Page 16 - John George Blair

February 1941, re-formed at Waddington in No. 5 Group as a heavy-bomber
squadron equipped with Avro Manchesters; March 1941, moved to Coningsby;

April 1941, began operations against Fortress Europe; January 1942 the Squadron
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began to convert to Lancasters; 17 April 1942, in conjunction with 44 Squadron
made historic low level daylight attack on MAN Diesel engine works at Augsburg.

June/July 1942, took part in 1,000-bomber raids on Cologne, Essen and Bremen;
October 1942, took part in No. 5 Group's famous dusk attack on Schneider
locomotive and armament works at Le Creusot and the Group's (and Bomber
Command's) first daylight attack on Italy (Milan); April 1943, moved to Bourn, joined
No. 8 (PFF) Group and became a "marker" squadron; June 1943,
marked/illuminated Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen and Italian naval base at
Spezia on occasion of first "shuttle-bombing" raid; April 1944, returned to Coningsby
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and No. 5 Group to help lead the Group against separate targets; 25/26 April 1945,
the Squadron flew its final offensive mission.

In the Second World War No.97 Squadron flew a total of 4,091 operational sorties
and lost 130 aircraft. The following decorations were awarded to members: 21
DSOs, 222 DFCs, 2 bars to DFCs 157 DFMs, 2 bars to DFMs 1 OBE and 1 BEM.