‘For once the ground crew were not sure about the target and their opinion was that it could be Cologne. But they were wrong and it was Hamburg again. The briefing was short and the Met officer told us it would be hot, even at 15,000 feet. Nevertheless, I decided to put my Sidcot suit on, just in case.
‘Take-off would be late but it was difficult to get any rest. The CO and the padre were down in the changing room to wish everyone good luck and they were there again beside the runway as the first Wellington left. We were sent off at one minute intervals and once again we were climbing out over the Humber heading for Hamburg. Over Holland it was clear the flak boys were on their toes. Over to port a Wellington was coned by the lights and the last we saw he was going down, ablaze from end to end.
‘A few miles inland the bomb-aimer told the pilot that dead ahead was a large bank of thick black cloud. This hadn’t been mentioned by the Met people but it was there and had to be contended with. The pilot headed for a gap in the cloud but by the time we got there it had disappeared and we found ourselves in thick cloud at 14,000 feet. It was clear we couldn’t maintain that for long as ice began forming on the wings and in seconds we were blacked out. All I could see were blue flashes coming off the gun barrels and parts of the aircraft. The wireless was out of action but the weather hadn’t stopped the ack-ack.
‘There was an extra large bang and Charlie (their aircraft was numbered AS-C) , still covered in ice, turned over. One moment I was conscious and the next half way to heaven. Goodbye mum, I shall never see England again. But then I began to come round and I could hear voices. We had dived out of control from 14,000 feet to just 3,000 feet before the pilot and bomb aimer had got the engines restarted. The hot night had melted the ice and Charlie was now under control. There was a warning sign on the main spar in the middle of the fuselage that the aircraft must not be dived at more than 280mph. We had just pulled out at 360mph and we were still flying.
‘The flak was much more intense now we were low down but Hamburg was ahead of us. There was no time for a bomb run, it was a case of pressing the tit and getting the hell out of there. We were still 400 miles from home and the pilot decided to stay at a thousand feet and the tension kept us alert on that ride back. A few small guns had a go at us and then it was across the water, next stop Lincolnshire.
‘The pilot contacted the duty controller at Kirmington and we received permission to land. We thought we must be the first back. As we came in I eased off my helmet and found blood on my ear. It seemed I had hit something hard in the hammering we took.
‘In the funnel Charlie seemed to be going a bit fast but the skipper was lined up correctly. Half way down the runway we discovered we had lost a wheel, the flaps were badly buckled and the brakes had gone. At times like this you have to make decisions very quickly and our pilot was no slouch. We ran off the runway onto the grass and into a ploughed field. There was a crunch and we came to a halt. I was first out, running round to open the doors for the others. Fire was always a risk but there wasn’t much petrol left and all the bombs had gone down in Hamburg.
‘We stood there looking at Charlie thinking we had lost a friend. He would never fly with us again. With a broken wing and props, bent flaps and most of the bottom torn away, he looked a mess. But he was later repaired and flew again with an OTU.
‘Back in the briefing room, the CO demanded to know where the hell we’d been. We told him we’d been to Hamburg. You must be joking, he told us. Hadn’t we heard the recall message? We hadn’t and we told him we were sure we’d reached Hamburg and hoped the camera in the aircraft had survived and the photograph would prove us right. We were anxious to see that photograph and we were not to be disappointed. It was a beautiful picture, showing our bombs falling in the Hamburg docks area.
F/O Eric Milliken of Springfield, New Zealand, at the controls of his 100 Squadron Lancaster, summer 1943. (Author’s collection)
‘We had succeeded against all the odds but I think we had a guardian angel with us that night. When people asked me if I believe in God, I always tell them that I do. I flew with him to Hamburg on the night of August 2-3, 1943.’
Cec Bryant and his crew went on to complete their tour with 166 and he was to complete a second tour with 199 Squadron later in the war. His pilot received a DFM for his actions that night. The Wellington he saw shot down may well have been a second from 166, flown by Sgt Harold Nash, although official records indicate it was downed by a night fighter not flak. It was one of 11 aircraft from 1 Group lost that night including another 166 Squadron Wellington which had been tasked with using the raid as cover to lay mines in the Elbe. The Battle of Hamburg’s final tally for 1 Group was 20 aircraft and the lives of 126 men, the greatest number of losses in Bomber Command.
