Halifax Bombers in the ME July 1942

Following the very helpful responses on Fortresses and Liberators, now for the Halifaxes. I have looked at the ORBs of 10, 76 and 227 Squadrons. 10 Squadron mentions a detachment leaving for ME in early July 1942. The others have nothing.

Is there detail on the arrival and operations of the Halifaxes in the ME, and which Wing they were under? Do I have the right squadron numbers? I have them based at Aqir, together with the No. 160 Squadron Liberators.

Many thanks in advance as always!

All the best

Andreas

 

Hi Andreas,

https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/o...estern-desert-and-tunisia-july-1942-may-1943/

Volume IV goes into a day by day description of Light, Medium and Heavy Bomber raids in July then Aug/Sept to end as a summary for the month.

In July numbers of Halifax were low so usually targeted on shipping/ports mixed in with Wellington, Liberator and USAAF Forces.

Delos sinking in Torbuk, first op of 6 Halifax of No.10 Sqn detachment flying No.249 Wing.

5/6 Nov was the first time Halifax used tactically to support 8th Army.

Appendix at the end gives ORBat Squadron/Location numbers from Aug of the heavies.

Ross

 

Not the time you're looking for but close and may contain some interesting info on Halifax use in NA.

Attached file looks at 462 Squadron RAAF and their use of the Halifax in North Africa

 

Thanks both!

I think 462 Sqn RAAF was formed from the detachments of 10 and 76 Squadrons?

All the best

Andreas

 

This came up on another site recently and I posted this:-

"10 and 76 Halifax squadrons sent detachments to the Med in June / July 1942. These Halifax detachments, along with a ground service unit labelled 227 squadron (see below), came together to form 462 squadron on 7 Sept 1942. This unit operated Halifax II through to March 1944 when it was renumbered 614 squadron.

The 227 squadron label was in WW2 first allotted to a Beaufighter detachment on Malta which was absorbed into 272 in June 1942. Then it went to a ground service unit in Palestine meant to service the Halifax detachments sent out from Britain. In turn it was absorbed into 462 as noted above.

Confusingly a new 227 squadron had been formed on Malta on 20 Aug 1942 (some 3 weeks before 462 camee into existence) absorbing a detachment of 235 squadron Beaufighters sent out from Britain!"

As you will see from the above 227 sqn is a bit of a mystery. IIRC the ORB only seems to start in Aug 1942 when it formed on Malta. I've pieced the rest together from various books over the years, mostly related to Beaufighters.

 

And 227 Squadron. On formation it had one Australian air crew member and no Australian ground crew.

 

Thanks again!

All the best

Andreas

 

Received a copy of this book in the post today. Not sure if it has anything of interest for you in it but I can take a look if you want.

 

Yes please!

All the best

Andreas

 

Hi sorry, just doing corrections on the OOB, was there anything?

All the best

Andreas

 

Sorry this completely slipped my mind.
I'll do some digging when I get home and get back to you asap.

 

Thank you!

All the best

Andreas