It was detached from its base in Rutland to St Eval in Cornwall, and on the very first occasion that it operated from there, 17 July, a crew captained by Flight Lieutenant PR Casement (Lancaster I R5724) became the first Bomber Command crew to bring back irrefutable evidence that they had destroyed a U-boat at sea, in the form of a photograph showing the U-boat crew in the water swimming away from their sinking vessel.
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This was followed on 7/8 March 1940 by the first bombing mission, when one Hampden, during a security patrol of Sylt-Borkum-Norderney, bombed an enemy destroyer which opened fire on it.
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the attacks on Le Creusot and Peenemünde (17 October 1942 and 17/18 August 1943, respectively);
RAF Bomber Command | The Sabre Squadron | RAF Sculthorpe | RAF Northolt | RAF Coastal Command | No. 33 Squadron RAF | No. 263 Squadron RAF | RAF Ringway | RAF Lakenheath | RAF Brize Norton | squadron | RAF Leuchars | Pacific Squadron | RAF Mount Pleasant | RAF Mildenhall | RAF Greenham Common | RAF Fighter Command | No. 45 Squadron RAF | No. 127 Squadron RAF | RAF Wyton | RAF Welford | RAF Valley | RAF Tangmere | RAF Search and Rescue Force | RAF Molesworth | RAF Lossiemouth | RAF Leeming | RAF Honington | RAF Coningsby | RAF Alconbury |
Birchwood used to hold an old airfield from World War Two, RAF Skellingthorpe, which hosted No. 50 Squadron and No. 61 Squadron, both of which were bomber squadrons, equipped with such planes as the Avro Lancaster.
Bigalk died on 17 July 1942 when U-751 was sunk with all hands by depth charges dropped by a Whitley bomber from No. 502 Squadron RAF and a Lancaster bomber from No. 61 Squadron RAF in the North Atlantic north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain.