Second World War North Africa and the Mediterranean, Italy and North West Europe operations group

[Wilko]

A little departure from my normal collecting. However this little group positively jumped of the screen when I was searching for Imperial EK's the other day and I just had to have it.

This group is attributed to Vernon S.E. Lewis, of Carshalton, Surrey. Who appears to have seen service with 225 Squadron, which flew the Hawker Hurricane, North American Mustang and later the Supermarine Spitfire MkV & IX.

225 squadron reformed on 3 October 1939 around 'B Flight' of No. 614 Squadron, and until 11 October was known as No.614A Squadron. They flew the Westland Lysander, and spent most of its time over the next few months training with the army. The squadron was not operational during the Battle of France, only becoming active in June 1940 when it was used to fly patrols along the coast of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, watching for the expected German invasion fleet. The squadron also began to provide Air-Sea Rescue cover from 6 May 1941.

In January 1942 the squadron converted to the Hawker Hurricane and began to train in the tactical reconnaissance role. A number of Mustangs were also used from May 1942.
In November 1942 the squadron took part in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. By now the Mustangs had been removed, and the squadron operated a mix of Hurricanes and Hurribombers. It flew into Maison Blanche airfields in Algiers on 13 November, and began operations four days later.

During the campaign in North Africa the squadron flew a mix of missions. Tactical reconnaissance was most common, but ground attack, pathfinder sorties and tactical bombing missions were also flown. During this period the squadron converted to the Spitfire.

In the summer of 1943 the squadron took part in the attacks on Pantellaria and Lampedusa, then in August helped support the invasion of Sicily. The squadron took part in the Salerno landings in September, moving to the beachhead on 15 September although bombing raids soon forced most of the squadron to move out again.
From mid-December to January 1944 the squadron flew photoreconnaissance missions over Yugoslavia, before moving to the Italian west coast to take part in the advance on Rome. On February it took part in the fighting around Cassino, then from March it was heavily involved in the battle for the Anzio bridgehead.

In July the squadron moved to Corsica in preparation for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. The squadron moved onto French soil for the first time on 20 August, and spent the next month supporting the advancing armies, but when the ground forces joined up with the armies advancing from Normandy the squadron returned to Italy. It spent most of the rest of the war supporting the armies as they fought their way into northern Italy. It then became part of the occupation forces in Italy, before being disbanded on 7 January 1947.







Wilko