No. 15 Squadron

Group
No. 3 Group
Command
Bomber Command
Home station
RAF Mildenhall

In the database: 24 aircraft · 30 service members · 33 sorties.

History

No. 15 Squadron passed through almost the whole range of RAF bomber types during the Second World War. It began the war on the Fairey Battle, flying to France in 1939, and after returning home re-equipped in turn with the Bristol Blenheim and the Vickers Wellington before becoming one of the early Short Stirling squadrons. In December 1943 it converted to the Avro Lancaster, which it flew for the rest of the war. Serving in No. 3 Group, it operated from stations including RAF Wyton, RAF Bourn and RAF Mildenhall.

One of its aircraft became quietly famous. In 1941 Lady Rachel MacRobert, who had lost three sons to flying, gave £25,000 to buy a Stirling for the squadron; named “MacRobert’s Reply” and carrying the family crest, it flew on operations as a personal answer to the enemy. In the closing weeks of the war the squadron took part in Operation Manna, dropping food to starving Dutch civilians, and later in flights bringing home released prisoners of war.

Photographs

The crew of the [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) Mark I, N3669 'LS-H', of [No. 15 Squadron](/squadrons/12/) RAF watch as the scoreboard tally on their aircraft is chalked up with their 62nd raid, at [Bourn](/airfields/26/), Cambridgeshire. N3669 went on to complete 67 operations, a record for the Stirling, before she was reduced to an instructional airframe in February 1943.
ⓘ licence & creditKark (Flt/Lt), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:105_Squadron_Stirling_crew_WWII_IWM_CH_7747.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. The crew of the [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) Mark I, N3669 'LS-H', of [No. 15 Squadron](/squadrons/12/) RAF watch as the scoreboard tally on their aircraft is chalked up with their 62nd raid, at [Bourn](/airfields/26/), Cambridgeshire. N3669 went on to complete 67 operations, a record for the Stirling, before she was reduced to an instructional airframe in February 1943.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Kark (Flt/Lt) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH7747.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1941. [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) Mark I, W7429 'LS-J', of [No. 15 Squadron](/squadrons/12/) RAF based at [Wyton](/airfields/24/), Huntingdonshire, photographed while in flight from another aircraft of the Squadron.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (Mr) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Short_Stirling_-_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1939-1941._CH3295.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1941. Percival Q.6 “Petrel”, P5634, of the [RAF Northolt](/airfields/6287/) Station Flight, parked at the head of a line of [Bristol Blenheim](/aircraft/8/) Mark IVs of No. 2 Group at [Wyton](/airfields/24/), Huntingdonshire. R3741 'VE-A' of [No. 110 Squadron](/squadrons/259/) RAF has been modified by the addition of gun mountings in the rear of the engine nacelles, while T1947 'LS' of [No. 15 Squadron](/squadrons/12/) RAF has been fitted with a long gun tray beneath the nose.
ⓘ licence & creditDaventry B J (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1939-1941._CH776.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1941. Damaged hangars and buildings in the north-east corner of the airfield at Waalhaven, Holland, after an raid by [Bristol Blenheim](/aircraft/8/) Mark IVs of [No. 15 Squadron](/squadrons/12/) RAF, No. 2 Group, despatched from [Wyton](/airfields/24/), Huntingdonshire, in the afternoon of 10 May 1940 to bomb German paratroops and aircraft which had landed there. The aircraft on the concrete apron is a Fokker G.1 of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waalhaven,_Holland,_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1939-1941_C1477.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Bomber Command Flight Sergeant A M Halkett DFM (third from right) and his crew pose by the tail of Stirling I N3669/LS-H of [No. 15 Squadron](/squadrons/12/), after completing the aircraft's 62nd operation, November 1942.
ⓘ licence & creditKark (Flt/Lt), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Bomber_Command_CH7746.jpgView source & full licence →

Operations flown