royal Air Force official photographer, RAF Chedburgh / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH15460.jpgView source & full licence →

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1941-1945. CH11640 — Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1941-1945. Crew members of a Short Stirling B Mark III of No. 622 Squadron RAF face their intelligence debrief at Mildenhall, Suffolk, after returning from the major raid on Berlin of 22/23 November 1943. 764 aircraft took part in the attack, of which 50 were Stirlings, it being the last time they were sent to Germany. Seated left to right are: Pilot Office R J Brown (captain), Sergeant W Brodie (flight engineer), Sergeant F Forde (wireless operator/air gunner), Flight Sergeant P Harwood (bomb aimer) and Sergeant F E Tidmas (navigator). With the exception of Harwood, all were to perish over Berlin on the night of 30/31 January 1944 in an Avro Lancaster of the Squadron.

ⓘ licence & credit
Goodchild (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1941-1945._CH11640.jpgView source & full licence →

Operations flown

Operation Nuremberg raid — 30 March 1944 (Nuremberg)

Aircraft (2)

Serial	Code	Type	Fate
ED619	GI-T	Avro Lancaster	Lost on operations
ND767	GI-D	Avro Lancaster	Lost on operations

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