No. 196 Squadron

No. 196 Squadron was reformed at RAF Driffield on 7 November 1942 as a night bomber unit, initially assigned to No. 4 Group, Bomber Command, flying Wellington IIIs and Xs on raids against enemy industrial targets and minelaying sorties over occupied Europe. In mid-1943 it transferred to No. 3 Group and converted to the Short Stirling, before moving in November 1943 to No. 38 Group, Allied Expeditionary Air Force, in the specialist airborne forces role. From early 1944 the squadron flew clandestine supply missions to SOE and resistance networks in France, often at very low level under cover of darkness. On the night of 5–6 June 1944 twenty-three of the squadron’s Stirlings dropped paratroops of the 5th Parachute Brigade into Normandy as part of Operation Overlord, and the following evening a second wave towed Horsa gliders during Operation Mallard. During Operation Market Garden in September 1944 the squadron flew 115 sorties — the highest total among 38 Group squadrons — towing gliders and delivering men and supplies to the Arnhem corridor at considerable cost, losing thirteen aircraft and twenty-five men. The squadron flew its final major operation on 24 March 1945, towing thirty gliders across the Rhine at Hamminkeln during Operation Varsity, before disbanding on 16 March 1946.