No. 186 Squadron

No. 186 Squadron RAF was reformed on 5 October 1944 at RAF Tuddenham in Suffolk, constituted from ‘C’ Flight of No. 90 Squadron and assigned to No. 3 Group, Bomber Command. Flying Avro Lancaster Is and IIIs, the squadron flew its first operational sortie on 18 October 1944 against Bonn and thereafter participated in the main bomber offensive against Germany through to the end of the war in Europe. Operating from Tuddenham and later RAF Stradishall, the squadron completed 96 bombing missions and two mine-laying operations, flying 1,254 sorties in total with a loss rate of thirteen aircraft — comparatively modest given how late in the war it entered frontline service. On its formation it inherited the squadron code letters AP, subsequently also using XY. Following the German surrender the squadron assisted in Operation Exodus, transporting liberated Allied prisoners of war back to Britain, before being disbanded on 17 July 1945. The squadron had a brief earlier incarnation in 1943–44 as a fighter-bomber unit flying Hurricanes, Typhoons and Spitfires before that identity was transferred to No. 130 Squadron.