Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

For the purposes of the VWM, No 58 Squadron RAF is included as one of the many RAF inits to which individual RAAF Aircrew were posted and in which they lived served and often died during WW2.  RAAF aircrew serving in NW Europe suffered the highest loss rate of any cohort of Australian service personnel in WW2, yet they were often derided by ill-informed  colleagues back in Australia as "Odd bods" and "Jap Dodgers".

Extract from RAF MOD website

No. 58 was flying Whitleys from Yorkshire at the outbreak of the Second World War, and first went into action on the night of 3rd/4th September, 1939, when - in conjunction with No. 51 Squadron - it maid a leaflet raid over Germany. This was the first occasion on which R.A.F aircraft penetrated into Germany during the Second World War.

A few weeks after this operation No. 58 was ordered to an airfield in South-West England for duty with Coastal Command and until late January, 1940, it was employed on escorting convoys and flying anti-submarine patrols. The squadron returned to Yorkshire in February and from April, 1940 to March, 1942, played a prominent part in the night-bombing offensive. Its targets were of the widest variety, from airfields, road and railway communications, marshalling yards and industrial centres, to the Channel Ports, oil and petrol installations and shipping at sea.

Three highlights of this period were the squadron's participation in the first big attack on the German mainland (München-Gladbach) on 11th/12th May, 1940; the first attack on Italy (primary target Turin) on 11th/12th June, 1940; and the first attack on Berlin, on 25th/26th August, 1940.

In April, 1942, No. 58 Squadron was transferred to Coastal Command and during the remainder of the war, as a general reconnaissance unit (flying Halifaxes from 1943 onwards), took a considerable toll of enemy surface vessels, sank five U-boats and shared in the destruction of two others.