No. 7 Squadron

No. 7 Squadron badge
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Group
No. 8 Group (Pathfinder Force)
Command
Bomber Command
Home station
RAF Oakington

In the database: 5 aircraft · 14 service members · 2 sorties.

History

No. 7 Squadron holds a special place in the story of the strategic bomber offensive as the first unit in the Royal Air Force to operate a four-engined heavy bomber in the Second World War. Reformed in August 1940, it took delivery of the new Short Stirling and flew the type’s first bombing raid, against oil storage near Rotterdam, on the night of 10/11 February 1941.

The squadron made its home at RAF Oakington in Cambridgeshire as part of No. 3 Group, and was unusual in Bomber Command for remaining at the same station throughout its operational war. In August 1942 it became one of the squadrons of the Pathfinder Force, marking targets for the main bomber stream over cities such as Berlin and Nuremberg, and it converted from the Stirling to the Avro Lancaster in 1943. Its motto, Per diem per noctem, means “by day and by night”.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) B Mark Is of [No. 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) RAF, taking on their load of 250-lb and 500-lb MC bombs at [Oakington](/airfields/25/), Cambridge, for a night raid on Dortmund, Germany.
ⓘ licence & creditBrock F J (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH5287.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1941. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and his party approach a [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) Mark I of [No. 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) RAF with its air and ground crew lined up for inspection, during a review of British and American bombers in service with the RAF at [Northolt](/airfields/6287/), Middlesex. Accompanying the Prime Minister, but obscured by him, is Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, followed by Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air and Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air Officer Commanding No. 11 Group, Fighter Command. The aircraft lined up beyond the Stirling include a [Handley Page Halifax](/aircraft/2/), the [Avro Lancaster](/aircraft/1/) prototype, and a Boeing Fortress.
ⓘ licence & creditDaventry B J H (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Bomber_Command_Short_Stirling_with_HP_Halifax_behind,_1939-1941._CH17535.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) B Mark Is of [No. 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) RAF are refuelled on the flight line at [Oakington](/airfields/25/), Cambridgeshire, prior to a night raid on Dortmund, 15 April 1942.
ⓘ licence & creditBrock F J (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH5282.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1939-1942. Oblique aerial photograph showing [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) B Mark Is of [No. 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) RAF, lined up on the perimeter track on the north-eastern side of the airfield at [Oakington](/airfields/25/), Cambridge, for a night raid on Dortmund, Germany. The Cambridge-Huntingdon railway line, skirting the eastern boundary of the airfield, can be seen at upper left.
ⓘ licence & creditBrock F J (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1939-1942._CH5290.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Bomber Command Squadron Leader The Reverend E T Killick (second from right), Station Chaplain at [RAF Oakington](/airfields/25/), hands out 'winter warmers' from the RAF Comforts Fund to ground crew on a crisp autumnal morning, 24 October 1942. Two [No. 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) Stirlings are in the background.
ⓘ licence & creditBaker L H (P/O), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Bomber_Command_CH8741.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Bomber Command A Stirling crew of [No 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) being interrogated at [Newmarket](/airfields/6279/) on their return from the raid on the Renault factory at Billancourt in Paris, 3-4 March 1942. At the time, it was the largest Bomber Command operation despatched against a single target, with 235 aircraft carrying out the concentrated attack. They achieved considerable success, destroying a significant portion of the plant and putting back lorry production by several months.
ⓘ licence & creditBrock F J (F/O), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Bomber_Command_CH5126.jpgView source & full licence →
Aircrew and Nose art on "S-Sugar", a [Short Stirling](/aircraft/3/) of [No. 7 Squadron](/squadrons/56/) RAF, in a dispersal at [RAF Oakington](/airfields/25/), Cambridgeshire.
ⓘ licence & creditMinistry of Information Photo Division Photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:7_Squadron_Stirling_at_RAF_Oakington_WWII_IWM_D_4752.jpgView source & full licence →

Operations flown