Si placet necamus - We destroy at will

No. 139 Squadron was formed at Villaverla, Italy, on 3rd July 1918, as a fighter-reconnaissance squadron equipped with Bristol Fighters, and between that date and the Armistice it claimed the destruction of 27 enemy aircraft (a further seven were classified as "probably destroyed"). Disbanded in 1919, The squadron reformed on 3 September 1936 at Wyton, equipped first with Hawker Hinds and then Bristol Blenheims. On 3 September 1939 a Blenheim IV of the squadron piloted by Andrew McPherson was the first British aircraft to cross the German coast after Britain had declared war on Germany. On 4 September 1939, Nos. 110, 107 and 139 Squadrons led the first RAF air raid of the war against German shipping near Wilhelmshaven. In December 1939, the squadron was moved to Betheniville, France and in May 1940 when based at Plivot it was overrun by the German advance and lost most of its aircraft. In December 1941, the squadron converted to the Lockheed Hudson aircraft, which it operated in Burma until April 1942. In June 1942, the squadron returned to England and re-equipped with the Blenheim V before quickly switching to the de Havilland Mosquito at Horsham St. Faith. On 3 March, it carried out a daring air raid on the molybdenum processing plant at Knaben in Norway. It is believed that this was one of the raids on which the fictional work 633 Squadron was based. As a result of this raid a number of flight crew received decorations. On 20 March, the squadron lost a number of aircraft a week before the official announcement of the decorations. In the summer of 1943 No. 139 Squadron changed over to night raiding and joined the Pathfinder Force, its early work with the PFF consisting mainly of preceding waves of heavy bombers to drop Window (thin strips of metal foil) and so confuse the enemy's early warning radar, and making "spoof" raids on other targets to divert enemy night fighters from the primary target attacked by the "heavies". In 1944 it became an H2S-equipped Mosquito marker squadron and during the year visited a long list of the most famous targets in Germany - Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Mannheim, Hanover, Duisburg, Lübeck, and many others. Very many 4,000-lb. "cookies" were dropped on these targets in addition to TIs (target indicators) to guide the main force heavies. Amongst other duties the squadron inaugurated the "Ploughman" raids in which each aircraft dropped a single bomb on each of four different diversionary targets; and it lit the way for minelaying operations in the Kiel Canal. .

No.139 Sqn Aviation Art Prints, Paintings and Drawings Aviation Art

Strike on Berlin by Anthony Saunders. 5 editions. 4 of the 5 editions feature up to 3 additional signatures. £2.00 - £475.00

Mosquito Coast by Stephen Brown. 2 editions. Both editions feature up to 2 additional signatures. £95.00 - £120.00

Night Hunters by Anthony Saunders. 5 editions. 4 of the 5 editions feature up to 3 additional signatures. £2.00 - £475.00

Christmas Hunt - Bristol Fighter F2B by David Pentland. 4 editions. £2.90 - £220.00

Climbout from Plivot by Ivan Berryman. 8 editions. £2.90 - £1100.00

Return of the Pathfinders by Anthony Saunders. 2 editions. Both editions feature up to 4 additional signatures. £120.00 - £195.00

The First Blow by Gerald Coulson. This single edition is sold out. The edition features an additional signature.

Text for the above items :

Strike on Berlin by Anthony Saunders. The swaggering figure of the Reichsmarshal swept imperiously into the Air Ministry on Berlin's Wilhemstrasse, his jewel-encrusted baton and extravagant uniform as flamboyant as ever. This was Saturday, 30th January 1943, the tenth Anniversary of the Nazi Party coming to power, and Goering was about to deliver the main speech in tribute to the Party and its leader, the Fuhrer - Adolf Hitler. The Royal Air Force had other plans for the anniversary. In stark defiance of the imagined air security safeguarding Berlin, brave pilots of 105 and 139 Sqn's took to the air in de Havilland Mosquitoes, on course for Germany. Their mission: RAF Bomber Command's first daylight raid on Berlin! The raid was timed to perfection and three Mosquitoes of 105 Sqn raced headlong, low level towards their target - the Haus des Rundfunks, headquarters of the German State broadcasting company. It was an hour before Goering could finally be broadcast. He was boiling with rage and humiliation. A few hours later, adding further insult, Mosquitoes from 139 Sqn swept over the city in a second attack moments before Goebbels addressed a Nazi mass rally in the Sportpalast. Goering's promise that enemy aircraft would never fly over the Reich was broken, the echo of that shame would haunt him for the rest of the war. This dramatic painting pays tribute to this pivotal moment in the war, capturing the Mosquito B.Mk.IVs of 105 Sqn departing the target area, following their successful strike on the Haus des Rundfunk.

