No. 692 Squadron — Fellowship of the Bellows
- Group
- No. 8 Group (Pathfinder Force)
- Command
- Bomber Command
- Home station
- RAF Graveley
In the database: 17 aircraft · 22 service members · 16 sorties.
History
No. 692 Squadron was formed on 1 January 1944 at RAF Graveley as a light-bomber unit of the Light Night Striking Force in No. 8 Group, flying the de Havilland Mosquito. It took its name from the “Fellowship of the Bellows”, an Anglo-Argentine group that raised money to buy aircraft for Britain.
Its Mosquitoes were specially modified with bulged bomb-bays so they could carry the 4,000lb “Cookie” blast bomb, and in February 1944 the squadron became the first to drop one, on Düsseldorf. Flying fast and high, the Light Night Striking Force harried German cities with these heavy bombs at remarkably small cost — across the war the squadron flew more than 3,200 sorties for the loss of only seventeen aircraft. It disbanded in September 1945.