No. 78 Squadron
- Group
- No. 4 Group
- Command
- Bomber Command
- Home station
- RAF Breighton
In the database: 2 aircraft.
History
No. 78 Squadron moved to RAF Linton-on-Ouse in 1939 as a founder unit of No. 4 Group, flying night operations on the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley from there and from RAF Dishforth. In early 1942 it converted to the four-engined Handley Page Halifax, flying its first operation with the type against Ostend that April. On the night of 30/31 May 1942 the squadron put up twenty-two Halifaxes for Operation Millennium, the first thousand-bomber raid, against Cologne.
In June 1943 it moved to RAF Breighton, freeing Linton-on-Ouse for the Canadian No. 6 Group, and early in 1944 exchanged its Merlin-engined Halifaxes for the more powerful Hercules-engined Halifax III. The squadron’s motto was “Nobody unprepared”, and its badge — a rampant, twin-tailed tiger — played on the Tiger engines and twin tail of its early Whitley aircraft.