Two major advances in bombing technique came that month with the debut of the new Pathfinder Force in the raid on Essen on January 13-14 and the first use of H2S ground-mapping radar at the end of the month when Cologne was attacked. Neither, it must be said, proved an instant hit but were to become vital to the bombing campaign in the months to come. The use of the PFF force of initially Stirlings and Halifaxes meant that 1 Group Lancasters could bomb from a higher altitude than previously, something which was welcomed by crews at Elsham as it gave them another slight edge in avoiding flak and fighters. H2S was also initially fitted to PFF aircraft and it gave navigators the ability to building up a picture of what lay beneath a bomber. It was to be particularly useful against German targets beyond the range of Gee and the newer Oboe navigational systems although initially the ‘picture’ it provided lacked much detail, particularly over built-up areas, later versions were much more sophisticated and played a major part in improving the accuracy of bombing. The Germans, however, were quick to pick up on it. On only its second operation, an attack on Cologne early in February, a PFF Stirling crashed in Holland and engineers were able to rebuild the damaged H2S set and later develop the Naxos detector, which allowed night-fighters to home in on H2S transmissions. As ever, the sword Bomber Command had been handed was double-edged.
One of three 103 Squadron aircraft lost on operations in February crashed near Milan after being hit by a shower of incendiaries dropped by another Lancaster over the target area. Several of the 4lb bombs hit the area around the cockpit, killing the pilot, 31-year-old S/Ldr Walter Powdrell, who had been a flight commander with 103 since the introduction of the Lancasters. Three of his crew survived. Another experienced officer was lost at the end of the month when a B Flight aircraft on a fighter affiliation exercise over the airfield lost a rudder during a series of violent manoeuvres. The pilot, F/Lt Dick Stubbs, ordered the eight men on board to bail out but, before he could follow them the aircraft went out of control and crashed into the grounds of Elsham Hall. F/Lt Stubbs, who came from Hull, was on his second tour and had already won a DFC with the squadron to go with the DFM he won in 1941. One of those on board had a miraculous escape. He had grabbed a parachute when the order was given but as he jumped, the harness slipped from his shoulder only for his left leg to catch in the webbing. Hanging by his leg, he then fell 6,000ft, landing in a field and suffering only a mild dose of concussion from his spectacular descent.
The beginning of March 1943 saw a new man in charge at 1 Group HQ in Bawtry, with AVM Arthur Rice taking over from AVM Robert Oxland. One of Rice’s first jobs was to visit Waltham to meet 1 Group’s newest squadron. 100 Squadron was one of the RAF’s oldest bombing squadrons but had suffered terribly at the hands of the Japanese, whose fighter pilots made short work of 100’s elderly Vickers Vilderbeest torpedo bombers. The squadron was disbanded and then reformed at Waltham on December 15, 1942 with Lancasters and by the middle of January its first crews had arrived from 1656 HCU at Lindholme and began to take delivery of 18 new Lancaster IIIs, forming two flights of eight with two reserve aircraft. Ground crews had been sent to Elsham and Holme-on-Spalding Moor to work alongside the resident squadrons and gain experience of the new aircraft. Most of the newcomers liked what they found at Waltham, one of the better wartime-build airfields. It had been well built, the accommodation huts were, certainly by 1943 standards, comfortable and there was a pub just outside the main gate along with a bus service to nearby Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Not all the incoming crews were new to Waltham, seven being drawn from men who had served there with 142 Squadron.
These Elsham armourers always took it in turns to chalk one of their children’s names on the 4,000lb ‘cookies’ being prepared for 103 Squadron Lancasters. This was Kath’s contribution. (Norman Storey)
100 was quickly into its stride and began an extensive training programme, losing one aircraft in an accident near the airfield on February 15, the pilot, 23-year-old F/Lt Norman Stent and four of his crew, dying in the crash. The squadron made its operational debut on the night of March 4-5 when eight aircraft left to drop mines in the Bay of Biscay. It proved to be an inauspicious start with F/Lt Richard Curle’s Lancaster being shot down over the target area with the loss of all seven on board. A second aircraft then crashed while attempting to land at Langar in Nottinghamshire, killing six of those on board. The remaining six aircraft were all forced to divert because of poor visibility at Waltham. Interestingly, the briefing for this raid was attended by a number of senior 1 Group officers, including G/Capt Hughie Edwards, an Australian who had just been appointed CO at Binbrook. Waltham was still a satellite of Binbrook and would not become a station in its own right until later in the year as part of 12 Base. Edwards had won the Victoria Cross earlier in the war while leading 105 Squadron in a daylight raid on Bremen. By the time he had arrived at Binbrook he also had a DFC and a DSO and was one of a band of truly inspirational officers within Bomber Command. His appointment as CO at Binbrook was a precursor to 460 Squadron’s move from Breighton to Lincolnshire during the summer of 1943. Edwards was to remain as station commander at Binbrook until January 1945 by which time he had officially flown another 15 operations, although he is believed to have made almost as many again in an unofficial capacity.
