Air Force Index

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No. 31 Squadron Royal Air Force    No 31 Squadron was formed at Farnborough on 11 October 1915 and was sent to Risalpur in India. It saw action along the North West Frontier assisting the army in dealing with tribal unrest by in artillery observation, reconnaissance and ground attack. A detachment also served in Aden from 1917. The end of the Great war brought little change to 31 Squadrons daily life. For the following 20 years it continued to police the Waziristan and Afghanistan regions, assisting the British army in quashing the occasional tribal uprising. It was not until February 1931 that the outdated Bristol F2Bs were replaced by Westland Wapitis and throughout the 1930s 31 Squadron continued its army co-operation duties, including reconnaissance, ground attack and bomber missions. Airfields used by No.31 Squadron: 27 October 1938-December 1939: Lahore December 1939-February 1941: Peshawar February-26 March 1941: Lahore 26 March-September 1941: Drigh Road Detachments to Shaibah, Basra and Habbaniya September 1941-18 February 1943: Lahore December 1941-February 1942: Mingaladon February 1942: Akyab February 1942-April 1942: Dum Dum April 1942-February 1943: Lahore 18 February-21 May 1943: Dhubalia 21 May-21 June 1943: Khargpur 21 June 1943-July 1944: Agartala 11 July-1 November 1944: Basal 1 November 1944-1 January 1945: Agartala 1 January-6 February 1945: Comilla 6 February-15 May 1945: Hathazari 15 May-August 1945: Kyaujpyu August-1 October 1945: Mingaladon   Oct 1939 Change of Duty February 1941 New aircraft 10th April 1941 Coup in Iraq 29th April 1941 Prepared for siege 4th May 1941 Relief troops arrive 17th May 1941 Troop reinforcements 21st May 1941 Troops landed in the desert 8th June 1941 Attack on Syria 1st July 1941 Reorganisation December 1941 Return to India February 1942 Supplies delivered 23rd February 1942 Civilian evacuation from Burma 20th May 1942 Supplies to refugees 14th October 1942 New transport squadron formed in India 15th December 1942 Supply aircraft lost over Burma 28th December 1942 Missing aircraft found by troops 1st January 1943 Support for Chindits February 1943 Operation Longcloth 11th February 1943 Supply drops behind Japanese lines 31st March 1943 Chindit withdrawal ordered 1st May 1943 Dakotas delivered 15th August 1943 Dakota Missing 8th February 1944 Supplies Delivered 9th February 1944 Heel Trap deployed successfully 12th February 1944 No enemy aircraft to be seen 16-20th February 1944 Japanese airforce kept at bay March 1944 Siege of Imphal 3rd March 1944 Congratulations from Mountbatten 5th March 1944 Landing July 1944 Training November 1944 Move into Burma 15th may 1945 PoW's rescued If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Logbooks Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession? If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you. View Logbook entries Those known to have served with No. 31 Squadron Royal Air Force during the Second World War 1939-1945. Altmann DSO, DFC. Otto Reginald. Wing Cmdr. Coates Freddie. Jones Eric E. OHare John Brendon. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of No. 31 Squadron Royal Air Force from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time. The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 16th Jan 2025 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 265273 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQs The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. Want to know more about No. 31 Squadron Royal Air Force? There are:2031 items tagged No. 31 Squadron Royal Air Force available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. John Brendon "Ginge" OHare 31 Squadron John O'Hare joined the SAAF I think because he was born in the Irish Free State and therefore not eligible for UK forces at the time although I am not sure about this. He was 21 at the start of the war but I think joined later. He had many memories of his time training in Palestine and time spent in Lebanon as well as Egypt. He was a navigator on Liberator bombers flying missions over Greece as well as the Middle East and North Africa. He would occasionally talk to us about this, but not often. He was shot down over Tobruk causing an injury which left him partially sighted. He was briefly captured and held in a holding camp but with others escaped into the desert, surviving on rations gleaned from the packs of fallen men. He was able to rejoin his squadron and later spent time in Italy with the USAF, his memories of that time were mostly of how well fed the Americans were compared to the sparse rations he was used to. Post war he came to England and joined the British Army and was a member of REME for 30 years, he retired to Bournemouth and passed away in February 2011 aged 93. I have photos from his time in the Middle East and North Africa. Evelyne O'Hare Add to this record. Eric E "Choppa" Jones B Flight SAAF 31 Sqn RAF 37 Sqn My father served with the squadrons mentioned above as a Straight Air Gunner. I have his Flying Log Book and a few photographs. There are entries for the early months of 1944. His pilot is documented as W/O Howard. According to the summary in his Log Book he flew 39 sorties - 163.45 operational hours. Died 25th December 1991 Peter E. Jones Add to this record. Freddie Coates 31 Squadron Group 205 I have about 40 photos that my late dad, Freddie Coates, took during his service with SAAF Group 205, Squadrons 31 and 34. Lynda Coates Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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