On 24th July 1917, No. 44 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, was formed at Hainault Farm, near Ilford, Essex, from a cadre of No 39 Squadron. The newly-formed Squadron was placed under the command of Major T O B Hubbard AFC. Among the experienced pilots withdrawn from the Western Front in France was the then Lieutenant Cecil Lewis, whose observations in his book ‘Sagittarius Rising’ gave us an insight into the sometimes cynical views held by Royal Flying Corps aircrew on the politicians of the day.

Sopwith Strutter

Initially the Squadron was equipped with Sopwith 1½ Strutters, which were elderly two-seat fighters no longer suitable for operations on the Western Front. These obsolete aircraft were soon replaced with more capable Sopwith Camels and the Squadron was tasked with a night fighter role to oppose raids against London by Zeppelin airships and later, the giant Gotha and ‘R’ bombers of the German Air Force. The Squadron could count itself fortunate in its early commanding officers, which included such stellar characters as Major Gilbert W Murlis-Green, who took command in August 1917, the redoubtable Major Arthur Harris, destined for global fame as AOC Bomber Command in World War II, and Quentin Brand, who later commanded 10 Group, Fighter Command, during the Battle of Britain.

Sopwith Camel Jul 17-Dec 19

The Squadron was disbanded in 1919, but reformed in the bombing role in March of 1937 at RAF Wyton. Its first aircraft was the Hawker Hind two-seat light bomber, the appearance and performance of which was little different from that of its First World War predecessors, and to which it bore a striking resemblance.

Hawker Hind Mar 37-Dec 37

The Squadron remained at Wyton for only ten days before moving to Andover. Here too it would remain for only a brief period, moving to RAF Waddington on 16 June 1937. Six months after arriving at Waddington the Squadron re-equipped with the Bristol Blenheim Mk 1, a twin engined, three-seat light bomber. Although the Blenheim was a marked improvement on its predecessors, the aircraft was a conversion of a civil airliner and, as such, it was woefully inadequate for war, as time would prove.

Bristol Blenheim Dec 37-Feb 39

Having cut its teeth on modern monoplane aircraft, 44 Squadron re-equipped in February 1939 with the Handley Page Hampden, a twin engined medium bomber; the second Waddington squadron to do so. In general, the crews demonstrated an ambivalent attitude towards their new aircraft. They fully approved of its manoeuvrability and speed, the Hampden being faster than either the Wellington or the Whitley. It was nearly as fast as the Blenheim IV and could carry over twice the Blenheim’s bomb load almost twice as far. On the other hand, the Hampden was poorly armed and had far too many blind spots. Among the crews’ comments at the time regarding their new mount, was that which claimed “If you kicked a Hampden, it would burst into flames.” This was probably an oblique reference to the lack of self-sealing fuel tanks. This aircraft was flown by the Squadron for the first two years of combat operations in WWII.

Handley Page Hampden Feb 39-Dec 41

At the outbreak of the war, most of the crews were pre-war regulars, few of whom would survive to see the end of the war in Europe. At a very early stage, Bomber Command and indeed its squadrons, discovered that daylight attacks against Germany and its conquered territories were virtually suicidal. Hence the Command switched to night attacks. In common with all the other squadrons of the Command, 44 Squadron’s crews soon found that they were singularly ill-equipped or trained to locate targets accurately at night, other than those on the coast or near easily identifiable geographic features.

Initially, the Hampdens of 5 Group were tasked with carrying out attacks on aircraft factories, storage depots and German oil refineries. In addition, the Hampden was to be the main mine-laying aircraft of Bomber Command, being the only aircraft in the Command capable of carrying and dropping the 1,500 lb ‘M’ mine. This latter task proved to be highly dangerous, as the Germans became very conscious of the mining threat and defended their harbours, estuaries and coastal waters with searchlights, flak batteries and flak ships.

