No. 148 Squadron

No. 148 Squadron RAF first formed in February 1918 and served in three distinct wartime incarnations during the Second World War. From April 1939 it operated as a training unit equipped with Wellingtons and Ansons before being redesignated No. 15 Operational Training Unit in April 1940. Reformed on Malta in December 1940 from detachments of Nos. 38, 99, and 115 Squadrons, it flew Wellington bombers on raids against Axis bases in Italy and Libya — first from Malta, then from Egypt — until disbanding again in December 1942. Reconstituted in March 1943 as No. 148 (Special Duties) Squadron under No. 205 Group, the unit moved to Brindisi in southern Italy in January 1944 and spent the remainder of the war flying Halifax and Liberator aircraft on clandestine missions for the Special Operations Executive, dropping agents and hundreds of tons of supplies to resistance movements across the Balkans, southern France, and Poland. The squadron’s most costly operations were the attempts to resupply besieged Polish Home Army fighters during the Warsaw Uprising of summer 1944, missions which ranked among the longest combat sorties flown by the RAF in the entire war. The squadron was finally disbanded on 1 May 1965.