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Pages in category "Royal Air Force squadron leaders" The following 200 pages are in this category, out of approximately 237 total. This list may not reflect recent changes .
In the later years of the war he held a series of squadron commands, and then was a wing leader. He was serving as a staff officer at the end of the war. Remaining in the RAF during the postwar period, he commanded No. 249 Squadron for a time before being appointed to staff roles for much of the remainder of his RAF career. Returning to ...
At 24 years old, as a squadron leader serving with No. 109 Squadron (RAF), he embarked on what was to be his final mission, for which he received the VC. On 23 December 1944 over Cologne , Germany , Palmer was leading a formation of Lancaster bombers on a daylight raid to bomb Cologne's Gremberg railway marshalling yards .
The rank title squadron leader was chosen as squadrons were typically led by RAF majors and the term squadron commander had been used in the Royal Naval Air Service. The rank of squadron leader was introduced in August 1919 [ 3 ] and has been used continuously since then.
In fact, pilots skip the rank of pilot officer and go from officer cadet to flying officer on graduation from officer training school at RAF Cranwell. A squadron leader does not necessarily command a squadron, nor a wing commander necessarily command a wing, nor a group captain command a group. A group will usually be commanded by an AVM.
In April 1940 he was posted to No. 212 Squadron RAF, flying photo-reconnaissance operations. In June he joined the Photographic Development Unit as a flight commander, later transferring to No. 17 Squadron RAF in September, flying Hawker Hurricanes. He soon joined No. 257 Squadron RAF, under the command of Squadron Leader Robert Stanford Tuck. [2]
In March 1942 he was promoted to acting squadron leader and given command of No. 64 Squadron RAF. He was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) on 27 June. [4] During the ill-fated Dieppe Raid on 19 August, Duncan Smith was shot down by an enemy fighter but rescued from the English Channel with injuries and eardrum pain.
Robert Dafforn, DFC (2 March 1916 – 9 September 1943) was a British flying ace who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was credited with having shot down at least eight aircraft. Born in Horton, Berkshire, Dafforn was training with the