No. 5 Group RAF
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No. 5 Group (Motto: "Undaunted") was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part (February 1943 - 1945) by Sir Ralph Cochrane. Cochrane was an advocate of precision low-level marking, and lobbied heavily to be allowed to prove himself, and that 5 Group could attempt targets and techniques that 8 Group would not.
Cochranes No. 617 Squadron proved his point when they broke the Ruhr dams from a height of 60 feet, and later, using the new Stabilised Automatic Bomb Sight, achieved an incredible accuracy of only 94 yards at the V Weapon launch site at Abbeville. 5 Group invented various techniques, such as the '5 Group corkscrew' to evade enemy fighters, and the '5 Group quick landing system'.
The Group was formed on September 1st 1937, with headquarters at RAF Mildenhall. In October 1937, the Group HQ was moved to St Vincents in Grantham. Air Commodore Arthur Harris was in charge here from September 11th 1939 until November 22nd 1940. In February 1942, he became Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command. The Group had some of the finest squadrons of Bomber Command, resulting in the Dambusters squadron being formed from airmen of the Group in March 1943. Group HQ was moved to Morton Hall at Swinderby in Lincolnshire in November 1943. Most of the Group's main airfields were around Lincoln, including RAF Scampton. By the end of the war the group had grown to 15 squadrons.
The Group was noted for its high accuracy bombing, such as the sinking of the Tirpitz in November 1944 and the shattering of the strategic Bielefeld railway viaduct in March 1945. The Group had substantial cooperation with Barnes Wallis and his bouncing and earthquake bombs.
Notable raids
- First "thousand-bomber attack" on Cologne on 30 May 1942 (shared)
- "Dambuster" attack on the dams at the Möhne Reservoir and the Edersee on 17 March 1943 (without backup)
- Attack on Heilbronn, 4 December 1944 (without backup)
- Attack on Dresden on 13 February 1945 (without backup on the first attack)
- Grand Slam attack on Bielefeld on 14 March 1945 (without backup)
- Attack on Würzburg, 16 March 1945 (shared)
External links
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