Spezia - code-named Operation Bellicose - and the famous attack against the V-2 rocket research facility at Peenemünde. Among the targets attacked in 1944 were a coastal gun battery at Saint-Pierre-du-Mont and the V-1 flying bomb storage sites in the caves at Saint-Leu-d'Esserent. In December 1944, it made a 1,900-mile round trip to bomb the German Baltic Fleet at Gdynia, while in March 1945, it was represented in the bomber force that so pulverised the defences of Wesel just before the Rhine crossing that Commandos were able to seize the town with only 36 casualties. In April 1945, came the last of the squadron's operations of the war – a bombing raid on an oil refinery at Tønsberg in Norway, and a simultaneous minelaying expedition in the Oslofjord. During World War II, No. 106 Squadron operated on 496 nights and 46 days, flying 5,834 operational sorties. In so doing it lost 187 aircraft – a percentage loss on sorties flown of 3.21 – but on the credit side its gunners claimed 20 enemy aircraft destroyed, 3 probably destroyed and 29 damaged. A total of 267 decorations were won by the squadron, including a Victoria Cross awarded to Sergeant Norman Cyril Jackson for conspicuous bravery during an attack on Schweinfurt on 26/27 April 1944. After VE Day, No. 467 Squadron RAAF arrived at RAF Metheringham to train with No. 106 Squadron for the planned invasion of Japan but the end of the war made this redundant and the squadron was used to fly POWs and troops home, principally from Italian bases, until it finally disbanded at Metheringham on 18 Feb 1946. Post war reformation The squadron was reformed – as 106(SM) Sqn. – on 22 July 1959 as one of 20 Strategic Missile (SM) squadrons associated with Project Emily. The squadron was equipped with three PGM-17 Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles and based at RAF Bardney. In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the squadron was kept at full readiness, with the missiles aimed at strategic targets in the USSR. The squadron was disbanded on 24 May 1963, with the termination of the Thor Program in Britain. Aircraft operated Line drawings of aircraft operated Bomber Command World War II Bases See also List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons List of UK Thor missile bases References Bibliography External links 106 Squadron 106 Squadron