Mosquito Coast by Stephen Brown. Seagulls take flight as the distant drone of Merlin engines starts to rise above the sound of wind and surf on their deserted beach. Overhead Mosquito B Mk IVs of 139 Squadron return low across the North Sea after a successful mission. In moments they will be gone, with only a few miles to navigate before they land at their base at Horsham St Faith in Norfolk.

Night Hunters by Anthony Saunders. In a desperate attempt to save what remained of the once-proud, now ruined city of Berlin, the remnants of the Luftwaffe's beleaguered night-fighter units fought boldly till the end. Short on fuel, spares and ammunition, the pilots of NJG11 faced the impossible task of protecting the shattered capital from the far-reaching arm of the RAF Bomber Command. As the climax of the inevitable defeat approaches, Leutnant Jorg Cypionka of 10./NJG11 engages a powerful incoming force of fast, high-flying RAF Mosquitos from 139 (Jamaica) Squadron (PFF) in one of his unit's few remaining ME262A jets. The Mosquito crews, however, know the dangers of these hotly contested skies over Berlin only too well. From the night of 20/21 February the aircraft of 139 Squadron will run the deadly gauntlet of flak and night-fighters on 36 consecutive night attacks on the city.

Christmas Hunt - Bristol Fighter F2B by David Pentland. 139 Squadron RAF in North Italy, December 1917

Climbout from Plivot by Ivan Berryman. Bristol Blenheim IV N6215 of 139 Sqn is depicted departing the squadron's base at Plivot, France, on 12th May 1940. Sadly, it was a mission from which neither the aircraft, nor the crew would return, XD-Q being lost in a crash at Lanaken, Limburg in Belgium that same day with the loss of three crew.

Return of the Pathfinders by Anthony Saunders. Never had there been an aircraft like the de Havilland Mosquito; constructed almost entirely of wood with two Merlin engines bolted under each wing it could outrun any other piston-engine fighter in the world. Only when the Luftwaffe's Me262 jet came on the scene did the enemy have anything of such speed but, unlike the Me262, the Mosquito - nicknamed the 'Wooden Wonder' - was perhaps the most versatile aircraft of World War II. Allied squadrons operated Mosquitos in a huge number of roles including both day and night-bombers, night-fighter, as a ship-buster with Coastal Command, bomber support, photo-reconnaissance and, thanks to its speed and manoeuvrability as one of the finest intruders of the war. Mosquitos carried out some of the most dangerous and daring low-level pinpoint precision strikes ever seen and, of course, as part of the RAF's elite Pathfinder force. Formed in 1942 and led by the inspirational Don Bennett, perhaps the finest navigator in aviation history who became the youngest Air Vice-Marshal in the RAF, the Pathfinders were Bomber Command's specialist target-marking squadrons who, flying ahead of the main bomber force, located and identified their assigned targets with flares. Return of the Pathfinders depicts the Pathfinder Mosquitos of 139 (Jamaica) Squadron, a unit that had joined Bomber Command's No 8 (Pathfinder) Group in July 1943. Dawn breaks over a crisp, icy landscape in a burst of colour that illuminates the Mosquitos as they follow the course of the River Great Ouse on their return to RAF Upwood after a long overnight trip to Germany in early 1944. During a period that began on the night of 20 / 21st February 1944 this particular squadron undertook a series of 36 consecutive night attacks on Berlin.

The First Blow by Gerald Coulson. Published to mark the 50th anniversary of the first RAF bombing raid of the second world war, on the 4th of September 1939 by the Blenheims of 107, 110 and 139 squadrons.

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View No.139 Sqn RAF Aircraft

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View No.139 Sqn RAF Signatures

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