What became known as the Battle of the Ruhr officially began on the night of March 5-6 when the huge Krupps’ works, which covered several square miles of the industrial landscape in Essen, was again the target. It would last four months and would herald the start of Harris’s all-out offensive on Germany. This is what the expansion of the previous few months had been about: Harris hoped for a series of devastating blows which would destabilise Germany; what happened was a ratcheting up of the war of attrition on a scale which would have been unimaginable only a year earlier.
In the previous four months the striking power of 1 Group alone had increased dramatically. New and bigger squadrons operating from all-weather airfields aided by accurate navigational aids (including Oboe-equipped Mosquitos which were now flying on major raids) and far more accurate target marking all played their part. But above all it was the advent of the four-engined bomber, and particularly the Lancaster with its enormous carrying capacity, which was to change the bombing war.
While the Ruhr Valley was to be the primary aim of the campaign, Bomber Command would keep the defenders guessing by varying the nightly target with targets as far afield as Turin, Berlin, St Nazaire and Pilsen visited before the conclusion of this phase of the offensive in July.
It was to prove a hugely costly period for both sides. The accuracy of RAF bombing had improved dramatically, so much so that huge areas of industrial Germany were devastated. But German defences had improved to the extent that the period covered by the Battle of the Ruhr cost Bomber Command 1,000 aircraft. 1 Group alone lost 129 of its new Lancasters and 49 Wellingtons with the loss of 940 men killed in addition to those destined the spend the rest of the war in PoW camps. Of the Wellington squadrons 166 at Kirmington fared by far the worst, losing 25 aircraft and 108 men while the Australians of 460 Squadron lost 31 Lancasters from Breighton and their new base at Binbrook and the lives of 177 men. But, despite losses on this scale (the death toll alone was the equivalent of losing more than six full squadrons) there was no let up. The bombing war was relentless and as soon as an aircraft was lost another arrived to replace it along with another crew fresh from training to fill the gap.
F/Lt Bill Wedderburn with his crew and ground-crew. He flew an eventful two tours with 101 Squadron, starting at Holme-on-Spalding Moor. (Vic Redfern)
One of the first aircraft to be lost from 1 Group in the Ruhr campaign was a 300 Squadron Wellington from Hemswell, which was shot down in a raid on Essen early in March. Four of the crew survived, the only casualty being the navigator S/Ldr Jankowski, who had been 305 Squadron’s first CO when it was formed in 1940. Another Wellington from 199 Squadron survived a series of determined attacks from a Fw190, which was eventually driven off by the r
ear gunner, Sgt Finlayson, who was later awarded a DFM for his efforts. A second raid on Essen a few nights later cost 1 Group three Lancasters, one each from Waltham, Elsham and Holme-on-Spalding Moor with the lives of all 21 men on board. A Wellington from 199 Squadron was also lost when it crashed near Lincoln on a pre-raid air test. When one 460 Squadron Lancaster arrived back at Breighton with flak damage to the nose the pilot reported that part of the anti-aircraft shell which caused the damage was lodged in the sole of one of his flying boots.
During March 1 Group was to lose aircraft on all but three of the nights it operated with the worst losses coming at the end of the month when three Lancasters, two of them from 460 Squadron, failed to return from an attack on Berlin while two of the 12 aircraft sent from Kirmington as part of all-Wellington raid on Bochum the same night were shot down. With a 101 Squadron Lancaster crashing during an air test, that particular night cost of the lives of 33 young men from 1 Group. But there was far worse to come over the next few weeks.
