161 Squadron

No. 161 Squadron is transferred from RAF Newmarket Heath to RAF Graveley, about eight miles NNE from Tempsford. So far as I can tell, it does not acquire any Whitleys at this stage, and Graveley is its administrative base for the non-moon period.

Postings

S/Ldr Boris Romanoff is posted to 138 Squadron from the Parachute Training Squadron at RAF Ringway. He has spent the past 18 months flying Whitleys at the Parachute Training School (now the Combined Landing School), dropping trainee parachute troops over Tatton Park. He has been at Ringway since June 1940, arriving only two days after Louis Strange. Before then he had served with Ron Hockey in No. 24 (Communications) Squadron. Hockey believes his own transfer to 419 Flight in November 1940 was due to Romanoff’s recommendation (though it’s more likely to have been Strange’s), and now Hockey returns the favour.

Sources

138 Squadron ORB: TNA AIR 27/1068
161 Squadron ORB: TNA AIR 27/1068
Hockey papers, Imperial War Museum