No. 115 Squadron

No. 115 Squadron was a heavy bomber unit within No. 3 Group, RAF Bomber Command, that served continuously throughout the Second World War. Re-formed in June 1937, the squadron entered the war equipped with Vickers Wellingtons and flew its first operational sorties in April 1940, striking the Norwegian airfield at Stavanger in what was described as the RAF’s first bombing raid of the war against a mainland target. Operating from a succession of East Anglian stations — Marham, Mildenhall, East Wretham, Little Snoring and finally Witchford in Cambridgeshire — the squadron accumulated one of the heaviest operational records in Bomber Command. In 1943 it re-equipped with the Hercules-engined Avro Lancaster B.II before transitioning to the more standard Merlin-engined Lancaster B.I and B.III variants the following year. Alongside conventional bombing raids, the squadron flew numerous minelaying sorties, known as “Gardening” operations, and participated in the early service trials of the Gee navigation aid in 1941. By the end of the war, No. 115 Squadron had logged more operational flying hours, suffered more losses, and dropped more tonnage of bombs than any other single unit in Bomber Command.