358 Squadron RAF
358 Squadron was formed on November 8, 1944 at Kolar, India.
The original crews were mainly from the 1673 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU).
It flew its first (and only) bombing mission on Jan. 13, 1945. It was then assigned to "Special Duties" (SD). It dropped agents and supplies behind the enemy lines, and after VJ day, supplies to POW camps.
It was disbanded on Nov. 21, 1945.
Wartime Bases were:
Aircraft types flown:
Transcripts of Operational Records
Most of the transcripts of the form 540's and 541's have been done -- but they still are at a very "preliminary stage"; as typed with few corrections to the transcripts. The transcripts are based on the records held by the National Archives, Kew. The records for 358 Squadron are in Air 27/ 1765 to 1769.
It should be noted that there are many inconsistencies in the spelling of name, initials and service numbers in the original records. The discrepancies are so numerous, it is considered impossible to correct these.
358 Squadron Forms 540 and 541, November 1944 to November 1945
This is a pdf file which contains all of the above doucments in one file.
(After Oct. 2012, all updates will be in this file only.)
The various "Section Reports" from 1945 which are in the "Appendices" of the Squadron's records have been transcribed.
There are some "questions" on a couple of them, and on a few records, area of the text could not be read.
Each month has a different number of reports, as there seems no consistency on which reports were placed in the records.
|January 45 Appendices||February 45 Appendices|
|March 45 Appendices||April 45 Appendices|
|May 45 Appendices||June 45 Appendices|
|July 45 Appendices||August 45 Appendices|
|September 45 Appendices||October 45 Appendices|
The 358 Squadron Records at Kew are amazing in the documents they contain.
There are a number of microfilm rolls which are labeled "Appendices" which contain documents other than the "Section Reports".
Some of these files are the "Operation Orders" and "Sortie Reports", and I have transcribed a number of them (but in "as typed" state).
Operation Orders and Sortie Reports for January, 1945.
Updated: July 29,, 2013