With the threat of invasion considered imminent, bolstered by reports of some 1,600 sea-going barges and ships arriving in the ports of Holland, Belgium and France, these targets were accorded the highest priority. Air attacks on harbours had become extremely hazardous, and it is worth reflecting on the fact that during the ‘Battle of Britain’, Bomber Command lost 719 bomber aircrew, together with 231 from Coastal Command and 34 from the Fleet Air Arm: a total of 984 aircrew. During the same period, Fighter Command lost 513 fighter aircrew. So the ‘Battle of the Barges’ cost the loss of nearly twice the number of aircrew as the ‘Battle of Britain’. Sadly, the aircrew of Bomber Command were accorded scant recognition for their efforts and sacrifice. Furthermore, when campaign medals were being awarded, the crews of ‘The Other Few’ were denied the entitlement of adding a clasp to their 1939/45 Star. Astonishing though it seems, it was not until 2013 that Bomber Command veterans who satisfied the eligibility criteria were granted permission to apply for a Bomber Command Clasp to be worn on the 1939 to 1945 Star.

Once the threat of invasion passed, the Squadron resumed its attacks on targets in Germany and the occupied territories, including Berlin and targets even further afield. Apart from the dangers presented by a developing enemy night fighter capability, there was the additional hazard that many of the targets were at the extreme range of the Hampden. It required only minor errors of navigation, or a change in meteorological conditions and Hampden crews could find themselves forced to ditch in the North Sea or carry out forced landings soon after crossing the UK coast. There are no approved figures available regarding how many crews were lost as a result of having run out of fuel, but it must have been a considerable number. The problem was eventually addressed by higher authority and the Hampden was fitted with underwing fuel tanks, albeit ones that could not be jettisoned. This extra fuel, together with the additional weight of guns and armoured protection for the pilot and internal fuel tanks, resulted in a marked degradation in performance. Despite this, the crews’ morale remained remarkably high and they continued to go out night after night , only too well aware of the cruel rate of attrition.

On 16 September 1941 the crews of 44 Squadron caught their first sight of the future when the prototype Lancaster rolled off an approach at Waddington. Two months later the Squadron was renamed No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, in honour of the Rhodesian contribution to Britain’s war effort. As many as 25% of the Squadron’s air and ground crews were Rhodesian. A new Squadron badge was awarded, based on the seal of Lobengula, the chief of the Matebele, with an elephant symbolising heavy attacks.

In addition to that honour, the Squadron had been chosen to be the first recipient of the four-engined Lancaster bomber. Accordingly, on Christmas Eve 1941 the first three Lancasters were delivered to Waddington. After a brief period of conversion training, some of which was carried out on the unloved twin-engined Manchester, the Squadron flew its first operational sortie on the night of 3/4th March 1942 when four Lancasters were tasked with mine-laying in the Heligoland Bight.

Avro Lancaster Dec 41-Jun 47

While most of the Squadron crews began to operate as part of the ‘Main Force’ of Bomber Command, selected crews were screened from operational flying and commenced intensive training for an as yet unknown mission. This proved to be the audacious 12-aircraft low level daylight raid on the MAN diesel engine works at Augsburg, Bavaria, on 17 April 1942. The Squadron lost five of the six crews taking part in that fateful raid. For his outstanding skill and courage in leading the raid, the then Flight Commander, Sqn Ldr J D Nettleton was awarded the Victoria Cross. In addition, all members of his crew were decorated, though few of them survived the following months.

Chris Stothard’s painting depicting the daylight raid on the MAN diesel engine plant at Augsburg, Bavaria.

Three weeks later, the Squadron despatched seven crews in an attack on the Heinkel aircraft factory at Warnemunde on the shore of the Baltic Sear near Rostock, in the course of which it lost four experienced crews, including its newly-appointed commanding officer, Wg Cdr Lynch-Blosse DFC. With the loss of nine of its most experienced crews, the Squadron was temporarily screened from all but the most important operations until it had regained its operational strength.

