No. 107 Squadron

No. 107 Squadron entered the war from the outset, contributing four Blenheim IVs to the RAF’s first bombing raid on 4 September 1939, an attack on German warships at Wilhelmshaven from which only one aircraft returned. Assigned to No. 2 Group, Bomber Command, it flew low-level daylight operations over Norway, France, and the Low Countries before a brief attachment to Coastal Command in early 1941 for anti-submarine patrols. A Malta detachment from August 1941 struck Axis targets across Italy and North Africa at severe cost. Re-equipped with Douglas Bostons from 1942, the squadron mounted daylight strikes against German airfields and transport targets in occupied Europe, including Operation Oyster, the December 1942 raid on the Philips factory at Eindhoven. From February 1944 it transitioned to de Havilland Mosquito FB.VIs, shifting to night intruder operations over Germany. Notable figures included Wing Commander Basil Embry, later Air Marshal, and Ivor Broom, later knighted.