Traces of World War 2 
Royal Air Force - No. 185 Squadron
01/01/1940 - 30/06/1940

      home - latest update 27 June 2008


Training unit - Handley Page Hampden I and Handley Page Hereford I

History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks

No 185's second incarnation began on 1 March 1938, when it was reformed in the bomber role at Abingdon from 'B' Flight of No 40 Squadron. Initially equipped with Hinds, these were replaced by Battles in June 1938 and in their turn by Hampdens in June 1939. However, it was destined not to become operational, being used as a training squadron and eventually merged into No 14 OTU on 5 April 1940. The same day a new 185 Squadron began to form but its existence was short-lived, disbanding on 17 May 1940

25 August 1939-17 May 1940: Cottesmore


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Operations and losses 01/01/1940 - 30/06/1940
incomplete - only fatalities are listed

01/01/1940: Training, UK. 1 a/c lost, 1 KIA

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01/01/1940: Training, UK.

Pilot Officer (Pilot) Eric A.C. Hill, RAF 42226, 185 Sqdn., age 20, 01/01/1940, Malden (St. John) the Baptist Churchyard, UK
According to BCL Vol.1 - W R Chorley, Hill was the sole occupant of Hampden L4205 when it overshot Cottesmore aerodrome on a training flight and crashed.

Type:

Serial number: ?, -?
Operation: ?
Lost:




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Sources

Air of Authority - 185 Squadron
Air Force POWs 1939-1945
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Bail-outs for 1940
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
German claims and Allied losses, May 1940 - Laurent Rizzotti
The London Gazette
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
Rickard, J (24 March 2007), No. 185 Squadron (RAF): Second World War
Royal Air Force - 185 Squadron
RAF against odds (Time, USA, 27/05/1940)
RAF - Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940)
RAF Museum: British Military Aviation in 1940
RAF Order of Battle, France, 10th May 1940
Royal Air Force History Section
The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945
The Second World War - a day by day account
The War in France and Flanders, 1939-1940, by Major L.F. Ellis, 1954

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Books

Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
L Lucas 'Five Up' (Autobiography of Laddie Lucas) (Wingham 1991)
Rogers '185 The Malta Squadron' (Spellmount 2005)

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Links

Discussion Groups
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
RAF Commands Forum

Other
Abbreviations used in the Royal Air Force
Code Names & RAF Vocabulary

Air Aces
AirRecce - The story of photographic reconnaissance
Airwar over Denmark
Allied World War II Casualties in the Netherlands
Armée de l'Air - Order of Battle, 10th May 1940
Australian Wargraves
Axis History Factbook
Battle-of-Britain.com
De Belgen in Engeland 1940-1945 (in Dutch)
Belgian Aviation History Association Archaeological Team
Biplane Fighter Aces from the Second World War
The Bristol & District Blitz War Memorial - A register of those who lost their lives due to enemy action in Bristol and surrounding districts, 1940-1944
British Aircraft Directory
British Aviation Archaeological Council - Books and research links
Canada's Air Force History
HMS Cavalier
Ciel de Gloire (in French) RAF Squadrons
CWGC Cemeteries Germany
CWGC Cemeteries Netherlands
Czechoslovak airmen in the RAF 1940-1945
Danish WW2 Pilots
Dutch Pilots in RAF Squadrons
Eagles Squadrons (American pilots in the RAF)
Feldgrau.com - research on the German armed forces 1918-1945
Foreign Aircraft Landings in Ireland 1939-1946
'High flight', poem by John Gillespie Magee
Holocaust Memorial Day and Channel Islands Occupation Memorial
I Remember (in Russian and English)
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, poem by W.B. Yeats
Jagdgeschwader 27 (in German)
Luchtoorlog ('Arial War', in Dutch, with many photos)
Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
The National Ex-Prisoners of War Association
Naval History.net
Nordic Aviation during WW2
Order of Liberation (in French/English/Spanish)
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
RAF Upwood
RAF WWII 38 Group Squadrons Reunited
De Slag om de Grebbeberg (Dutch)
Test Flying Memorial
Warbird Alley
War over Holland
World War II Aircraft wrecksites in Norway
www.bomber-command.de

Aircraft crashes on the North Yorkshire Moors, England
Bills-Bunker.de
The Lancastershire Aircraft Investigation Team
Luftfahrt-Archäologie in Schleswig Holstein (in German)
North East Diary 1939-1945
Wartime Leicester and Leicestershire

The Aerodrome - Aces and Aircraft of World War 1
WW1 Cemeteries

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This page is dedicated to the men of 185 Squadron.

© Bart FM Droog / Rottend Staal Online 2008. Permission granted for use of the data gathered here for non commercial purposes, if the primary sources are mentioned and this source is mentioned with a link to http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/index.html