No. 355 Squadron RAF

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No. 355 Squadron RAF
Active	18 August 1943 - 31 May 1946
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Part of	South East Asia Command.
Base	Salbani, Bengal
Motto	Liberamus Per Caerula Latin: "We liberate through tropical skies"
Equipment	Consolidated Liberator

No. 355 Squadron RAF was a long range bomber squadron based in Salbani, India from 1943 until it disbanded in 1946. The squadron was equipped with Consolidated Liberator aircraft.

The squadron was formed on 18 August 1943, and carried out its first bombing mission on the 20 November 1943. The squadron mounted numerous raids on the infamous Burma-Siam railway along with other important targets such as bridges, airfields, and marshalling yards.

Wing commander James Brindley Nicolson, recipient of the only Victoria Cross awarded during the Battle of Britain, was killed 2 May 1945, when the 355 squadron Liberator he was flying in as an observer, crashed into the Bay of Bengal shortly after an engine caught fire.

The last raid carried out by the squadron was on 7 August 1945 against the Burma-Siam railway.

After the war the squadron was engaged in the dropping of emergency food supplies to Prisoners of War, and starving civilians in Burma. Between January and April of 1946 the squadron operated from Digri, returning to Salbani shortly before it disbanded on 31 May 1946.