Overview The Group was formed on 1 September 1937, with its headquarters at
RAF Mildenhall, in
Suffolk. In October the same year, the group headquarters (HQ) was moved to
St Vincents Hall in
Grantham,
Lincolnshire. During the Second World War, 5 Group was concentrated primarily in south Lincolnshire (whereas 1 Group was more concentrated in the north of the county). Most of the 5 Group airfields were around Lincoln, including
RAF Scampton. By the end of the Second World War, the Group had grown to 18 squadrons, 17 equipped with the
Avro Lancaster and one with
De Havilland Mosquitos. During the war, it also included a proportion of
Royal Australian Air Force (or Australian-born RAF) personnel, both aircrews and ground staff, who were concentrated in three "
Article XV squadrons":
No. 455 Squadron RAAF from August 1941-April 1942;
No. 463 Squadron RAAF from November 1943; and
No. 467 Squadron RAAF from November 1942. The Group also famously included the elite
No. 617 Squadron, perhaps better known as "
The Dambusters". 617 Sqn was formed in March 1943, and comprised RAF,
RAAF,
RCAF and
RNZAF aircrew personnel, who had been hand-picked from squadrons throughout Bomber Command. Led by 617 Squadron, the Group often engaged in special missions, using new weapons, such as
Barnes Wallis's
bouncing bombs, and two type of "earthquake bomb":
Tallboy and
Grand Slam.
1939 – 1945 From 11 September 1939 until 22 November 1940,
Air Vice Marshal (AVM)
Arthur Harris was in charge. The group started the war with 10 squadrons, all equipped with the
Handley Page Hampden. The Group continued to fly only Hampdens until the northern winter of 1940–1941 when it began to convert to the new
Avro Manchester. , 1943 Early in 1942, the Manchester, was replaced by its four-engined variant: the
Avro Lancaster, started to equip the group squadrons. On 17 October 1942, under
Operation Robinson, some 86 Lancasters from 5 Group (without fighter escort) flew deep into occupied France to attack the Schneider armaments works at
Le Creusot and the associated electrical station at
Montchanin. On the night of 22–23 October, 85 Lancasters of the Group attacked
Genoa without a single loss. On 24 October, 74 Lancasters delivered a daylight attack on
Milan. In May 1943, 617 Squadron breached two of the
Ruhr dams during the famous "Dams Raid":
Operation Chastise. AVM
Ralph Cochrane, who was to become influential in terms of Bomber Command tactics, took command of 5 Group in October 1943. Group HQ was moved to Morton Hall, at
RAF Swinderby in November 1943, Using the
Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight (SABS) and the Tallboy, 617 Sqn achieved a bombing error of only at the
V Weapon launch site at
Abbeville, during December 1943. During the lead-up to
D-day, Cochrane was an advocate of low-level marking, to improve accuracy, and lobbied heavily to be allowed to prove the principle operationally. New systems of target-marking were developed as result and were tested by 617 Squadron – especially its commanding officer, Wing Commander
Leonard Cheshire, using the
de Havilland Mosquito and
North American Mustang. (Cheshire was subsequently awarded the
Victoria Cross and taken off active operations). In April 1944 two Pathfinder squadrons,
No. 83 and
No. 97, along with
No. 627 Squadron equipped with Mosquitos, were returned to 5 Group allowing them to act as an independent force using their own marking techniques. The special missions included
attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz in late 1944 and the use of the Grand Slam against the strategically-important
Bielefeld railway viaduct, in March 1945. 5 Group was disbanded on 15 December 1945. ==Notable raids==