No.501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron, 1939-1945: Hurricane, Spitfire, Tempest

No.501 Squadron was one of the five Special Reserve units (from Nos.500 to 504 Sqns) to be formed during the late 1920s. At the eve of WWII, four of these were still active and took part to the conflict, two as fighter units, 501 being one of the latter. From the first blood in France in 1940 until the hunt of the V-1s in 1944, the history of this squadron in narrated in 136 pages. No less than 348 pilots flew in operations with the Squadron, one third being not coming from Britsh Isles, like Americans (15, including USAAF personnel), Australians (9), Belgians (6), Canadians (17), Czechoslovaks (14), Dane (1), French (4), New Zealanders (25), Poles (19) and South Africans (2). As for the other titles of the Series, appendices comprise the claim list, full loss list and operational diary.

REVIEWS

“…well captioned photographs and color aircraft drawings…sure fire good volumes for any reader wanting to know more about RAF fighter squadrons during World War II.”
AIR POWER History, Fall 2009