576 Squadron commenced operations in the night of 2/3 December 1943, when seven Avro Lancasters were sent out to bomb Berlin.

[6] FSGT John Booth RAAF and crew in UL-R2 (W4123) failed to return from this operation.

During its brief period of existence 576 Squadron operated only one type of aircraft, the Avro Lancaster four-engined heavy bomber.

During this period, 576 Squadron flew 2,788 operational sorties; 67 aircraft were lost, including two abandoned over France in February 1945.

The Jamaican airman Billy Strachan, who would later become a pioneer of black civil rights in Britain, flew 15 operations as the pilot of an Avro Lancaster with the squadron.