Extracts of 218 Squadron history – their time at RAF Oakington
Source: https://218squadron.wordpress.com/history/
Edited by HAE Stroude
218 Squadron at RAF Oakington
A new era began for 218 Squadron on the 24th, when it was informed that it would convert to Blenheims and join 2 Group. Three days later, the first four Mk IV Blenheims were taken on charge, and on the 28th, W/C Combe was posted to the squadron to familiarize himself before assuming command two weeks hence. Working up to operational status would take until mid August, and in the meantime, the inevitable training accidents cost a number of aircrew lives. W/C Combe officially took command on the 13th of July, three days after W/C Duggan’s posting to Oakington as the station commander. It was also on the 13th, that the squadron registered its first Blenheim casualty, when R3597 crashed in Bedfordshire during a cross-country exercise, and F/O Newton and the only other occupant were killed. On the 14th, (July) the squadron began the process of departing Mildenhall to take up residence at Oakington, and the move was completed by the 18th. The squadron now had a full complement of nineteen Blenheims on charge, and spent the remainder of July and the first two and a half weeks of August continuing its march towards operational readiness. As this was in progress, the Battle of Britain was gaining momentum overhead, and the Command was committing ever greater resources to eliminating the barges and other marine craft being assembled in the occupied ports in preparation for the intended invasion. The squadron’s training period came to an end with a tragic incident on the 18th of August, while B Flight was conducting a formation flying exercise. L9264 and T1929 collided in the air, the former spinning in inverted, and the latter spiraling in flames into the ground. P/O Wheelwright and F/L Newton respectively died with the other five occupants, one of whom was a member of ground crew. On the following day, the squadron was declared operational, and ready to participate in operations under the 2 Group Operations Order 11, which called for daylight cloud-cover raids on oil and railway targets, to maintain the pressure applied by the night bombers. The ever-changing war situation often thwarted the plan, as other considerations became the priority. During August, G.O.O.11 was only a small part of the Group’s remit, as the threat of invasion called for day and night raids on airfields and long range batteries along the Pas-de-Calais coast, and for North Sea sweeps. 218 Squadron was initially assigned only to the first mentioned, and at 05.30 hours on the 19th, F/L Richmond took off in T1996 to carry out the squadron’s first sortie, an attack on the aerodrome at Vlissingen. He returned two hours later having completed his assigned task, registering the squadron as a fully-fledged member of 2 Group. Although for 218 Squadron, the time on Blenheims would be only a brief interlude in a long and varied wartime career, any association with 2 Group operations should be looked upon with pride. Throughout the battles for the low countries and France, 2 Group had shared with the AASF the responsibility of trying to stem the irresistible enemy tide, and had suffered the most horrendous losses. The “courage by daylight” displayed by its crews then, and in the time to come before its departure from Bomber Command, was inspirational and unsurpassed, and never were crews asked to undertake more hazardous operations, with such little prospect of survival. The first operational loss of a 218 Squadron Blenheim was not long in coming, and resulted from a raid on Brugges on the 23rd. Taking off at 11.35 hours, the Blenheim was shot down by a fighter over the Pas-de-Calais, killing S/L House and his observer, while the wireless operator/gunner fell into enemy hands. The squadron flew a modest seventeen sorties during the month, and in comparison with some of the Group’s other squadrons, it would continue to be under-employed.September would bring the climax of the Battle of Britain, and with invasion fever still gripping the nation, an even greater number of sorties were sent against invasion transports, making it 2 Group’s busiest month until 1944. The squadron registered its second and final loss of a Blenheim on the 8/9th, when Sgt Clayton and his crew took L8848 on a reconnaissance flight, and crashed in the North Sea with no survivors. During this, its first fully operational month with 2 Group, the squadron despatched fifty sorties, compared with a hundred or more by seven other squadrons, with three others in the eighties. In October, the squadron was to share in the continued assault on the Channel ports, while conducting night raids on airfields, daylight armed reconnaissance sorties and roving commissions. The last but one mentioned began on the 3rd, when Sgt Morley headed for Reiszholz in N6183, but was forced by inadequate cloud cover to bomb an alternative target, selecting instead fifty barges on the Maas. It was a similar story for S/L Ault, who abandoned his attempt to reach Bremen, was also thwarted at Soesterburg aerodrome, and ultimately bombed the docks at Ijmuiden, while Sgt Adams attacked those at Rotterdam. On the 5th, ACM Portal relinquished his post as Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, and became Chief-of-the-Air-Staff. He was succeeded by AM Sir Richard Peirse, an officer of great ability, whose period of tenure would be dogged by misfortune, and the general inadequacies obtaining at the time with regard to equipment and the expectations of the exalted. On the 9th, F/L Shaw was persuaded by the weather to seek alternative employment when bound for Homberg. He found and attacked three ships in the Maas, and on the way home, he and his crew mixed it with a Heinkel 111, before being forced to call off the fight when the guns jammed one by one. It was F/L Shaw who flew the squadron’s first roving commission sortie on the 21st, and having been given a free hand under an operations order issued on the 17th, he selected Dunkerque, which he approached in poor visibility. He was unable to pick up the harbour, but spotted a fourteen ship convoy under an E-Boat escort, which was duly attacked from behind. To the amazement of all on board the Blenheim, the object of the attack was seen with its decks awash, and to be on the point of capsizing. The squadron operated Blenheims for the last time on the 31st of October, F/L Shaw and crew taking off at 10.20 hours on a roving commission, during which they attacked Soesterburg aerodrome from six hundred feet, before returning safely at 13.05. The fifty seven sorties flown during the month demonstrated a more equal share in the Group’s activities, but it was once more time to move on. On the 5th of November, 218 Squadron joined 3 Group, with which it would remain for the rest of the war – its days at RAF Oakington were now over.
