1576 Flight was stated as formed in September 1943 (although the records list flights under the 1576 Flight designation in August 1943) and was based at Chaklala.
1576 was formed from elements of the Air Landing School (India)
This was a unit set up in October 1941 to train Paratroopers and Supply dropping personnel at Chaklala.
In August, 1944 some of the Hudson a/c of this unit were designated 1576 Flight, responsible for "SOE" flights.
1576 Flight received some Liberators, but there is no record of them being used on operations. Oughton in "The Liberator in Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Service" list these as BZ952 (X), BZ954 (Y) and BZ956 (Z). The records of 357 Squadron state that it had three Liberator III's when formed from 1576 Flight.
On 1st February 1944, 1576 Flight became one of the components which was the basis for 357 Squadron RAF.
The Operational Records for 1576 Flight do not appear to be in the National Archives at Kew, however, there is one file which gives some data on the operations of the Flight; Air 20/8443.
Listing of flights by month, October 1943 to January 1944.
(including the code names of the SOE-SIS operations)
(note: this transcript only contains portions of the full transcript above, and some details may have changed)
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Last updated: September 14, 2012