No. 101 Squadron

No. 101 Squadron flew in No. 1 Group of Bomber Command, converting from the Vickers Wellington to the Avro Lancaster in the autumn of 1942 and operating from Lincolnshire for the rest of the war. From late 1943 it took on a singular and dangerous role alongside its ordinary bombing duties: its Lancasters were fitted with the secret “Airborne Cigar” (ABC) equipment, used to jam the radio channels by which German night-fighter controllers directed their aircraft.

Each ABC aircraft carried an extra, German-speaking crew member to listen for the controllers’ instructions and blot them out — and sometimes to impersonate them and sow confusion. Because the jammers had to fly on every major raid and their transmissions could be tracked, the squadron suffered some of the highest losses in Bomber Command. Its motto, Mens agitat molem, means “mind over matter”. After the war No. 101 flew the Avro Lincoln and became the first RAF squadron to operate the English Electric Canberra jet bomber.