Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

For the purpose of his website, No. 44 Squadron (RAF)  is included as one of the RAF Squadrons to which Australians were posted during WW II.

The Empire Air Training Scheme supplied tens of thousands of aircrew for the Royal Air Force (RAF) air war in Europe, and later all other theatres of war in which the UK was engaged during WW II. While a number of so-called Article XV national squadrons were created in Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands of the RAF, the majority of Australian aircrew were posted, along with their Commonwealth colleagues, to RAF Squadrons as individual crew members,where they would 'crew up' often with a very multi-national aircrew comprised of men from all over the Commownwealth. Ground staff were similarly assigned. RAAF personnel flying in NW Europe sustained the heaviest casulaties of ny group of Australian personnel in WW2.

This history an extract of the RAF MoD UK site.

Formed in 1917 and disbanded in 1919, No.44 Squadron was re-formed at Wyton in March 1937, as a bomber squadron with Hawker Hinds, moving later in the year to Waddington, where it re-equipped with Blenheims and then Hampdens.

Commanded at the outbreak of the Second World War by Wing Commander JN Boothman of Schneider Trophy fame, the squadron's early operations consisted mainly of North Sea sweeps, security patrols and minelaying. There followed raids on land communications, on Hitler's concentrations of invasion barges in the Channel and North Sea ports, on Luftwaffe airfields and naval targets, as well as the first raids on German industrial centres.

In September 1941, the squadron's title was altered to "No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron" in recognition of that country's generous donations to the war effort. This was particularly appropriate as about a quarter of the squadron's personnel were Rhodesian. The association is preserved in the squadron's badge which features an African elephant.

In December 1941, the squadron's Hampdens were withdrawn and early in 1942 No.44 became the first squadron to convert completely to Lancasters. It quickly made this aircraft's vastly increased striking power felt by the enemy. In a memorable low-level unescorted daylight raid on the MAN Diesel factory at Augsburg in Southern Bavaria on 17th April, Squadron Leader JD Nettleton, leading a combined force with No.97 Squadron, won the VC. For a brief period No.44 enjoyed the distinction of having on its strength two recipients of the supreme award for valour, since the CO at this period was Wing Commander RAB Learoyd VC.

Pressure on the enemy steadily increased. Not only did No. 44 Squadron throw all its weight into Bomber Command's relentless assault on German industry, but it also raided ports and U-boat shelters, as well as the Peenemunde V-weapons experimental station and targets in Northern Italy.

As the war approached its climax, with the Allied invasion of Europe, No.44 Squadron played its part in the disruption of communications in France, in the bombing of enemy coastal defences and semi-tactical support of the ground forces, before turning its attention to V1 launching sites in the Pas de Calais. Concentration now turned to starving the enemy of his oil supplies and wrecking his transport system, coupled with the reduction of hostile garrisons in the path of our armies.