The Wellingtons were now approaching the end of their operational life, although 166 Squadron was to lose seven in August with an eighth written off in a crash. All but two of those losses occurred on mining operations. Among them was F/O Bill McGinn and crew. The 20-year-old pilot and three of his previous crew had survived in June when they had bailed out of their aircraft over Skegness after an engine caught fire soon after take off. This time they were not so fortunate. 166’s last operation in Wellingtons came on the night of August 30-31 on Mönchengladbach when two aircraft failed to return. A third flown by F/Sgt Pat Knight suffered an engine failure shortly after leaving the target area. The aircraft was then attacked by a night fighter, coned by search lights and hit by anti-aircraft fire as it crossed the Dutch coast at 1,000 feet. The crew threw everything possible out of the aircraft to keep it airborne as the pilot struggled to keep the Wellington flying. It was then discovered that the pilot had been wounded in the foot and the wireless operator, Jack Toper, had to use part of a harness to tie the pilot’s injured foot to the rudder pedal. Eventually the aircraft made it back to England, crossing the coast at 300 feet, at which point the remaining engine burst into flames. F/Sgt Knight immediately ordered his crew to brace for a crash and put the aircraft down onto what turned out to be the playing fields at Clacton County High School. The force of the crash threw the pilot through the windscreen, breaking his left arm, left leg and several ribs. The rear gunner and bomb aimer scrambled clear but a parachute, which had opened accidentally during the crash, hampered both the navigator and wireless operator. The navigator had just managed to get clear when an oxygen bottle exploded severely burning the wireless operator, Jack Toper. He fell from the aircraft in flames and was saved by a soldier who quickly wrapped him in a greatcoat. Both he and the pilot, neither of whom were decorated for their actions, were to spend many months in hospital recovering from their ordeal, Jack Toper at the RAF’s famed burns unit at East Grinstead.
Only the Poles at Ingham were still operating Wellingtons in 1 Group and they were to be reduced to a single squadron when 305 Squadron flew its last operation to Hamburg before moving south to join the 2nd Tactical Air Force. 300 Squadron was to lose an aircraft and crew to a night fighter on the Mönchengladbach raid. Earlier in the month three Wellingtons left Ingham to drop mines off the Frisian Islands. Over the North Sea an engine caught fire but the pilot, F/Sgt Rech, decided to continue with the operational. Shortly afterwards they were found by a night fighter and shot down into the sea. F/Sgt Rech and his wireless operator, F/Sgt Poddany, managed to escape from the aircraft and were to spend the next eight days in their dinghy before being picked up by the German navy, a remarkable testament to them and their survival equipment.
That August saw the 1 Group Lancasters visiting Italy four times as well as German targets, including two trips to Berlin, a precursor to what was to come in the months ahead. Those two raids were to cost the group nine aircraft, 100 Squadron at Waltham losing four in a single night with a fifth aircraft being wrecked on take off. Twenty-four aircraft were due to take part in the attack and several aircraft had managed to lift off before F/Sgt Don Dripps’ aircraft came to grief. As it thundered down the runway the heavily laden Lancaster start
ed to swing and, as the pilot attempted to correct it, the undercarriage collapsed and it skidded to a halt in a shower of metal shards and sparks. Fortunately the bombs did not explode and, after a delay, the remaining aircraft were rerouted to the shorter runway and just managed to make it over the airfield boundary fence. Five men did manage to survive from one of the four lost, bailing out after the aircraft was badly damaged by flak over Holland. Both the pilot, W/O Francis Preston, one of a number of Australian pilots with 100 Squadron, and his flight engineer, Sgt Harry Chadwick, were killed. Another aircraft flown by P/O Tom Collins crashed in the Baltic, while the third aircraft flown by F/Lt John Anderton crashed in Berlin, with one of the crew surviving. The fourth aircraft, flown by F/Sgt Lance Needs, disappeared without trace.
