No. 83 Squadron

No. 83 Operational Training Unit was formed on 15 July 1943 at RAF Childs Ercall in Shropshire, within No. 93 Group of RAF Bomber Command, drawing its initial personnel from No. 30 OTU. The station was renamed RAF Peplow just five weeks later, on 20 August 1943, and remained the unit’s sole base throughout its existence. The unit’s specific purpose was to prepare night bomber crews on the Vickers Wellington, running ten-week courses — eight weeks of flying and two of ground school — with a capacity of sixty crews at any one time and an output of roughly twenty-two crews every four weeks. Aircraft codes GS, FI and MZ identified its Wellingtons on the flight line between August 1943 and October 1944. The unit was stood down on 28 October 1944 after little more than fifteen months in service, its personnel and resources being absorbed into the newly constituted No. 23 Heavy Glider Conversion Unit.