Attacks on successive nights on Duisburg early in April were made through thick cloud cover over the target area and, despite the claims of many 1 Group Lancaster crews, the bombing was very scattered. Two Wellingtons failed to return to Kirmington, one crashing because of the old problem of icing, while another was lost from 300 Squadron. Of the five Lancasters lost, one from 101 Squadron flown by 23-year-old Canadian W/O John Steele exploded with such force that debris hit the night fighter responsible, killing the pilot. One of two 166 Squadron aircraft lost in one of the attacks suffered an engine failure after leaving the target area and, faced by strong headwinds, the crew realised they had no chance of making it home. The pilot, New Zealander Sgt George Barclay, managed to nurse the aircraft back across France but, almost two hours later, with the aircraft down to 600 feet, he ordered his crew to bail out over North-West France. All got out safely, although Barclay himself suffered a dislocated ankle on landing and was quickly rounded up together with another member of his crew but the other three all managed to get away from the crash site with varying degrees of success. The wireless operator, Sgt Bob Hart, managed to evade capture for four days until walking into a group of German soldiers. The rear gunner, Sgt Ron Limmage, who had only joined the crew as a last-minute replacement, was picked up by the French Resistance underground escape network and made it as far as the Spanish border before being recaptured along with several other British airmen after 37 days on the run. The Canadian navigator, P/O Bernard Marion, was more successful, thanks in no small degree to his fluent French. He was also picked up by the Resistance and travelled via Paris, Toulouse and Perpignan before crossing into Spain and on to Gibraltar. Forty-seven days after leaving Kirmington he arrived back in England. Not so fortunate were the three crews lost from 166 Squadron in an attack on Frankfurt the night after the Duisburg raid, losses which meant that 166’s strength had been reduced by a third in just two nights.
A raid on the northern Italian port of La Spezia cost 1 Group four more Lancasters. One from 101 Squadron crashed near Holme-on-Spalding Moor after turning back early with engine problems, killing all the crew, who were on their first operation. One of the two lost from 103 Squadron ditched in the Channel after being hit by light flak after crossing the French coast and losing most of its remaining fuel. The crew quickly made it into their dinghy and were picked up within minutes. Their aircraft, in the meantime, continued to float and heroic efforts were made to salvage it which only came to an end when one of the small boats trying to tow it into Falmouth struck the Lancaster’s tail causing it to sink. The 30 hours it remained afloat was probably the longest recorded for any RAF bomber. Two nights later a 166 Squadron crew had to ditch their Wellington in the Channel when it developed engine problems on its way to Mannheim. The sea was rough and the aircraft struck the water hard and quickly settled. The rear gunner, Sgt Eric Hadingham, got out by swinging his turret and managed to scramble into the dinghy. He then pulled the navigator, F/O Alan Lord, out of the water. Then, in the darkness, they heard the shouts of the American bomb aimer Sgt John Paul Merton and when they paddled over to him found him supporting the unconscious figure of the pilot, F/O Selwyn Lupton. After a tremendous effort they managed to get Merton on board but, by this time, the pilot had died and they let his body go. They searched in vain for the fifth member of the crew, Sgt Bill Whitfield, but decided he must have gone down with the aircraft. Their dinghy then developed a slight leak and the men found that most of the emergency rations and distress flares were missing. With Merton injured and drifting in an out of consciousness, the two men took turns pumping up and bailing out the dinghy while Alan Lord found some Ovaltine tablets and a bar of chocolate in his pocket. They also had a one pint tin of water between them. Those meagre rations had, astonishingly, to sustain them through the next five and a half days. By this time Sgt Merton had succumbed to his injuries and their dinghy had drifted to within a few miles of the English coastline which, agonisingly, they could just see but not reach. Finally they were spotted by an aircraft and a rescue launch picked them up, their epic ordeal later being recounted at some length in The Sunday Pictorial.
That same night 1 Group’s Lancasters went to Pilsen in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Skoda factories with 101 and 103 each losing an aircraft while three from 460 failed to return with the loss of all 22 men on board. 460 was to lose another three four nights later when the Lancasters went on the 1,200-mile return trip to Stettin when, once again, there were no survivors. On the same night 100 Squadron lost two aircraft, including one flown by their CO W/Cmdr James Swain, while two failed to make it back to Wickenby and another to Elsham.
