No. 106 Squadron RAF No 106 started replacing them with Lancasters (but it did not become converted completely to Lancasters before some of the squadron's Manchesters had participated in the 1,000-bomber raids on Cologne, Essen and Bremen). In October it contributed 10 Lancasters to No. 5 Group's low-level epic dusk raid ("Operation Robinson") on Le Creusot and two more (one of them piloted by Wing Commander Guy Gibson who was then No 106's CO) to the subsidiary raid on Montchanin. In 1943 it took part in the first "shuttle-bombing" raids (when the targets were Friedrichshafen and Spezia) and the famous attack on Peenemünde. Among
Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy 463 and No. 467 Squadrons participated in raids on airfields and factories near Toulouse on the nights of 5/6 April and 1/2 May, and bombed an airfield near Lanvéoc on the night of 8/9 May. The first of these raids involved 148 aircraft and was led by No. 467 Squadron's commanding officer, Wing Commander John Balmer. 2TAF also conducted 12 raids on German airfields during this period, of which eight involved individual Australians posted to RAF light bomber squadrons. Australians serving in the fighter squadrons of No. 10 Group RAF also occasionally took part in "ranger" operations over northern France