76 SQUADRON.

Can anyone give me any details on this unit.It was in a film on t.v.tonight.

[Graeme]

No 76 Sqn was formed on 15 September 1916 and served as a Home Defence unit until it was disbanded on 13 June 1919. It flew from various 'fields in Yorkshire with BE2c, BE2d, BE2e, BE12, BE12b, Camel, Avro 504K and Bristol F2b.

Unless you mean 76 Sqdn Royal Australian Air Force

76 RAAF was formed in March 1942 and deployed in July at Milne Bay with 75 RAAF. In August the Japanese invaded Milne Bay as part of their advance towards Port Moresby and in 2 months torrid fighting 75, 76 and 30 RAAF helped the AUstralian Army defeat the Japanese which was the first time in WWII that a Japanese invasion force had been defeated and evacuated. 76 Sqdn later took aprt in the defence of Australia, flying from various bases in the Northern Territory and later hopped through the South Pacific supporting the Australian Infantry until at the Armistice they were supporting Australian Forces in Borneo. 76 were part of the Occupation Force and were sent home just before the outbreak of conflict in Korea. 76 later served in Malta, and later flew CAC Sabres from Williamtown forming the Black Panther aerobatic team. Re-equipped with Mirages but later missing out on F18's, they got Macchi's instead as an OTU type role. Dont know what the squadrons current status is.

Some off-topic history, but history not commonly known outside of Australia. Australians are pretty proud of their fighting record in the South Pacific but unfortunately it doesnt get much media time.


cam

[Graeme]

Cam

there's a tenuous link with 'down-under' -
'our' 76 Sqn reformed in April 1937 was equipped with Hampden bombers in April 1939 and eventually ceased to exist when it merged with No 7 Sqn RAF. It re-merged as 76 Sqn in May 1941 equipped with Halifax bombers and a detachment went to Palestine, eventually becoming No 462 Sqn. In May 1945 76 Sqn became part of Transport Command and converted to Dakotas. It moved to India in September and became No 62 Sqn.

1953 was a very good year, but back to aviation; 76 reformed with Canberra bombers and in 1956-57 a detachment was sent your way for atomic cloud sampling over Australia and Christmas Island. The squadron finally disbanded 31 December 1960.

Graeme