Back on the Bomber Command Order of Battle, the Squadron took part in all the Main Force operations throughout the rest of the war, including attacks on the battleship Tirpitz, the 1,000 bomber raids, Peenemunde, Berlin, the Ruhr, Normandy, Nuremburg and Mailly-le-Camp. In 1943, led by the now Wg Cdr Nettleton, the Squadron moved to RAF Dunholme Lodge and finally, in September 1944, to RAF Spilsby. In July 1945 the Squadron moved to Mepal, Cambridge, as part of Tiger Force, to prepare for operations in the Far East. However, the war ended abruptly soon after the use of atomic weapons in August 1945, and the Squadron reverted to its normal role with Bomber Command. By the end of WWII the Squadron had suffered the third highest casualties of Bomber Command.  

Winston Churchill’s letter to AOC-in-C Bomber Command, commending the courageous actions of 44 and 97 Squadrons.

The immediate post-war years saw the beginnings of the Cold War, From 1946 to 1947 the Squadron’s Lancasters were replaced by Avro Lincolns, converting in 1951 to the Boeing Washington (the RAF’s name for the B-29 Superfortress). The Squadron then moved into the jet age when it converted to the English Electric Canberra, which it operated during the Suez Crisis, before disbanding once more on 16 July 1957 at RAF Honington.

Avro Lincoln Oct 45-Jan 51

Boeing Washington Apr 51-Jan53

English Electric, Canberra Apr 53-Jul 57

Reformed yet again at RAF Waddington during 1960, the Squadron became part of RAF Bomber Command’s V-Force. The V-Force was UK’s nuclear deterrent force in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The V-Force, made up of Valiant, Victor and Vulcan aircraft was also assigned to NATO. The Squadron was equipped with the Avro Vulcan B1 from August 1960, upgraded to the Vulcan B1A in January 1961.

In the early days of NATO, the United Kingdom was also a member of CENTO, the Central Treaty Organisation, originally known as the Baghdad Pact, and also a member of SEATO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation. V-Force aircraft, including those of 44 Squadron, periodically demonstrated their ability to reach those more distant parts of the world. With the demise of both CENTO and SEATO the commitments disappeared and the secondary role of conventional bombing with high explosive 1000lb bombs was scrapped.

The V-Force were designed to operate up to 50,000 feet as high level bombers and the Squadron crews practised the role as a vital part of their training. In the early 1960s the Soviets acquired a surface to air missile and shot down an American U2 spy aircraft that was flying at high altitude over the Soviet Union. The bomber was no longer safe in the upper airspace and Bomber Command changed its tactics from high level penetration and bombing to flying close to the ground to penetrate under the enemy’s search radar lobes.

Designed for high altitude, the airframes of the Valiant and Victor could not cope with the turbulent air close to the ground. Fortunately, the Vulcan airframe was stronger; 44 Squadron and its sister Vulcan Squadrons became an all-weather, day and night, low level nuclear deterrent force.

In January 1968 the Squadron was equipped with eight Vulcan B Mk 2 aircraft, armed with WE177 nuclear laydown bombs. This improved survivability markedly by enabling the delivery aircraft to remain at low level throughout the penetration and weapon delivery phases. The Vulcan squadrons often trained and exercised with our NATO allies and low level training in the vastness of Canada and the USA was particularly good value.

To guard against a surprise attack, every V-Force squadron had one aircraft on Quick Reaction Alert, QRA, every minute of the day. The QRA aircraft were parked close to the end of the runway, armed with a nuclear weapon, and the 5-man crew lived in their flying suits close to their aircraft at 15 minutes readiness; ready to take off within 15 minutes. In the very late 1960s, the Royal Navy’s submarines, armed with Polaris nuclear missiles, took over the QRA commitment. The transfer of QRA made no difference to the Vulcan squadrons’ training, nor to their strategic targets in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. In effect, the submarines replaced the Valiants and Victors.

On the 2nd April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands and our Prime Minister despatched a Naval Task Force to retake the islands. The Task Force Commander, Rear-Admiral Woodward, wanted the runway at Stanley put out of action so that the Argentinians could not use it for their fast jet aircraft to attack our Naval Task Force. Any raids on the Falklands by RAF aircraft would have to be mounted from Ascension Island, and with a round trip of about 8000 miles to the Falklands and back, the only aircraft that could fly the sortie using air-to-air refuelling was the Vulcan.

