Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

No. 69 Squadron RAF

No. 69 Squadron RAF is included on this site because it was one of very many RAF Squadrons to which individual RAAF and other Commonwealth personnel (known colloquially as 'odd-bods') were posted and in which they served fought and often died.

It was raised in Malta on 10 January 1941 as a reconnaissance squadron, and spent three years there, operating a wide range of aircraft across the Mediterranean.  In 1944 it was re-assigned to Britain in order to support the Allied invasion of north west Europe.

It operated a lot of different aircraft types from Malta.  These included the Martin Maryland, Bristol Beaufighter, Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Bristol Beaufort, Bristol Blenheim, de Havilland Mosquito and Martin Baltimore. Most important of these were the Maryland, which made up the bulk of its strength until May 1942, the Spitfire, which then took over the reconnaissance tasks, then the Baltimore, which was used for anti-submarine patrols.

In April 1944 the Squadron relocated to Britain, where it converted to the Vickers Wellington (by then more or less obsolete) and was allocated to the 2nd Tactical Air Force in support of ground forces. Operations began on D-Day, when the squadron was used to drop flares to locate German troop movements at night. The squadron continued to fly reconnaissance missions with its Wellingtons until 7 May 1945. It then spent several months surveying Norway and Denmark, before being disbanded on 7 August 1945.