This was a period of heavy losses in 1 Group and at 460 Squadron in particular. F/Sgt Ivan Heath, rear gunner in a mixed British-Australian crew, had arrived at the squadron in June. New arrivals had their name put at the very bottom of the flight list but, within less than a month, his crew found themselves at the top of that same list. He had a close friend who he had met in training and they both joined the squadron at the same time. ‘We had a two bob bet on who would survive the longest,’ he later recalled. ‘I won as he got the chop after 13 ops.’ He also remembered nights out in Grimsby where he would often see girls waiting outside the town’s Savoy Cinema in Victoria Street for Binbrook aircrew who had gone missing the night before. F/Sgt Heath and his crew did manage to complete their tour and he later went on to fly another 46 with two 8 Group Pathfinder squadrons.
During August 1 Group crews got the opportunity to meet the King and Queen during their visit to Binbrook. Crews from 12, 100 and 460 Squadrons assembled at Binbrook for the visit, during which the Royal party were shown round the airfield, inspected a Lancaster and had the opportunity to talk to some of the men who flew them. One was a young Canadian wireless operator from Wickenby, F/Sgt Bert Cruse. During a recent operation to lay mines off Danzig, their aircraft had been badly damaged by a night fighter and both gunners had been injured. When the aircraft finally landed at Coltishall an unexploded 20mm cannon shell was found lodged in the hydraulic reservoir just above F/Sgt Cruse’s position in the aircraft, and he kept it as a souvenir. He was introduced to the King and Queen during the visit and was holding the shell. The Queen asked him about it and, after she heard the story, remarked: ‘What a terrifying object’, Bert replying: ‘Yes Ma’am, it certainly put the sh….’ at which pointed he stopped. The Queen, with a smile on her face, replied: ‘I can well imagine it did, young man.’
Lancasters from 1 Group were among the 596 aircraft which attacked the German’s secret rocket testing station at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast on the night of August 17/18. It was a raid Bomber Command was ordered to make and so serious was the threat of the development of flying bombs and long range rockets that crews were told that if they didn’t hit it the first time they would have to go back again and again until they did.
This was to be an attack like no other so far in the war. It would be done in moonlight from relatively low level to ensure accuracy and it would be controlled for the first time by a Master Bomber, whose job would be to stay over the target to direct aircraft onto the correct aiming point. It was to be the template for many more successful bombing raids. It would also be the first time the German defenders would make use of night fighters fitted with twin upward firing cannon, Schräge Musik, ‘jazz music’. Two aircraft fitted with these weapons are believed to have accounted for six of the 40 bombers lost by the RAF that night.
1 Group was to be spared the heavy losses of particularly 5 Group. The 1 Group Lancasters were in the first wave of the attack and, under the director of the Master Bomber, G/Capt John Searby of 83 Squadron, they hit several of the production sites. 103 Squadron records talk of a ‘first class’ attack and there was much agreement that the Master Bomber technique had been a great assistance. There was little fighter opposition to the 1 Group aircraft, the bulk of the German night fighters being lured away by a spoof raid on Berlin mounted by just eight Mosquitoes. However, the Luftwaffe fighters made it back to the Baltic to catch the later stages of the raid when most of the RAF bombers were lost. Just three aircraft failed to make it back to 1 Group airfields. One of the aircraft was flown by S/Ldr Fraser Slade, a hugely popular flight commander at Wickenby. He had previously served in the Middle East but had joined 12 Squadron earlier in the summer and had already flown on at least 20 operations. His aircraft was caught by a night fighter over the sea and is believed to have crashed off the Danish coast. A month later a notice appeared in the London Gazette announcing the award of the DSO to S/Ldr Slade. It read: ‘Since returning to this country S/Ldr Slade has undertaken numerous sorties against varying targets in Germany and Italy. His ideal leadership and unconquerable spirit have set an example worthy of the highest regard.’ The other 1 Group casualties that night were a 100 Squadron Lancaster flown by F/O Howard Spiers, a New Zealander, which came down near Peenemünde, and another from Elsham captained by Sgt Peter O’Donnell, which crashed in Denmark. The raid also saw 460 Squadron become the first in Bomber Command to complete 1,000 Lancaster sorties, a remarkable achievement and not the last the Aussies at Binbrook were to record. It was marked by a wild party on Cleethorpes Pier, an evening when, according to legend, beer was served in fire buckets and at least one young Australian had to be rescued from the sea.