On the 9th April 1982, the Station Commander at RAF Waddington received a signal instructing him to generate aircraft in the conventional bombing role and to re-activate the air-to-air refuelling systems. Nobody at Waddington had ever dropped a 1000lb high explosive bomb from a Vulcan and nobody was checked out on air-to-air refuelling. The Station Commander put the Squadron Commander of No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron in charge of a small training and planning team, together with Vulcan Mk 2 aircraft with the more powerful 300 series Olympus engines for the increased weight of 21 x 1000lb high explosive bombs. He was given four crews from the three squadrons left at RAF Waddington, including one crew from 44 Squadron. The Vulcan operations were given the code name Black Buck.

On the evening of the 30th April, and morning of the 1st May 1982, Flt Lt Withers and his crew from 101 Squadron, flying Vulcan XM607, a 44 Squadron aircraft, put a huge crater in the Stanley runway. The raid required 13 Victor tanker aircraft and one Nimrod to support the Vulcan and at the time the nearly 16-hour sortie was the longest bombing sortie in the history of air warfare. The Argentinians gave up their attempts to use the runway for their fast jets.

Notwithstanding the successful attack by ‘Black Buck 1’ on the runway at Port Stanley, the mere threat of a Vulcan attack on mainland Argentina was sufficient to draw all their air defence fighters away to the north of the country. This left the Argentinian air effort restricted to fighter-bomber attacks on the task force and troops on the ground. Similarly, it meant that there was little or no fighter defence of the occupied islands. After a number of long range bombing sorties, the Vulcan force was re-rolled for anti-radar operations. Once again, the crews’ successes in this unfamiliar role were down to the engineering expertise at RAF Waddington, and the dedication and flexibility of the air and ground crews deployed to Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island. All in all, the Falkland Island episode showed that, when called upon, the men of the Royal Air Force, and in particular those from No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, will rise to any challenge and live up to the examples set by their illustrious predecessors in two World Wars.

The full story of the Black Buck operations is told in the excellent book by Roland White, ‘VULCAN 607’. This aircraft, XM607, was the only Vulcan to ever drop a bomb in a conflict; it became the RAF Waddington Gate Guardian in 1983 and is now on display alongside the A15. At the end of the conflict, 44’s Squadron Commander returned to his Squadron, taking the Black Buck crews with him. The Squadron’s role changed from nuclear to conventional bombing, with an air-to-air refuelling capability, and the Squadron continued in Service until the 21st December 1982, when it became the last Vulcan bomber squadron to disband.

At the 2007 reunion, held that year in June, no less than 16 of the original 22 Vulcan aircrew involved in the South Atlantic conflict returned to the station to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event, along with more than 130 Association members.

In June 1982, Vulcan XH558 was converted into a Vulcan B Mk 2(K) Tanker and flew with 50 Squadron before reverting to its original form in 1985 and flying for a further 8 years as the Vulcan Display Aircraft. Squadron Leaders Paul Milliken and David Thomas, both former members of 44 Squadron, were the display pilots. Following the aircraft’s retirement from RAF service, a dedicated team of enthusiasts led by Dr Robert Pleming at Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire vowed to restore 558 to an airworthy condition. In 2006 the ambitious ‘Vulcan To The Sky’ project was born. Despite daunting technical and financial obstacles, the aircraft was finally ready to fly in October of 2007, fourteen years after its last RAF flight. The Vulcan enjoyed an astonishing popularity with the general public and, post-resurrection, it went on to delight air show crowds until the end of the 2015 flying season. The crew flying the Vulcan on its return to the air were all former members of the Squadron. They were: Sqn Ldr David Thomas, pilot; Sqn Ldr Martin Withers, pilot; Sqn Ldr Andy Marson, navigator and Sqn Ldr Barry Masefield, AEO

Avro Vulcan Aug 60-Dec 82

Copyright Charles Toop: charlestoop@vulcan-photographer.co.uk