No. 460 Squadron RAAF
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Squadron Motto: "Strike and Return"
Aircraft operated: Vickers Wellington, Avro Lancaster
Number 460 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (460 Sqn RAAF) was raised during World War II at RAF Molesworth, in England on November 15, 1941. It was a multinational unit, but most personnel were Australian.
The squadron moved to RAF Breighton, and — equipped with Wellington bombers — joined RAF Bomber Command. 460 Sqn made its first raid, against the German city of Emden, on March 12, 1942. In October the squadron was re-equipped with Lancasters. The following May 460 Sqn relocated to RAF Binbrook, from where it participated in the strategic bombing of Germany.
In late 1943 early 1944 the squadron flew sorties in the Battle of Berlin.[1] During the spring and summer of 1944, the squadron flew many missions in support of the D-Day landings. Its final raid was an attack on Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat of Berchtesgaden on Anzac Day,1945. In May, 460 Sqn joined Operation Manna, the transportation of relief supplies to starving Dutch civilians. The squadron moved to RAF East Kirby, in preparation for re-location to the Pacific theatre, as part of a proposed Commonwealth strategic air force known as Tiger Force, for the invasion of Japan. The move became unnecessary following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 460 Sqn disbanded in October 1945.
The squadron flew the most sorties of any Australian bomber squadron and dropped more bomb tonnage than any squadron in the whole of Bomber Command — 24,856 tons. It lost 181 aircraft. In a speech in 2003, the Chief of the RAAF, Air Marshal Angus Houston, pointed out that, with an aircrew establishment of about 200 and 1,018 combat deaths (589 of whom were Australian), 460 Sqn was effectively wiped out five times over during its existence. RAF Bomber Command represented only two percent of the RAAF personnel in WW2, but accounted for 23% of the RAAF personnel killed in action.
460 Sqn is commemorated at the Australian War Memorial by a display featuring its only surviving aircraft, G for George.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Daniel Oakman Wartime Magazine: The battle of Berlin on the Australian War Memorial website
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