Bomber Command medium bombers over Norfolk in March 1941 The squadron was formed at
RAF Honington in
Suffolk on 29 July 1940, RAF records give the official date as 2 August. It was crewed mostly by Czechoslovaks who had escaped from
German-occupied Europe. Some were airmen who had trained with the
Czechoslovak Air Force, escaped to
France, served in the
French Air Force in the
Battle of France and then been evacuated to Britain. Others were soldiers who had served in
Czechoslovak Army units in the Battle of France, been evacuated and then volunteered to transfer to the
RAF Volunteer Reserve to serve in 311 Squadron. The squadron was equipped initially with
Vickers Wellington Mark I medium bombers, which were soon succeeded by the improved Wellington Marks IA and IC. From 16 September 1940 the squadron was based at
RAF East Wretham in
Norfolk as part of
3 Group of
Bomber Command. The group's commanding officer was
Air Vice-Marshal John Baldwin who said that 311 Squadron "put up a wonderful show" and had "the finest
navigators in Bomber Command". On 18 January 1941 HM King
George VI and his consort
Queen Elizabeth visited the squadron at East Wretham. On 6 February 1941 six of the squadron's Wellington Mk IC aircraft took part in a raid on
Boulogne-sur-Mer in
German-occupied France. On the return flight one aircraft, serial
L7842, code KX-T, suffered navigation problems. Then it ran low on fuel, its commander
Pilot Officer František Cigoš mistakenly judged that they were over England and he landed at
Flers in northern France. Both the aircraft and its crew were captured. The
Luftwaffe repainted it in German markings and transferred it to its
Erprobungsstelle (experimental and test facility) at
Rechlin–Lärz Airfield in
Mecklenburg. bomber at
RAF East Wretham in Norfolk On 20 June 1941 the squadron gave a dinner for the President of the
Czechoslovak government-in-exile,
Edvard Beneš. Other guests included Foreign Minister
Jan Masaryk and Defence Minister, General
Antonín Hasal-Nižborský. The squadron was with Bomber Command for 19 months. In that time it flew 1,029 sorties, attacked 77 targets, dropped of explosive bombs and 95,438
incendiary bombs. It attacked targets in Germany, Italy, and
occupied Belgium, France and the
Netherlands. Its most frequent targets were
Cologne,
Hamburg and
Kiel in Germany and
Dunkirk,
Brest and Boulogne in France. The squadron deployed 318 airmen formed into 53 aircrew. 94 were killed on operations and 34 were captured, a loss rate of more than 40 per cent. Unlike crews drawn from Britain or the
Commonwealth nations, there were no Czechoslovak replacement crews arriving to fill the ranks of the lost. To keep the squadron functional, it would have to be put to a different use.
Coastal Command At the end of April 1942 the squadron was transferred from Bomber Command to
Coastal Command to undertake maritime patrols. It moved to
RAF Aldergrove in
Northern Ireland on 28 April and began maritime patrol training on 1 May. The squadron was made part of
No. 19 Group RAF, moved to
RAF Talbenny in
Wales on 12 June and undertook its first
anti-submarine patrol on 30 June. Its Wellingtons lacked
air to surface vessel (ASV) radar but despite this between June 1942 and April 1943 the squadron achieved the highest success rate of any Coastal Command squadron. Throughout July and August the squadron's Wellingtons remained in night bomber Temperate Land Scheme camouflage, dark green and dark earth above and black below. This was unsuitable for maritime patrols, but not until September 1942 were the aircraft repainted in Coastal Command's Temperate Sea Scheme, dark slate grey and extra dark sea grey above, and white below. In April 1943 the squadron was partly re-equipped with five Wellington Mark X aircraft. This could carry two torpedoes or of bombs but it was primarily a Bomber Command variant, not designed for maritime patrol work. Air Vice-Marshal
Karel Janoušek, Inspector-General of the Czechoslovak Air Force, eventually convinced the British
Air Ministry to re-equip the squadron with
B-24 Liberator 4-engined
heavy bombers, as these had
radar and a longer range, both of which made them more suitable for maritime patrols. Conversion training began on 25 May and continued until August. On 26 May 1943 the squadron moved to
RAF Beaulieu in
Hampshire. On 4 August it celebrated its third anniversary. Guests again included President Beneš and Foreign Minister Masaryk. They included also General
