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Introduction

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You can search and download Air Ministry and successors operations record books for squadrons. These records, held by The National Archives in the series AIR 27, consist of record books that provide a daily record of events in each squadron entered on a Form 540, with appendices (Form 541) including some photographs (many of which may have different covering dates from those of the books themselves). Also included are some Operations Record books for Dominion and allied air force squadrons under British Command. Though the system of Operations Record Books started after the First World War few books in this series date from before the mid 1930s.    

At present only pieces 1 – 2893 are available to download.

What are the Squadron Operations Records?

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The object of the Operation Record Book was to furnish a complete record of a unit from the time of its formation, including an accurate record of operations carried out. Information was collected for future reference with a view to improving the organisation, equipment and administration of the Royal Air Force. The records are arranged by squadron number, and date and time of sortie or flight. Information includes aircraft type and number, names and rank of flight crew, names of passengers, weather conditions and flight/sortie details.

Searching the records

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You can search the records by:

Alternatively, you may wish to browse details of the whole collection.

A point to note when searching:

We have transcribed each record onto our database as either Summary of Events, Records of Events or Appendices. The type of record is displayed in the online description along with the letter “Y”. For example, if you are downloading a Summary of Events the online description will state: “Summary of Events: Y”

What could these records help me to discover?

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The records of AIR 27 can be used to create a list of all the flying operations that RAF aircrew completed. They are also an excellent source for building a picture of squadron operations.

What do the records look like?

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The majority of the records consist of standard RAF Form 540 diary pages with a mix of handwritten and typed formats.

To get an idea of what the records look like have a look at these examples which show the Summary of Events and the Records of Events of 101 Squdaron for December 1943.

Further research

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You can locate further information by referring to the following record series:

AIR 28 Air Ministry and Ministry of Defence: Operations Record Books, Royal Air Force Stations.

AIR 29 Air Ministry and Ministry of Defence: Operations Record Books, Miscellaneous. These include training units, flying schools and photograph reconnaissance units.

Air Ministry: Combat Reports, Second World War (AIR 50) – available to download from DocumentsOnline.

Research guides

Royal Air Force operations

Books

Royal Air Force Records: A guide for family historians, William Spencer, The National Archives, 2008

Royal Air Force Day by Day, Graham Pitchfork, published in association with the RAF Museum, 1998