Debrief at Ludford: a 101 Squadron crew go through the details of a raid back at base, late summer 1943. (Vic Redfern)
Chapter 9
Bigger and Better
New Airfields and New Squadrons
Three years on from being able to muster only a handful of Fairey Battle squadrons, 1 Group had become a force to be reckoned with by September 1943. It was able to provide around 130 Lancasters plus one remaining Wellington squadron for operations and this figure was to increase still further in the months to come.
It was an autumn in which Bomber Command was to batter German targets unmercifully leading to the crescendo of attacks on Berlin. It was also to be a period of great change for the North Lincolnshire-based 1 Group.
September saw the full implementation of a command-wide reorganisation of control and administration. It was hardly the stuff of headlines but it was to further increase the efficiency of front-line squadrons and was to help Bomber Command to become one of the mightiest arms of warfare Britain has ever produced.
S/Ldr Hinds, his crew and ground crew of M-Mother, 626 Squadron, 1943. Note the makeshift shack on the left where the ground crew took shelter in bad weather. (Wickenby Archive)
12 Squadron’s Jerry Jones and Paddy Groves with a pair of .303 guns. (Wickenby Archive).
What happened was the full establishment of what became known as the ‘Base’ system which began to be implemented in March 1943. Previously airfields such as Binbrook or Elsham had smaller satellites, Waltham and Kirmington. The station commanders and their staff had control over their satellites but, inevitably, there was much duplication of administration and technical support. This was all swept away with the advent of the base system. Each base station would be controlled by an Air Commodore with a group captain commanding each station and a wing commander each squadron.
There were further refinements to the system that September, including the renumbering of the bases with the first being the Group’s training base. The line up in 1 Group was: No 11 Base: Lindholme, Blyton and Faldingworth (Faldingworth was later to become an operational station) with Sandtoft and Sturgate being added in 1944; No 12 Base: Binbrook, Waltham and Kelstern; No 13 Base: Elsham Wolds, Kirmington and North Killingholme (Ingham and Hemswell were added in 1944); No 14 Base: Ludford Magna, Wickenby and, from February 1944, Faldingworth. A fifth base was to be added in October 1944 when the airfields at Scampton, Fiskerton and Dunholme Lodge were added to 1 Group in its final wartime expansion.
One immediate effect of the system was the expansion of facilities
at base HQ stations, including the erection of additional hangars. This enabled all major technical work to be concentrated on one airfield and it meant a concentration of RAF personnel there too. At Binbrook, for instance, the station complement stood at 2,200 personnel in addition to the Base commander’s own staff. This included 743 men and women on the station HQ staff, 664 with 460 Squadron, 287 with 1481 (Bomber) Gunnery Flight, 191 with 2842 Light Anti-Aircraft Squadron, 136 with 460’s Servicing Echelon, 151 with 12 Base Servicing Echelon and an additional 28 WAAFs. In the case of Ludford Magna, it led to the airfield being extended to provide additional hangars and facilities on the western side of the Caistor-Horncastle road. This led to further restrictions on the public use of roads in an area already affected by the setting up of roadside bomb dumps fed from the railhead at nearby Stenigot.
The base system also allowed for flexibility of aircraft availability. If, for instance, 166 Squadron at Kirmington offered 18 aircraft for an operation and then one went unserviceable after an air test and no replacement was available, a spare could be provided from amongst the 13 Base squadrons, thus ensuring that the raid went ahead with the requisite number of aircraft. A base navigation officer also made sure that navigators’ briefings were co-ordinated to make sure all squadrons received exactly the same information which, in turn, helped keep bombing concentrated. His job also involved selecting the best crews to provide updates on weather and wind conditions (the so-call ‘wind-finders’) during attacks.
It was not a perfect system but it was a very good one and it helped ensure that Bomber Command got the best out of each Group.
1 Group Page 12
