No. 462 Squadron RAAF

No. 462 Squadron RAAF
A No. 462 Squadron Halifax in 1944, the yellow tail stripes identifying it as part of No. 4 Group RAF.
Active	1942–1944 1944–1945 2005–current
Country	Australia
Branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Role	Heavy bomber (1942–1944) Electronic warfare (1944–1945) Information operations (2005–current)
Part of	Information Warfare Directorate
Current location	RAAF Base Edinburgh
Battle honours	Fortress Europe, 1940–1944 France and Germany, 1944–1945 Ruhr, 1940–1945 Berlin, 1940–1945 German Ports, 1940–1945 South-East Europe, 1942–1945 Egypt and Libya, 1940–1943 North Africa, 1942–1943 Mediterranean, 1940–1943 Sicily, 1943 Italy, 1943–1945 El Alamein El Hamma
Insignia
Squadron Codes	Z5 (Aug 44 – Sep 45)
Tail markings	Three vertical yellow stripes
Aircraft flown
Bomber	Handley Page Halifax

No. 462 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron which forms part of the Information Warfare Directorate in the RAAF's Air Warfare Centre. The squadron was first formed in 1942 as a heavy bomber unit and saw combat in this role in the Mediterranean area until it was disbanded in March 1944. It was reformed in the United Kingdom in August 1944 to participate in the bombing campaign against Germany, and in December that year converted to a specialist electronic warfare unit. No. 462 Squadron continued in this role until the end of the European war in May 1945 and was disbanded in September that year. The squadron was reformed in its current role during April 2005.

No. 462 Squadron was formed on 6 September 1942 at RAF Fayid, Egypt as an RAAF Article XV squadron. However, the original air and ground staff, were transferred from three British Royal Air Force (RAF) units: 10, 76 and 227 Squadrons. Because of this, almost all of it personnel were non-Australian and it initially had only a single Australian airman and no Australian ground crew.

The squadron was equipped with Handley Page Halifax B. Mk. II heavy bombers and flew its first operation on the night of 8–9 September 1942 against ground targets at Tobruk. No. 462 Squadron was the only Halifax-equipped squadron in North Africa during 1942 and suffered from shortages of aircrew as a result. This problem became so severe in December that the squadron became non-operational until January 1943.

RAAF Overseas Headquarters attempted to have more Australians posted to the squadron during late 1942, without much success. Furthermore, most of the Australian ground staff assigned to the squadron in 1942 had no experience with Halifaxes, which caused aircraft availability to decrease for a period. British personnel were also reportedly unhappy about serving in an "Australian" unit and this contributed to tensions amongst squadron personnel. In January 1943, the Australian Air Board agreed to a proposal by Air Marshal Richard Williams, the Commanding Officer of the RAAF Overseas Headquarters, to concentrate eight RAAF bomber squadrons into a single group in RAF Bomber Command in the UK; this would have included re-numbering the squadron, in order to formally designate it a RAF unit, and forming a new No. 462 Squadron RAAF (with different personnel) at a base in the UK. However, British authorities were slow to accept this request, and the unit retained its original designation throughout 1943.