Operations were undertaken from Stamford, Buckminster and Leadenham involving pilot instruction during the day and air defence against possible attacks from Zeppelins by night.

Over five months of operations the squadron flew 1,591 hours' made 47 raids, dropping nearly 50 tons of bombs mainly on the German canals, railways, dumps and airfields in Belgium.

His station commander, Group Captain Claude Hilton Keith, found a letter among the missing airman's personal possessions.

Suggestions that the letter was fictitious and propaganda eventually led to the identification of Flying Officer Rosewarne and his death notice was published on 23 December 1940.

In 1941 Michael Powell released a short documentary style British propaganda film of the letter featuring the voice of John Gielgud.

Radar-equipped Wellingtons popularly known as ‘Snoopingtons’ patrolled the shipping lanes throughout the night and using flares to illuminate enemy convoys and directing the strike-Wellingtons, or ‘Torpingtons’[8] who attacked at sea level.

Following the end of Axis resistance in North Africa the squadron focussed on attacking enemy ships and mining along the coasts of Italy and the Balkans.

From January 1943 to December 1944, the squadron was engaged in mine laying, reconnaissance duties and anti-submarine patrols with detachments in Malta, along the Western Desert and in Palestine.

38 squadron was equipped with Wellington Mk VIIs with ASV radar (these aircraft became known as 'Goofingtons')[9] and flew hunter-killer teams; the first success in this role occurred on 26 August, when a tanker was found, torpedoed and sunk.

[10] At the end of 1944, it moved to Greece in a support role for Air operations during the Greek Civil War and then on to southern Italy as part of No.

At first it was used to drop supplies to the Yugoslav Partisans, but in January 1945 the squadron converted to the Wellington XIV and returned to anti-shipping duties, attacking Axis shipping off the coast of northern Italy from then until the end of the war.

Bill Brooks, founder of Christie's auction house was a pilot in 38 squadron and on 11 May 1947 he was the captain of one of four Lancasters which took 70 suspected Jewish terrorists from Palestine to Nairobi.

He was told by his station commander that all log book entries should record "trooping" as the purpose of the trip; his secret orders stated: "Destroy after reading".

During this time it sent detachments to participate in the Beira patrols during the period of Rhodesian UDI and to the Persian Gulf for an air blockade following the failure of negotiations with regard to the presence of a Saudi Arabian party at Hamasa.