Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

No. 19 Squadron is included on this site as one of the many RAF Squadrons to which RAAF personnel were posted and in which they lived fought and often died in WW2. The cohort of RAAF personnel posted to the UK were known somewhat disparagingly by their Pacific-posted colleagues as "odd-bods" (becasue they were posted generally as individuals to RAF units) and "Jap-Dodgers" by people who clearly had no informed idea that they suffered the highest proportion of losses of any group of Australian WW2 serviceme personnel apart from those assigned to Malaya Singapore and subsequently as POW of Japan comprising personnel from all three services, but primarily Army 8th Division.

Extract from RAF MoD Website

WW1

No. 19 Squadron was formed from a nucleus provided by No. 5 Reserve Squadron at Castle Bromwich on 1 September 1915. It was almost a year later that the Squadron went to France, flying contact patrols with BE12s before re-equipping with French-built Spads. These were used to strafe ground troops during the battles at Arras, Messines Ridge and Ypres. Early in 1918, Sopwith Dolphins arrived and these were used in bomber escort duties.

Inter War years

A year after the end of the War, the Squadron was disbanded reforming on 1 April 1924 at Duxford. The Squadron remained at Duxford throughout the inter-war years with a succession of fighters: Siskins, Bulldogs and Gauntlets before the classic Spitfire arrived in August 1938.

WW2

The Squadron remained in the UK after the outbreak of war, and was part of No. 12 Group, Fighter Command, during the Battle of Britain.

This segment on their role in the Battle of Britain from a piece by Peter Hoy

The RAF’s 19 Squadron were deployed to Fowlmere on 24th July 1940 from their home base at nearby Duxford. They were already a famous Spitfire squadron having
been the first operational RAF squadron to be equipped with Spitfires in 1938.

The young pilots had recently given a good account of themselves whilst defending British troops retreating from Dunkirk, the Spitfire’s scoring 13 enemy kills with the
loss of only 4 of their own aircraft.

The battle of Britain was already raging as the Luftwaffe’s bombers were concentrating their efforts on bombing all RAF’s airfields. This was the main reason for the Squadron’s redeployment from Duxford. At Fowlmere they were considered to be out of harms way and could be used effectively to counter the German bomber threat to North Weald, Debden, and Duxford.

19 Squadron’s identification letter code was QV and all Spitfires operating out of the grass airstrip at Fowlmere carried these markings.

The 31st August 1940 was one of the worst days for Fighter Command suffering their greatest losses of the entire summer’s fighting. It was also one of the darkest days of the battle of Britain for 19 Squadron. They engaged the enemy over Duxford and Debden in bitter air battles, and while they were away their base at Fowlmere was bombed by the Luftwaffe.

Pilot Officer Ray Aeberhardt was involved in this fighting and his Spitfire was hit and damaged by enemy fire. He nursed the stricken machine back to Fowlmere, and attempted to land without the use of flaps to control speed and descent. The aircraft flipped over onto its back and caught fire killing the pilot. He is buried in the churchyard at nearby Whittlesford. He was nineteen years old.

Later versions of Spitfires were flown until the arrival of Mustangs for close-support duties in early 1944, and transfer of the unit to the 2nd Tactical Airforce  for operations in support of the D Day Landings.  After D-Day, No. 19 briefly went across the Channel before starting long-range escort duties with Coastal Command off the coast of Norway.

Post WW2

In March 1946, late Mk Spitfires replaced the Mustangs, but the association was short-lived as twin engined de Havilland Hornets (a fighte derivative of the Mosquito) began to arrive later that year. It wasn't until 1951 that the Squadron received its first jet aircraft, the Gloster Meteor.  The superlative Hawker Hunter replaced these in 1956, before English Electric Lightning interceptors arrived in late 1962 and the Squadron moved to Gutersloh, Germany. By 1977, the Lightnings had been traded in for McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantoms, and the Squadron moved to Wildenrath where it remained until the station closed, and the Squadron disbanded in January 1992.

The numberplate was then assigned to one of the three Hawk squadrons at RAF Valley; No. 63 (Reserve) Squadron becoming No. 19 (Reserve) Squadron in September 1992.  No 19 Squadron has since been disbanded at RAF Valley.