RAAF 467 SQN

‘Recidite Adversarius Atque Ferociter’ – 467 SQN Motto 

Formed in November 1942, 467 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force bomber Squadron that was active in the European theatre of operations. It was formed at RAF Scrampton. 467 SQN was formed under the Empire Air Training Scheme, a multi-nation, commonwealth based aircrew training program. The Squadron became operationally active in early 1943. As a bomber SQN, 467 flew Arvo Lancaster heavy bombers, a quad prop aircraft with a crew of 7.

The Squadron formed part of number 5 Group, RAF Bomber Command. The Squadron was involved with many important actions including the bombings of the Rhur, Berlin, and Hamburg. It Supported the Normandy landings and Operation Plunder. The Squadron was primarily dedicated to the strategic offensive against Germany which consisted of night time bombing runs. The squadron also participated in the offensive to remove the threat posed by Germany’s advanced weapons, conducting offensives against the weapons research facility at Peenemende, and on V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket assembly and launch sites in France. 467 was the first of the Bomber Command squadrons to participate in the ‘shuttle service’, a practice whereby a bomber would attack a target in Europe, then land at a North African site to refuel and rearm so that it could attack another European target on the flight back to Britain.

467 Squadron’s last bombing raid of the war was an attack on the oil refinery and tankerage at Vallo in Norway. 467 was identified as one of the bomber SQN’s that would make up the offensive against Japan, however, the war ended before any operations were flown.

Between January 1942 and April 1945, 467 Squadron flew 3,833 sorties and dropped 17,578 tons of bombs. It suffered heavily in the course of its operations. 760 personnel were killed, of whom 284 were Australian, and 118 aircraft were lost.