RAF Squadron Records at the National Archive

Take a laptop or tablet with you, you can download the pdfs of the ORBs month by month for free at Kew, you have to pay if not on their internet access. If there are photos etc in an ORB which you can view in the pdf but which have not been copied at particularly high quality you can fill out a request to view the file in paper form. I have had to do that once or twice with WO 208 escapee reports when they started digitising them but didn’t do every report from each file.

Station ORBs and misc units are in hard copy only.

It’s also worth looking at both bits of the monthly narrative, the “summary of events” and the “work carried out” as one will often supplement the information given in the other.

On my most recent visit, I looked at the ORB I was after on a readng room terminal. Terminals with a red sticker on them have a facility to save anything you want to folder from where you can email the images to yourself (there’s a “how to…” on laminated cards on the desks). This is all free, unlike downloading from home.

Travel to NA

Train to Richmond and catch a bus from there direct to NA at the Kew Retail park. Every 15 minutes. Forget the number but easy to find on googlemaps.

Many thanks to all for the additional information and the wish of good luck as it sounds like I will need it. I visited the home of the daughter of a reasonably well known lady flyer not long back who shall remain nameless, to have a look at her log books for which her Wartime ATA service had page after page of blank gaps for the serials of all the aircraft she had flown. Very frustrating. In the correspondence was a letter from her C/O reprimanding her for not keeping the logbook properly.
OG

Yes, squadron ORB’s in the AIR 27 series are there to view on microfilm (not microfiche) on the first floor at Kew. They have machines there that allow you to print off page by page too. Or there’s the downloads (per month’s-worth) online. As said above though, the detail is extremely variable. You might find some showing the a/c code letter (‘J’ or whatever), some showing the serial in whole or in part (‘AB123’, or maybe just ‘123’), or if you’re really lucky, both of them in full!
Good luck! Ian

ps You might find crew info varies too, if it’s not just single-seaters you’re interested in. Usually the whole crew is named, with ranks and initials and sometimes with the crew functions as well. On the other hand (worst case), some will only say something like:
“Sgt Smith” “and crew” !

Oh, and in addition to typo’s by the person filling in the forms, the condition of the typewriter and the age of the carbon paper being used means that some months’ sheets are so faint or so blotchy as to be almost illegible.

… Like I said, good luck!

The thing with ORB’s in general is that they are as only as good as the enthusiasm of the compiler. Some that I have read are meticulous in their recordings, and an amazing source of information. Others, particularly I find the RAF Regiment, and non operational squadrons, seemed to be filled out because they had to, rather than wanting to record history. I must way I do miss the microfilm files at the TNA as it was much easier to photograph the entire ORB.

If trying to buy the A-B series that contains all Beaufighters – these are the series you need..

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/index.php?qname=Beaufighter&qmem=&qnum=&qt=FM&qa1=S&qa2=R&qn1=&qn2=&qn3=&qn4=&cur=0

With the info you already have, you could try Discovery again but try under AIR50. This is the record of the RAF’s combat reports. You might find on the internet the Beau production blocks that cover your date range and as for individual aircraft, Air-Britain sell “number jungles”. The listing of all aircraft fates by serial number order. This would give you, with work, a list of every Beau to that was allocated to 600, then zone it down from there.

https://imgur.com/a/vBugqMK

Image gives an example publication. It might not be this one you need (there are about 20 odd to collect) but this one has a Beau on the cover. (NA’s are late war). It seems to me that you been bit by the research bug, in which case, I recommend that you join A-B anyway.

Thanks Zidante and Andrew but it’s the M4 and a long extension of a journey I make every day, but don’t mind me I just like cribbing! But I would like to ask more advice on the ORBs. I thought I would download one and pay for it to cut down my time there and do some work beforehand. So I downloaded the F540 for 600 Squadron for Feb-April 1941. I was after the serial of the Blenheim flown by P/O Denby that shot down a He 111. There is mention of it but no serial. It also mentions the crash of the Beaufighter that crashed on approach to Prestwick on 13 March 1941. It gives the details of the two crew but no mention of the Serial but I have got this elsewhere – so my question is where would I get more detail on serials etc and I am surprised this type of info is not in the F540?

I’d definitely recommend the M3 route, which then leads onto the A315. If you just follow that, you won’t be far away.

Which way do you go in? I tend to go via the M25, M3 and straight on through Richmond. Usually (relatively) straightforward.

Discovery does take getting used to. I’ve often started on files on microfilm, books or something I’ve pre-ordered because I know the reference and then find the others in the paper index and have them delivered while I look at the first things!

Many thanks for all these useful tips. I have 37 Squadrons to go through (It was 38 but I found the records for 263 Squadron online) which was a good start. I like looking at the records in the NA, but what does my head in is the journey in by car from west of London. I will check online first though to see if there is anything that I can download, even if there is a small charge, it will be worth it.
Thanks Again
OG

Go onto “Discovery” the TNA’s web portal and check each squadron you want before you leave home. The more you use it, (it has its own quirks) the more you will get from your visit.

Hi
A couple of years ago when i visited the NA
i was able to download complete ORB’s free pdf’s to my iphone
and other files as pdf’s
cheers
jerry

Many of the ORBs are now available for download electronically at a small cost for each month. You may be able to view digital versions at the archives.

All the ones I have looked at recently have been hard copy

FB