On 20 March 1939 No. 608 Squadron were transferred to No. 18 Group Coastal Command and with war looming were embodied into the RAF for full-time duties on 24 August 1939. Numbers 106 and 185 Bomber Command Squadrons moved to Cottesmore in August 1939 and Coastal Command 220 Squadron arrived with Ansons on 21 August from RAF Bircham Newton, thereafter the station remained within Coastal Command until the end of hostilities. Almost immediately after arriving No. 220 began to re-equip with the American built Lockheed Hudson, during this period the instructors of the 220 Squadron Hudson Conversion Flight (The Hudson Circus) along with 220 and 608 Squadrons were inspected by King George VI who visited the station on 1 November 1939 accompanied by Chief Of Air Staff together with Sir Frederick Bowhill and Air Commodore Breeze, AOC 18 Group.