A major minelaying operation around the Elbe estuary on the night of April 28-29 cost 12 Squadron dearly with four of its Lancasters failing to return. One was flown by one of the squadron’s flight commanders, S/Ldr Edward Tyler, while another pilot lost was P/O Laurence Head, who had recently been awarded a DFM. But there was much worse to come for 101 Squadron a week later when no fewer than five of its aircraft failed to make it back to Holme-on-Spalding Moor from Dortmund and a sixth crashed on take off. One was shot down by a night fighter over Holland, another disappeared over the North Sea, a third crashed at Scorton airfield, near Richmond. Another aircraft crashed on its return to the airfield while the final aircraft crashed near North Cave, a few miles from the airfield. It had suffered severe flak damage and the 21-year-old pilot, W/O Gerald Hough, and his crew struggled to keep the aircraft flying, only to hit high ground when almost in sight of their airfield, the crash killing the pilot and two of the crew. That same raid claimed two Wellingtons from Kirmington and a Lancaster from 460 Squadron, their last operation from Breighton before they moved to Binbrook. All the aircraft sent by 103 Squadron returned safely that night, including a brand new Lancaster III, ED888, which was in the hands of W/O Nick Ross and crew. Little did they know it but it was to be the first of 140 operations this particular Lancaster would complete, the most by any RAF bomber.
460 Squadron crews at Binbrook prepare for another operation. (Laurie Wood)
460’s move to Binbrook was done in some style, a fleet of Horsa gliders pulled by Albemarle tugs transporting the ground crew on the short hop across the Humber to their new home atop the Lincolnshire Wolds. After the basic facilities of Breighton, Binbrook came as something of a welcome relief to the Aussies. It was by no accident that they found themselves at the best of 1 Group’s airfields. In agreeing to fund bomber squadrons to operate within the RAF, the Australian government had made the offer subject to their men getting the best accommodation where possible, hence 460 found itself at Binbrook and 467 in neighbouring 5 Group went to Waddington, perhaps the finest of all Lincolnshire bomber bases. Instead of Nissen huts (which there still were aplenty but mainly for ground crew), the Australian crews were allocated the station’s solidly-built married quarters, one house per crew. They loved Binbrook and Binbrook loved them, quickly making themselves at home in the local pubs and striking up a re
lationship with the locals which was to last for decades to come.
Binbrook itself was now one of the new Base HQs which had been set up within Bomber Command to simplify. Each Base was to be commanded by an air commodore and would include the Base station and up to two satellites. Base stations themselves were also extended to provide additional engineering facilities to handle major work on aircraft and the system was designed to help ease the way for another major expansion of Bomber Command and of 1 Group later in the year.
460 became operational from Binbrook on the night of May 18-19 with an uneventful mining operation carried out by five aircraft. The second operation, against Dortmund on the night of May 23-24, cost 460 two more aircraft. This particular attack was mounted by 826 Bomber Command aircraft and, in terms of bombs dropped, was the heaviest of the war so far. The city was devastated but it cost the Lincolnshire bomber squadrons dearly, 166 losing another three Wellingtons while 300 and 199 each lost one aircraft. One Lancaster from 101 was shot down, another crashed on its return while a 12 Squadron Lancaster was also lost. Two nights later Düsseldorf was attacked and the raid marked the second trip for 100 Squadron’s newly-formed C Flight but one of the two aircraft which failed to make it back to Waltham was that flown by flight commander S/Ldr Philip Turgel.
Among the 826 aircraft attacking Dortmund was Lancaster ED995, PH-X of 12 Squadron. It had arrived at Wickenby only a few days before and was allocated to a new crew headed by F/O Jimmy Smith. He and most of his crew were to complete a full tour at Wickenby and, remarkably, every operation they flew was in PH-X, which carried the name ‘Sarah’ on its fuselage. Their only casualty was their original wireless operator, F/Sgt Tom Routledge, who died after failing to reconnect his oxygen supply properly on their second operation to Düsseldorf. F/O Smith’s crew completed their tour in October when they returned safely from Frankfurt. ED995 was then allocated to F/Sgt Ron Collins and crew who were all new arrivals from Lindholme. Three nights after ED995 brought Jimmy Smith’s crew safely back to Lincolnshire the Lancaster was shot down near Hamelin and six of those on board were killed.
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