About This Unit
No. 144 Squadron (RAF) - Squadron code 'PI'
No. 144 Squadron (RAF) is included on this site because it was one of many RAF squadrons to which RAAF personnel were posted during WW2 as a part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, and many RAAF personnel served and died in this and the other squadron of the RAF to which they were assigned.
The group of personnel, posted as individuals all over the globe, were collectively referred to as ‘the odd bods’. Collectively they suffered one of the highest combat loss rates of any WW2 cohort of Australian personnel, approached only by the 8th Division and other personnel who becasme PoW of the Japanese, most of which were not of course combat losses. The loss rates reflect the circumstances of the RAF.
Originally raised in the Middle East in 1918, No.144 Squadron began the Second World War equipped with the twin-engined Handley Page Hampden. Its first operation, a patrol over the North Sea, came on 26 September 1939, and the squadron then spent the next few months dropping leaflets over Germany. Once the 'Phoney War' hotted up and Norway was invaded, the squadron began bombing operations.
In April 1942 No.144 Squadron and its Hampdens were transferred to Coastal Command, where it assumed a torpedo-strike role. After training in Scotland, the squadron moved to north Russia, to protect the Arctic convoys against German surface attacks. As it turned out the biggest threat to the convoys were U-Boats and no German warships were encountered during the two months that the squadron spent at Afrikanda and Vaenga. The squadron eventually sailed home without its aircraft, and began to fly anti-submarine patrols and attacks on enemy shipping, from bases in Scotland.
In January 1943 the Hampdens, which had effectively been obsolete when the war began, were replaced by Bristol Beaufighters, a particularly effective heavily-armed, fast and relatively manoeuvrable aircraft, with which the squadron continued to carry out a maritime strike role.
A detachment of the squadron was assigned to Algeria in North Africa from June-August 1943, carrying out anti-shipping strikes in the Mediterranean, while a detachment remained in Scotland.
In May 1944 No. 144 Squadron moved to Davidstowe Moor in Cornwall, to support Operations Neptune and Overlord. Its role was to protect the western flank of the invasion fleet against any German naval attack. By the end of June, it was apparent that the risk of enemy surface attack had pretty much evaporated, and the squadron was re-located north to Lincolnshire, to attack German shipping off the Dutch coast. This was followed by a final return to Banff Aberdeenshire in Scotland, where it was incorporated into the so-alled "Banff Strike Wing" (coincidentally, the other two squadrons were RACF) first in a torpedo attack role, and then from January 1945 as a flak suppression squadron, to neutralise German anti-aircraft fire while the other two squadrons of the wing carried out their rocket attack and torpedo strike roles.
No. 144 Squadron was disbanded on 29 May 1945 at Dalachy in Scotland. It was re-raised in the late 1950s as a "Thor" Ballistic Missile unit but disbanded finally in 1963.
Compiled by Steve Larkins Dec2018
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