Number 23 Operational Training Unit was formed in April 1941 at RAF Pershore as part of Number 6 Group RAF Bomber Command to train night bomber crews using the Vickers Wellington. It carried out three operational sorties during 1942 and was disbanded in March 1944 with most of the aircraft moving to Number 22 Operational Training Unit.
No. 6 Group RCAF oversaw the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) heavy bombersquadrons in Europe during the Second World War, between 1942 and 1945. The groupoperated out of airfields in Yorkshire, England. There was technically no 6 Group RAFduring the Second World War, although a unit by that name had been previously active in the RAF, in: 1918; 1924–26, and 1936–39 (when it was a training unit).[2][3]
The group was made up of Article XV squadrons: RCAF units formed under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, for service with British operational formations; hence No. 6 Group was part of Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command. However, a significant number of personnel from the RAF, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and other Allied air forces were attached to 6 Group during the war.
RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF‘s bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and the civilian manpower base essential for German war production. In total 364,514 operational sorties were flown, 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a high casualty rate: 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4 percent death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war.
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs‘ Chief Designer, Rex Pierson in response to specification B.9/32. Issued in the middle of 1932, this called for a twin-engined day bomber of higher performance than any previous design. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined “heavies” such as the Avro Lancaster.
The Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft. It was the only British bomber to be produced for the duration of the war and was still first-line equipment when the war ended. The Wellington was one of two bombers named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellesley.
[Wikipedia]
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