No. 25 Squadron

No. 25 Operational Training Unit was formed on 1 March 1941 at RAF Finningley in South Yorkshire, growing directly out of the residual flight left behind when No. 106 Squadron relocated. Under Bomber Command, it initially trained night bomber crews on Handley Page Hampdens and Avro Ansons, with a small number of Avro Manchesters joining the fleet in the spring of 1941; by mid-1942 the unit had concentrated entirely on Vickers Wellingtons. The OTU passed through three successive group headquarters — No. 7 Group, then No. 92 Group from 11 May 1942, and finally No. 93 Group from 1 September 1942 — reflecting Bomber Command’s expansion and reorganisation of its training apparatus. During 1942 the unit’s aircraft were drawn into front-line operations, contributing crews and aircraft to all three of the “Thousand Bomber” raids against Cologne, Essen, and Bremen, at the cost of nine Wellingtons lost. Satellite airfields at Bircotes and Balderton supplemented the main Finningley base as the Wellington establishment grew. The unit was disbanded on 31 January 1943 and was not reformed, its training task absorbed into the broader No. 93 Group structure.