3 Squadron RAAF

WORLD WAR I

Oxford (Queens) 1917	Training class - Oxford

South Carlton 1917	Machine-gun training

Ground wireless 1917	Transports

Training prang	Bailleul -1917

Ready for take-off - RE8	Sandy & Hughes's RE8

Photograph of the Red Baron after death	3 Squadron bury the Red Baron - 1918
Some further photos of the Squadron's WWI aircraft, armaments and vehicles
Photos from WW1's 2A/C Harold Edwards' collection. They include some 3 Squadron's airfield locations during 1917-18
For keen followers of World War One aircraft, here is a page that, whilst it isn't about 3 Squadron, it has some authentic and extra-ordinary aircraft pictures taken in 1917-18 by a RNAS man, Captain Harold Watson whilst he was a Navy pilot, specialising in experimental flying from various WW1 ships.
WORLD WAR II

Richmond Air Base - 1940	Train travel to Orontes - 1940

Embarking Orontes - 1940	Orontes (NB: This isn't the 1940 sailing)

Squadron trans-shipped at Bombay to Dilwarra	Bath day on board

Disembark at Port Tewfik, Egypt, 23 August 1940	First camp at Ismalia, Egypt

Then onto the real war	For better or for worse

Catch it and pluck it	Start digging in

More like home	A kero-tin home in the desert

Preparations to fly	Engine work-over

Bombing-up	Armaments loaded

Scramble	Observation and point marker

Who needs goggles?	Ground staff check-out

Taxiing out with a lookout on the wing	Tail-up

... and away	Operation underway

Squadron up	Another take-off ... with a 250lb bmb

Safe and ...	... ready to celebrate victories

Picking up supplies in town	Always time for a nap in the shade

Airmen's mess - desert style	Then a wash-up and ...

... ready for a bit of leave ...	... to Alexandria - always popular for a leave-pass

Waiting for the next sortie; outside or ...	... in the crew tent-room ("Stinky" is in left corner)

Me109G captured by 3 Squadron	The anti-fly squad making fly-traps

The captured Italian mobile workshop	... open and ready for action

Mesh landing ground	A Mustang being re-fuelled

A bomb-trailer heading for an aircraft bomb-loading area	The yellow marker points to one of "the whistlers" removed from unexploded German bombs and fitted to the wings of our own aircraft to create a terrifying whistle when dive-bombing ... it worked!

A (luckily dud) message dropped by the enemy	Time out in Rosh Pinna, Israel

Kittyhawk on fire	... still burning

Mustangs ready for action	Prop change. (Bill Usher on top holding the blade.)

	Bath time

Swiss guards, Vatican, Rome ...	The Three Padres of the Desert Air Force

Sad moments	Inside the office

Happy chappies	C'mon fellers - hurry up

Only a few more to go	Malta Men

Ops planning at Taranto	Anyone seen Slim Moore?

Sid Coates (click here to view more of Sid's album)	Sid Coates and his mates

The Coates family's Wall of Honour to Sid	Desert life in the raw

Designed in 1943 by Norm French ("Frenchie"), this emblem has become the Squadron's Desert Air Force badge of honour ... the red symbolising the blood shed ... the yellow, the sands of the desert ... and the cross and shield representing the crusade which the Squadron undertook as a fighter-bomber unit...	... before the new emblem was adopted

Apparently "Soapy" and "Gasher" ??		Jones, Stevens, ? and Bray
This is a pranged JU88 at Belandah		A few photos of Buzz, a special friend of Tiny Cameron, who was a pilot with 3 Squadron during the desert war.

Photos below from Chris Grigg, the grandson of Ivan Hansen, an airframe fitter who was with 3 Squadron in North Africa during World War II.