Sorties

Overview

What is a Sortie?

A sortie (from the French word meaning exit or from Latin root surgere meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint.  

In terms of the air force, it means, one airplane flying one mission.   

When a fighting unit is deployed, heading out on a military mission, it can be described as a sortie and is often referred to as an operation or "Op".

Sorties flown by 625 Squadron

625 Squadron flew a total of 3,473 sorties during World War II:

• Overall Sorties Map

• Air Crew By Sortie

• Sorties Listing 

Interactive maps are being developed for each sortie that was flown by the Squadron.  If the map has been created, the link in the sortie record will launch the sortie map.

The Squadron dropped 16,569 tons of bombs and 207 tons of food during its sorties.

The OP's Boards

On the day that 625 Squadron was to fly a sortie, the OP's (Operations) Board was updated to detail the aircraft, pilots, target, takeoff sequence, takeoff times, runway to be used, and the times for various crew briefings that would be conducted to prepare the crews for the sortie.  If you look closely at the bottom mock-up, and then visit the Air Crew listing, you will notice that the names of the pilots are pilots of the 625 Squadron.