Craig,
I have to admit to passing by on your query earlier because I expected a Lancaster expert would be along sometime soon to provide a more authoritative answer. I can only agree with what “gregh” stated on your previous thread.

An answer lies between the covers of Ian Reed’s excellent “Lancaster Operations – One squadron’s contribution to the bomber offensive” – effectively a history of No.100 Squadron from December 1942 to May 1945.

ED559 and crew have the tragic distinction of going missing on the first operational mission on 4th April 1943 – target St Nazaire.

ED559’s codes worn were JA-D on this raid. Individual codes letters were reissued, thus “D” was carried by ED710 from 26th March until 13th May 1943.

Approximately twenty-five No.100 Sqdn Lancasters are listed as carrying “JA” squadron codes during March and April 1943 – plus another ten carried “FZ” squadron codes (“A” to “K”) during May and June 1943. The better known “HW” codes would appear to have been first taken up during May.

It would appear that serious questions about aspects of RAF or Commonwealth squadron histories are best placed on forums such as RAFCommands.

Tony Broadhurst

Tony, many thanks for the detailed reply and for answering this puzzle.

C