John Searle’s Royal Air Force Pilots Flying Log Book

John Searle’s Royal Air Force Pilots Flying Log Book

John Searle’s Pilots Flying Log Book from 18th May 1943 until 31st July 1945. Training as a pilot commenced at Nos. 16 and 28 Elementary Flying Training Schools, followed by Flying Training School Cranwell, 28 Operational Training Unit, an unnumbered Conversion Unit, and No. 1 Lancaster Finishing School. Posted for operations to 166 Squadron in September 1944. In October posted to 153 Squadron. Further posting to 78 Squadron in June 1945.

Served at RAF Cranwell, RAF Lindholme, RAF Kirmington, RAF Scampton.

Aircraft flown were Tiger Moth, Oxford, Anson, Wellington, Halifax, Lancaster, C-47 Dakota.

With 166 Squadron Searle flew 1 night bombing operation to Saarbrucken with Flying Officer Bell as his pilot.

He flew, as the pilot, with 153 Squadron 11 day and 19 night bombing operations, and 1 night minelaying operation. His target were Emmerich, Duisburg, Essen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Bochum, Duren, Wanne-Eickel, Aschaffenburg, Freiburg, Ludwigshafen, Bonn, Munich, Zuffenhausen, Kleve, Kattegat, Mannheim, Chemnitz, Kassel, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Misburg, Hildesheim, Potsdam, Helgoland, Berchtesgaden.

He also flew 3 Cook’s Tours with 78 Squadron to Germany.

One booklet

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

LSearleJ1803136v1