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Membership of the 10 Squadron Association is open to those who are serving or have served on the Squadron in the past, as well as their relatives. Whilst the majority of the sections on the website require a Username and Password to view and hence may only be visited by paid-up Members, a limited number are nevertheless available to all. We hope that you enjoy your visit here.

Association joining details may be found in the Top Menu.

AIMS OF THE 10 SQUADRON ASSOCIATION

• To preserve the spirit of comradeship formed during service with 10 Squadron

• To sustain a close relationship between the Squadron and the Association

• To provide a focus for contact with other former Squadron colleagues or their relatives, by promoting attendance at Annual Reunions and Remembrance Day Services at the 10 Squadron Memorial

• To encourage the collection and preservation of documents, photographs, anecdotes and memorabilia with which the Squadron’s history may be enhanced

• To encourage Squadron and Association members to contribute to the Association website

• To encourage members of the Squadron to join the Association

MEMBERS

See the ‘Crewroom’ for additional articles and images.

103 this week

We send our heartiest Congratulations & Best Wishes

to Association Life Member Albert Hodgkinson in Philadelphia, USA.

Albert was a WW2 Halifax Air Bomber

and celebrated his 103rd Birthday shown below, on 20th January 2025.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALBERT

You 'Hit The Mark'

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10 Squadron was formed at Farnborough on 1 January 1915 but later that week moved to Brooklands, near Weybridge in Surrey. Now based at RAF Brize Norton, as part of the AirTanker Hub, the Squadron operates the Voyager A330 tanker/transport aircraft in the AT (Air Transport), AAR (Air-to-Air Refuelling) and VVIP roles. Together with its sister No 101 Sqn, the two units employ a joint manning strategy on flying tasks, without losing a strong sense of individual unit identity as was evident in the Squadron's Centennial Year of 2015 when HRH The Princess Royal presented No 10 Squadron with a new Standard.

The 10 Sqn Association was formed in 1984 with the aim of preserving the spirit of comradeship formed during active service on the unit and a close relationship continues to be maintained with the present day Squadron. Membership is open to all who have served, or continue to serve on 10 Squadron, together with their relatives or friends of former Squadron members.

If you are a potential member, the Association Committee hopes that you enjoy reading the information on this website and after joining the Association, if you so choose, you will be granted access to the Members' Area, where many past records and other items of interest await you. Joining instructions are given in the Top Menu.

The Association organizes two main events each year. A Reunion Dinner is held each May in the RAF Brize Norton local area, to promote a strong fellowship amongst our members. In November, a Remembrance Day Service takes place at the 10 Squadron Memorial which is located at the entrance to the former RAF Melbourne in Yorkshire, where the Squadron was based in WW2. The ceremony preserves the memory of the personnel who sacrificed their lives when serving on the Squadron in WW2 and also remembers those who have passed away during peacetime in later years. All are welcome to attend. Scroll down further to read of the Memorial.

The 10 Squadron Association 2024

Contacting Us

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is the way to reach us by email but please bear in mind that this is not checked every day, so a reply may take up to a week.

Memorabilia

Be advised that because the Association has no permanent postal address or official 'home' as such, we cannot accept any items of personal memorabilia that family members might consider appropriate to donate to the Association. Whilst we are most grateful for their kindness to think of us as possibly being suitable recipients, it may nevertheless be more practical to donate any such items to a museum or local history society.

In that way, items will be recorded and placed on an inventory which should then prevent them from subsequently appearing for sale on internet 'sales' websites where their future would be indeterminate. Sorry.

Operation Gisela

Just a few weeks before WW2 ended, 10 Sqn took part, along with other squadrons, in a multi-aircraft bombing raid on Kamen, near Dortmund in the Ruhr. As the bombers flew back to their UK bases early in the morning of 4th March 1945, the German Luftwaffe commenced ‘Operation Gisela’ and flew numerous Ju88 aircraft at low level under the RAF bombers, following them back to the UK. When the bombers from many different squadrons were lining up for landing, at their various Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire bases, the Germans attacked them and many were shot down.

Flt Lt Jack Laffoley RCAF, was a WW2 Canadian pilot from Montreal and the captain of the 10 Sqn Mk3 Halifax HX 332 returning to RAF Melbourne in the early hours that morning. Melbourne, along with other nearby airfields, had turned their runway lights off to avoid their airfields being attacked and strafed by the Luftwaffe’s Ju 88s and Jack’s aircraft was told to divert to RAF Leeming. During that diversion his Halifax was shot down in the Wetherby/Topcliffe area and most of his crew died in the subsequent crash, including Jack who was later buried in nearby Knaresborough.

Jack Laffoley’s Canadian nephews Ross and Bob Oliver, both flew in to the UK last November from Kelowna, BC, Canada, and with Ross’s son Tyler, who lives in London, the three attended our November 2024 Remembrance Service at the former 10 Sqn base airfield at Melbourne in East Yorkshire. After the Remembrance Service, Ross told how he had been put in touch with us and went on to read his uncle’s diary including the entry for the day before he died in early March 1945. A presentation was then made to Ross which was a framed 10 Squadron aluminium-plate badge with a small printed explanation underneath, as a memento of their 'Remembrance' visit to the UK.

We are advised by Association member Robert McClements that the Yorkshire Air Museum at the former RAF Elvington, south-east of York, is holding an ‘Operation Gisela afternoon’(YAM) on Sunday 2 March 2025 which will mark the 80^th anniversary of the Operation in March 1945.

All are welcome to attend and it is suggested that further information may be gained directly from the Museum itself. Normal entry charges to the Museum will apply.

See: PLAN YOUR VISIT - Yorkshire Air Museum

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