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
No. 73 Wing RAAF B-25 Mitchells. Flight Lieutenant Bill Newton, one of the Boston pilots who attacked Lae, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for pressing home bombing missions against Salamaua later that month, in spite of severe damage to his aircraft. Having earlier been led by Wing Commander Blake Pelly, by June 1943 No. 73 Wing was under the command of Group Captain Ian McLachlan. That month, McLachlan established his headquarters at Goodenough Island, where the wing was reorganised as a fighter formation consisting of No. 76 Squadron (flying P-40 Kittyhawks), No. 77 Squadron (Kittyhawks) and No. 79 Squadron (Supermarine Spitfires). As well