[1] Re-formed at RAF Netheravon on 1 June 1934, 142 Squadron was equipped with the Fairey Battle light bomber when hostilities opened in 1939.

After returning to Britain, the squadron was rebuilt, and in November 1940 began converting to the Vickers Wellington heavy bomber.

After flying night bombing missions over Germany and occupied western Europe, the squadron transferred to North Africa in December 1942.

Soon after World War II ended the squadron was disbanded while still located at RAF Gransden Lodge.

The 'Airman's Grave' on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex is, despite its name, not a grave but a memorial to the six man crew of a Wellington bomber of 142 Squadron who were killed when it crashed on the southern slopes of the forest on the morning of 31 July 1941 as it returned from a raid on Cologne during World War II.

The memorial, which is a simple stone-walled enclosure on the heathland between Nutley and Duddleswell, shelters a white cross surrounded by a tiny garden of remembrance.

The memorial began with a wooden cross erected at the crash site by the mother of Sergeant Victor Ronald Sutton, the second pilot, who was aged 24 at the time of his death.