These pages set out to show not primarily the history of the squadron, but mainly of the pilots who formed 616 squadron throughout the war years. 616 was home to many well known pilots like 'Johnnie' Johnson, 'Cocky' Dundas, and Denys Gillam, and of course Douglas Bader led the Tangmere Wing flying with 616. My aim is to give some detail of the less well known pilots and the groundcrew too, and to show what happened to these men after their time with 616. Ultimately I would like to include every person who served with the squadron, but more important is to have the personal details that provide the human touch.

Information such as aircraft serial numbers are provided simply because the data was available and I realise will be of interest to some readers. Much of this has been taken from secondary sources which I have not been able to verify, so readers must form their own judgement as to its accuracy.

Why 616?

I've often been asked this question, particularly by veterans of the squadron. Back in 1998 when my interest in aviation was being rekindled through use of online flight-sims, I re-read "Johnnie" Johnson's book Wing Leader. Seeing names getting mentioned throughout the book I decided to jot down the details just to get a fuller picture. It was only on doing this that I realised there were more references to other pilots than was apparent.

On reading other personal accounts it became apparent that some of the characters mentioned in Wing Leader were being referred to again. At this point I decided to start collating information. I was quite happy sticking to secondary sources, as my intention was simply to pull together already published information into a single reference point.

Which doesn't answer the question, why 616. Simple enough, they were a Yorkshire based squadron, so as a Yorkshireman I felt a degree of affinity with them. I hadn't fully grasped how big a part the squadron played in the Douglas Bader story, and at that time had no idea they were the first RAF jet squadron, so the choice was not affected by any idea of 616 being an "elite" squadron.

This web site is dedicated not only to the pilots and ground crew of 616 squadron, but to all who served with the RAF from 1939 to 1945.