Sergej Ingr, who had succeeded General Hasal-Nižborský as Defence Minister, and the head of Coastal Command,
Air Marshal John Slessor. On 21 August 1943 the squadron began maritime patrols with Liberator GR Mk V aircraft and continued anti-submarine work but now over the
Bay of Biscay. On 10 November Liberator BZ774/D, led by
Flight Sergeant Otto Žanta, attacked with
RP-3 rocket projectiles off the
Galician coast. The submarine ran aground and her crew abandoned her. On 27 December 1943 Liberator BZ796/H, led by Pilot Officer Oldřich Doležal, attacked the German
blockade runner in the Bay of Biscay. Doležal's crew set the cargo ship on fire with five RPs and a bomb and she sank the next day. in
Hampshire in July 1943 In February 1944 the squadron was re-equipped with nine
Liberator C Mk VI aircraft. On 23 February it moved to
RAF Predannack in
Cornwall. On 24 June Liberator FL961/O led by
Flying Officer Jan Vella, along with the s and , attacked and sank just west of the
English Channel. ,
Oxfordshire. Sholz was the flight engineer of Liberator IV EV995 when it crashed on the beach at
Tain,
Ross-shire, Scotland, on 10 April 1945. Six of its crew were killed and three injured. On 7 August 1944 the squadron transferred to
RAF Tain in
Scotland and its area of operations changed from the Bay of Biscay and
Western Approaches to the
North Sea. In September its rôle was changed from day to night anti-submarine patrols. On 27 October
Fleet Air Arm aircraft from damaged , forcing her to run aground on the coast of
German-occupied Norway. Two days later two 311 Squadron Liberators,
FL949/KX-Y led by Flying Officer Josef Pavelka and BZ723/KX-H led by
Squadron leader Alois Šedivý, damaged the grounded submarine with salvos of RPs. Later two
Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers of
502 Squadron finished off
U-1060 with
depth charges. In February 1945 the squadron was re-equipped, this time with Liberator C Mk VI aircraft that carried anti-submarine
Leigh Lights. In March the squadron took part in the "Chilli-II" and "Chilli-III" raids on German submarine training areas in the
Baltic. Number 311 Squadron was with Coastal Command for 38 months, in which time it flew 2,111 sorties. By the end of the war 247 of its men had been killed, either in combat or in accidents. Thirty-three of its members were released from German prisoner-of-war camps. One prisoner, Pilot Officer
Arnošt Valenta, was
murdered by the Gestapo in March 1944 for taking part in the
Great Escape from Stalag Luft III.
Peacetime transport After the
End of World War II in Europe, on 26 May 1945 the Czechoslovak government-in-exile formed the
Letecká dopravní skupina ("Air Transport Group"), and recruited most of its personnel from 311 Squadron. Its initial aircraft were two
Avro Anson C XII aircraft bought from the RAF. On 12 June 1945 the unit began flights to
Ruzyně Airport, Prague. By October the
Letecká dopravní skupina had also acquired a number of
Siebel Si 204D aircraft seized from Germany as
war reparations. On 25 June 1945 the remainder of 311 Squadron was transferred to 301 Wing,
RAF Transport Command. It too flew transport flights to Ruzyně Airport, the first being on 30 July from
RAF Manston in
Kent, where the squadron was based from 3 August. On 21 August the squadron moved to Ruzynĕ. The squadron first transferred military equipment and personnel from Britain to Czechoslovakia and then repatriated Czechoslovak civilians. Czechoslovak runways were found to be unsuitable for Liberators and in December 1945 all those of 311 squadron were returned to Britain landing at
RAF Valley in Wales. The squadron was officially disbanded as an RAF unit at
RAF Milltown in
Moray, Scotland on 15 February 1946. Most of its personnel had transferred to the Czechoslovak Air Force in August 1945 and in Czechoslovakia the unit was officially disbanded on 15 January 1946 but its personnel were not officially discharged from the RAF until 30 June 1946. On 15 January 1946 311 Squadron became the Czechoslovak
6 letecká divize ("6th Air Division") at
Havlíčkův Brod in southeastern Bohemia. In May it was divided into
Letecký pluk 24 and
Letecký pluk 25 ("24th and 25th Air Regiments").
Letecký pluk 24 was given the name
Biskajsky ("Biscay") and initially equipped with
de Havilland Mosquito FB Mk VI fighter-bombers.
Letecký pluk 25 was given the name
Atlantický ("Atlantic") and equipped with
Petlyakov Pe-2FT aircraft. ==Squadron codes==