No. 189 Squadron RAF

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No. 189 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron.

1 History
2 Aircraft Operated
3 Operations
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

No. 189 Squadron was formed at Ripon on 20 December 1917 as a night-flying training unit, moving shortly afterwards to Sutton's Farm to continue their work until the end of World War I. On March 1, 1919, the squadron was disbanded.

The squadron was re-formed as part of No. 5 Group RAF on October 15, 1944 at RAF Bardney near the village of Bardney in Lincolnshire. They flew Lancaster bombers in raids over occupied Europe towards the end of World War II in 1944 and 1945.

The commanding officer was Wing Commander J. S. Shorthouse DFC.

After RAF Bardney, the squadron was based at RAF Fulbeck near the village of Fulbeck, returning to Bardney in April 1945 and then on to RAF Metheringham near Metheringham.

The unit was mixed, with many personnel from other parts of the Commonwealth including Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians.

No. 189 Squadron was among the 107 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitos of No 5 Group which attacked the oil refinery in Tonsberg in Southern Norway on April 25, 1945 in the last raid of the war flown by heavy bombers of Bomber Command.

After the war the unit was involved in dropping food to the Dutch and repatriating POWs until it was disbanded on November 20, 1945.

[edit] Aircraft Operated

[edit] Operations

The following sortie details are taken from the operations record book for 189 sqdn.

DATE	AIRCRAFT TYPE & NUMBER	CREW	DUTY	TIME UP	TIME DOWN	DETAILS OF SORTIE OR FLIGHT
April 3, 1945	LANC.1 ME.374	F/O WALTON.J.H.(AUS.417607) SGT HILLS.G.S. SGT HUDGELL.P.H. F/S ROBERTS.G.W. F/S THOMAS.R. SGT.BRIAN.E SGT JONES.J.F	LADBERGEN	1835	0035	LADBERGEN. 2205¹⁄₂ hrs. 8,800 ft. Target attacked on 3rd run, on 1st run attacked by fighter. R.T.I clearly seen in break in cloud. Flares seen well, N of A/P. Met. good. Red and green T.I.'s seen on 3rd run. Mod. amount of flak over target but not heavy. Considered successful sortie.
April 23, 1945	LANC.1 PB.732	F/O WALTON.J.H.(Aus.417607) SGT HILLS.G.S F/SGT HUDGELL.P.H. F/SGT THOMAS.J.P.D. W/O ROBERTS.G.W. (Aus.43242) SGT JONES.J.F SGT.BRIAN.E	FLENSBURG	1512¹⁄₂	2033	FLENSBURG. 10/10ths S/Cu, tops 6-8000'. A/C jettisoning from coast to Wash on way home. Sortie completed.
April 25, 1945	LANC.1 PB.732	F/O WALTON.J.H.(AUS.417607) F/LT SKILTON.J.A. F/SGT HUDGELL.P.H. F/SGT THOMAS.J.P.D. W/O ROBERTS.G.W. (Aus.43242) SGT JONES.J.F SGT.BRIAN.E	TONSBERG	2034¹⁄₂	0321	TONSBERG. 2347 hrs, 9,500'. Bombing appeared well concentrated, two large explosions seen before bombing and one very large one at 2347¹⁄₂ with quantities of smoke. Marking thought to be good. Sortie completed.