550 Squadron and RAF North Killingholme Association

Squadron Operations: Summary Information

Overview

There follows below a list of the all of the operations flown by 550 Squadron and the aircraft involved on each. The information used to build this page was taken in the first instance from the lists provided on the original Squadron Association web-site, but has been augmented by new information gathered since that time (squadron operations logs, individual aircrew log books, and other sources).

This information is not yet complete: it has been build from the a number of sources (documentary and people) and compilation of complete lists is an ongoing task that is expected to take quite some time to complete. So please don't shout just yet if you spot an omission - work continues to build a more complete, and accurate, list.
Do however shout if you spot an error! Please email any corrections or information to the contact details in the link at the bottom of the page.

Operation Summary: The column headers should be fairly self-explanatory. The term "aborted" as used here covers a number of possibilities:

the operation was cancelled before crews were briefed
the crews have been briefed as to the target, and in some cases the planes may even have been bombed up and the crews on-board at their stations awaiting take-off, before the op has been stood-down
finally a number of cases where the op was already under way and the planes en-route but for whatever reason the operation was aborted (e.g. the master bomber orders the attack cancelled due to weather conditions at target adversely affecting targeting).

Aircraft Deployed: When a link to a particular aircraft is given, this indicates aircraft known to have taken part in this raid (in the records currently available to the web-site author). A record of whether the aircraft returned or failed to return (FTR) is also logged.

Servicemen Deployed: Names of the crew in the operation.

Station Summary: This section is the information from the RAF North Killingholme Station Record Book for the operational date (if available).

Definitions of the abbreviations used are available: here.

Manageable Lists

The amount of data in the database is growing and this is resulting in the "all operations/targets" list getting rapidly bigger and thus slower to generate. There are options to display shorter, more quickly generated, reports if you want to home in on something specific. For example, there are options to generate reports on operations to a single target, or by single aircraft (to all targets) or by single aircraft to a single target. There is, on the database-reports summary page, a short user guide (PDF format) on how to do this.

Operation/Target: Calais (25 Sep 1944 - 25 Sep 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Calais	25 Sep 1944	25 Sep 1944	N	25 aircraft and crews detailed, briefed and took off to blast the Hun out of Calais, precision bombing was called for owning to the close proximity of Allied troops The weather conditions were bad over the target and the Master Bomber ordered all aircraft to return to base with their bombs.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
NG138	Returned	Abandoned on instructions of Master Bomber [Ed. ORB states NG138 "F2". According to Lancaster movement cards NG138 was never transferred to 550 Sqdn (see: http://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.com/Data/Form-78s/Lancaster/NG113-NG199/mobile/index.html). NG133 "F2" is possibly meant (as cited as "F2" the ORB before loss on 14 Oct 1944, Duisburg operation).]	F/L R P Stone (P) F/Sgt C W Sawyers (Nav) Sgt G E White (F/Eng) F/Sgt E W Holliday (A/B) Sgt D E Norgrove (W/Op) Sgt L G B Wartnaby (MU/AG) Sgt W G Beney (R/AG)

Operation/Target: Calais (27 Sep 1944 - 27 Sep 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Calais	27 Sep 1944	27 Sep 1944	N	17 aircraft and crews took off for Calais early this morning once again to bomb the Hun into submission. The weather was good and the bombing results were excellent.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
NG138	Returned	Primary 4800 at 10.14 hrs. [Ed. ORB states NG138 "F2". According to Lancaster movement cards NG138 was never transferred to 550 Sqdn (see: http://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.com/Data/Form-78s/Lancaster/NG113-NG199/mobile/index.html). NG133 "F2" is possibly meant (as cited as "F2" the ORB before loss on 14 Oct 1944, Duisburg operation).]	F/L R P Stone (P) F/Sgt C W Sawyers (Nav) Sgt G E White (F/Eng) F/Sgt E W Holliday (A/B) Sgt D E Norgrove (W/Op) Sgt L G B Wartnaby (MU/AG) Sgt W G Beney (R/AG)

Operation/Target: Walcheren (03 Oct 1944 - 03 Oct 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Walcheren	03 Oct 1944	03 Oct 1944	N	17 aircraft and crews detailed to attack and destroy a sea wall which prevent the sea innundating the low lying areas on the island of Walcheren. The weather was bad, 6/10 cloud over the route and 9/10 cloud over the target. The Master Bomber brought the attack down to 4000 ft to bomb and all aircraft were able to identify visual details of the coastline, many aircraft made several runs to ensure accurate bombing. As our portion of the attack developed the wall was breached and gave way in several places and the water crashing rhough, flooding far and wide across the fields and we hope drowned the enemy defences. Good photographs were obtained. In addition to operational flying, a training programme was carried out which included five "Y" cross country exercises. The final summing up of the operations can be made with the quotation from two communiques - (1) A report brought back by two specially reporting Mosquio aircraft shows that the flooding was extensive. (2) The aircraft carrying the 12000lbs "blockbusters" and scheduled to finished off the job at the end of the attack, all brought them back undropped - they were not needed as the job had already been completed.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
NG138	Returned	Primary 5,300 ft at 14.39 hours. [Ed. ORB states NG138 "F2". According to Lancaster movement cards NG138 was never transferred to 550 Sqdn (see: http://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.com/Data/Form-78s/Lancaster/NG113-NG199/mobile/index.html). NG133 "F2" is possibly meant (as cited as "F2" the ORB before loss on 14 Oct 1944, Duisburg operation).]	F/L R P Stone (P) F/Sgt C W Sawyers (Nav) Sgt G E White (F/Eng) F/Sgt E W Holliday (A/B) Sgt D E Norgrove (W/Op) Sgt L G B Wartnaby (MU/AG) F/Sgt F Wright (R/AG)

Summary Statistics

Based on the data in the lists displayed above, and keeping in mind that data is still being updated and thus not yet complete, the following statistics are generated:

Aircraft Deployment Statistics

Aircraft deployments	3
MAX Aircraft deployed in single operation	1 (Calais, 25 Sep 1944)

These details were last updated: 17 January 2025

Note

this list is still being built and will take some time to complete
what is currently displayed is believed accurate but much more is still to be added

This note describes the options currently available to produce a smaller, more manageable list and also describes planned future enhancements to the reporting facility.

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