No. 455 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force

Royal Australian Air Force

The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...

 torpedo bomber squadron during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and became famous as part of the so-called ANZAC Strike Wing.

History

No. 455 Squadron was formed at Williamtown, New South Wales

Williamtown, New South Wales

Williamtown is a rural suburb of the Port Stephens Local Government Area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the main road between Newcastle and Nelson Bay.-Geography:...

 on 23 May 1941. Formed in accordance with Article XV of the Empire Air Training Scheme, the squadron was destined for service in Europe with the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

. While the Williamtown party waited to be shipped to the UK, other personnel—these being predominantly members of the RAF—began assembling at RAF Swinderby

RAF Swinderby

RAF Swinderby was a Royal Air Force Bomber Command airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 in the United Kingdom. 455 Squadron came into existence there on 6 June 1941 and was equipped with Hampden

Handley Page Hampden

The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a British twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force serving in the Second World War. With the Whitley and Wellington, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and the first 1,000-plane...

 bombers. The bulk of the Australian personnel came to join them on 1 September 1941, having been on route to the UK since 15 June. Initially assigned to No. 5 Group RAF

No. 5 Group RAF

No. 5 Group was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane.-History:The Group was formed on 1 September 1937 with headquarters at RAF Mildenhall....

, Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...

, the Squadron transferred to RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force . Founded in 1936, it was the RAF's premier maritime arm, after the Royal Navy's secondment of the Fleet Air Arm in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive...

 on 26 April 1942 and made a deployment to Vaenga

Severomorsk

Severomorsk is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located about north of Murmansk along the Kola Bay. Population: This is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. Severomorsk has the largest drydock on the Kola Peninsula....

 in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in September. No. 455 Squadron was re-equipped with Beaufighters

Bristol Beaufighter

The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design...

 in October 1943 and operated against German shipping off Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 and in the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 until the end of the war. No. 455 Squadron was disbanded on 25 May 1945.

Aircraft operated

Aircraft operated by No. 455 Squadron RAAF, data from

From	To	Aircraft	Version
July 1941	April 1942	Handley Page Hampden Handley Page Hampden The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a British twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force serving in the Second World War. With the Whitley and Wellington, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war over Europe, taking part in the first night raid on Berlin and the first 1,000-plane...	B.Mk.I
April 1942	December 1943	Handley Page Hampden	TB.Mk.I
December 1943	May 1945	Bristol Beaufighter Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design...	Mk.X

Squadron bases

Bases and airfields used by No. 455 Squadron RAAF, data from

From	To	Base	Remark
23 May 1941	15 June 1941	Williamtown Williamtown, New South Wales Williamtown is a rural suburb of the Port Stephens Local Government Area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the main road between Newcastle and Nelson Bay.-Geography:... , New South Wales New South Wales New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...	Australian formation
15 June 1941	1 September 1941	en route to the UK
6 June 1941	8 February 1942	RAF Swinderby RAF Swinderby RAF Swinderby was a Royal Air Force Bomber Command airfield opened in 1940, one of the last of the stations completed under the RAF's expansion plans started in the 1930s... , Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...	UK formation
8 February 1942	28 April 1942	RAF Wigsley Wigsley Wigsley is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located 10 miles west of Lincoln. To the south-west of the village are the remains of R.A.F. Wigsley airfield. Wigsley is one of the Thankful Villages - those rare places that were spared fatalities in the Great War of 1914... , Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
28 April 1942	14 April 1944	RAF Leuchars RAF Leuchars RAF Leuchars is the most northerly air defence station in the United Kingdom. It is located in Leuchars, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland, near to the university town of St Andrews.-Operations:... , Fife Fife Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire... , Scotland Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...	Dets. at RAF Sumburgh RAF Sumburgh RAF Sumburgh was located on the southern tip of the mainland island of the Shetland Islands, and was home to half of No. 404 Squadron RCAF, .... , Shetland Islands Shetland Islands Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total... , Scotland; Vaenga Severomorsk Severomorsk is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located about north of Murmansk along the Kola Bay. Population: This is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. Severomorsk has the largest drydock on the Kola Peninsula.... , USSR; RAF Benbecula RRH Benbecula RRH Benbecula is a Remote Radar Head operated by the Royal Air Force in the Western Isles of Scotland.- Overview :RRH Benbecula operates a Type 92 long range surveillance radar, at Cleitreabhal a'Deas on North Uist. The radar, designed and built by Lockheed Martin is almost identical to the... , Outer Hebrides Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland... , Scotland; RAF Tain RAF Tain RAF Tain is a Ministry of Defence air weapons range on the Moray Firth near Tain in Scotland. Royal Air Force aircrews from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Leuchars are trained in air weaponry on the range, along with NATO aircrew.-Facilities:... , Moray Moray Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :... , Scotland and RAF Wick Wick Airport Wick Airport is located north of the town of Wick in Caithness at the north-eastern extremity of the mainland of Scotland. It is owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited.... , Caithness Caithness Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is... , Scotland
14 April 1944	20 October 1944	RAF Langham RAF Langham The former Royal Air Force Station Langham, more commonly known as RAF Langham was a Royal Air Force station, a military airbase, 15 miles North-West of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia, from 1940 to 1961.-History:... , Norfolk Norfolk Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...	Dets. at RAF Thorney Island, West Sussex West Sussex West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming... and RAF Manston RAF Manston RAF Manston was an RAF station in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site is now split between a commercial airport Kent International Airport and a continuing military use by the Defence Fire Training and Development Centre , following on from a long... , Kent Kent Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
20 October 1944	25 May 1945	RAF Dallachy RAF Dallachy The former Royal Air Force Station Dallachy, commonly known as RAF Dallachy, was a British Royal Air Force airbase situated east of Elgin, in Moray, Scotland. During World War II it was a fighter station, used by 18 Group Coastal Ops.... , Moray, Scotland

Commanding officers

Officers commanding No. 455 Squadron RAAF, data from

From	To	Name
23 May 1941		Squadron Leader Squadron Leader Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...  J.H.W. Lawson (acting)
	1 July 1941	Wing Commander Wing Commander (rank) Wing commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries...  D.J. French
1 July 1941	12 December 1941	Wing Commander J.E.C.G.F Gyll-Murray
12 December 1941	6 February 1943	Wing Commander G.M. Lindeman
6 February 1943	29 November 1943	Wing Commander R. Holmes
29 November 1943	23 October 1944	Wing Commander J.N. Davenport, DSO Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September... , DFC Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly to officers of other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against...  & Bar Medal bar A medal bar or medal clasp is a thin metal bar attached to the ribbon of a military decoration, civil decoration, or other medal. It is most commonly used to indicate the campaign or operation the recipient received the award for, and multiple bars on the same medal are used to indicate that the...
23 October 1944	25 May 1945	Wing Commander C.G. Milson, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar

External links

• Australian War Memorial: 455 Squadron