Bomber Command

by Martin Bowman

  2. Rosner had been awarded a Purple Heart.

  3. Betty married W/O (later Squadron Leader) Stan Haywood DFC* in the last year of the war. He was a Flying Instructor when she met him. He had flown ‘ops’ whilst at White Waltham, Lincolnshire, flying on 10 raids to Berlin in Wellingtons and then he flew another 30 on Lancasters.

  4. The others who died were Flying Officer Graham Mitchell RAAF; Sergeant Benjamin Kenneth Hall Evans, P/O Harold Raymond St. George RAAF, F/O Walter Henry Morgan, F/S John Martin Maher RAAF and F/S Anthony David Terry RAAF. Another Lancaster participating in the Turin raid crashed into a mountainside overlooking the southern shore of Lake Léman at 00.55, local time. ED412 EM-Q on 207 Squadron was flown by P/O Horace Badge and crew and had taken off at 22.35 from Langar. While Swiss flak may be implied in this crash, the difficult weather conditions prevailing at this time and place with widespread thunderstorms with icing as well as shifting upper winds were most probably a contributing factor. Here again, there were no survivors.

  5. The London firm Vane Ltd had delivered the first parcel of Window, which Bomber Command planned to use in the first ‘Thousand-Bomber Raid’ on Cologne on 30/31 May 1942 but at the last minute William Sholto Douglas, head of Fighter Command, had halted deployment of Window because he was afraid the Germans might learn to use Window against his own British night fighters. In August 1942 the Japanese were dropping giman-shi (‘tricking paper’) virtually every night in their bombing raids on Guadalcanal, to paralyze US radar-guided antiaircraft guns. The idea of gluing thin electrical wires between paper strips approximately 1-inch wide and 30 inches long – equal to half the wave length of the US gun-laying radar – came from Corvette Captain Hajime Sudo, chief of radar defence for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The strips, dropped in packets of 20 strips each, cut down substantially on Japanese losses in night bombing raids. At last, at a staff conference on Thursday 15 July 1943 Churchill stated that he would accept responsibility for initiating Window operations. The Air War: 1939–1945 by Janusz Piekalkiewicz. (Sudwest Verlag GmbH 1978)

  6. 347 Lancasters, 246 Halifaxes, 125 Stirlings and 73 Wellingtons.

  7. During the Battle of Hamburg 24/25 July–2/3 August 1943 Window prevented about 100–130 potential Bomber Command losses.

  8. The Bombing of Nuremburg by James Campbell (Futura 1973).

  9. F/L ‘Mick’ Shannon DFC and crew FTR from the operation to Mannheim on 9/10 August when C-Charlie crashed at Wimeraux-Aubengue with the loss of all seven crew.

  10. At Graveley a 35 Squadron Halifax piloted by Flight Sergeant N J Matich RNZAF crashed at Paxton, Huntingdonshire. (P/O Matich DFM and his crew FTR from the operation on Hannover on 27/28 September 1943. Matich evaded, 4 PoW, 2 KIA). C-Charlie, a 77 Squadron Halifax II crashed at Elvington on return with no injuries to Sergeant D A R King RNZAF and crew. H-Harry a 158 Squadron Halifax II crashed at Lowthorpe, Yorkshire killing all the crew. K-King, a 432 ‘Leaside’ Squadron Wimpy ditched off Cromer and all the crew were rescued. Lancaster AR-G2 on 460 Squadron RAAF flown by Flight Sergeant L J ‘Mick’ Christensen RAAF crashed on return to Binbrook. Again everyone escaped injury.

  11. Claims To Fame: The Lancaster by Norman Franks (Arms & Armour 1994)

  12. 218 Gold Coast Squadron Assoc Newsletter No. 37 November 2005.

  13. Martin Cocker, writing in 218 Gold Coast Squadron Newsletter No. 26.

  14. Inside the Third Reich.

  15. During July 1943 to early March 1944 Wild Boar Geschwader claimed 330 bombers destroyed at night and the force was expanded to three Geschwadern with JG 300 stationed around Berlin, JG 301 defending the Frankfurt/Main area and JG 302 based in the Munich/Vienna area. A record 290 victories were achieved by German night fighter pilots in August 1943 and 80% were credited to the Wild Boar units and to twin-engined crews operating in Wild Boar fashion.

  16. (4.3 per cent). The Battle of the Ruhr was fought over 99 nights and 55 days and 24,355 heavy bomber sorties were flown. The main Battle of the Ruhr lasted for four months, during which, 43 major raids were carried out. Two thirds of these were against the Ruhr and the rest were to other areas including Stettin on the Baltic, Munich in Bavaria and Pilzen in Czechoslovakia and Turin in Italy.

  17. ED860 swung off the runway on take-off at Skellingthorpe on 28/29 October 1944. It dug in and the undercarriage collapsed. The starboard outer engine was ripped off, all the nose and lower part of the fuselage, including the bomb bay, were crushed. Fortunately the bomb load did not explode but the aircraft was a write-off.

  18. Thundering Through The Clear Air; No. 61 (Lincoln Imp) Squadron At War by Derek Brammer (Tucann Books, 1997)

  19. Out of the Blue: The Role of Luck in Air Warfare 1917–1966 edited by Laddie Lucas (Hutchinson 1985) and Peenemünde: Great Raids. No. 1 by Air Commodore John Searby (The Nutshell Press, Chippenham)

  20. See Night Airwar; Personal recollections of the conflict over Europe, 1939–45 by Theo Boiten. (Crowood Press 1999) and RAF Evaders: The Comprehensive Story of Thousands of Escapers and their Escape Lines, Western Europe, 1940–1945 by Oliver Clutton-Brock (Grub Street 2009). Fred Gardiner and a fellow evadee were flown home in a Lysander on 13 September. Peter Smith eventually crossed the Pyrenees into Spain on 13 October. John Whitley and ‘Whiz’ Walker reached Switzerland on the night of 20/21 December. Two weeks after shooting down Whitley’s Stirling Norbert Pietreck returned from a night sortie on one engine. He crashed and received severe head injuries. Barely recovered he was involved in another crash-landing in October and again he suffered head injuries. He never flew operationally again. In October 1945 he was arrested by the Soviets and spent the next 10 years in captivity.

  21. IWM Sound Archive. 653 aircraft were dispatched. 8 Halifaxes, 6 Lancasters and 4 Stirlings – were lost.

  22. He flew 29 operational trips in all before joining the 8th Air Force. Adapted from First of the Many by Captain John R ‘Tex’ McCrary and David E Scherman (1944).

  23. See Bomber Squadron: Men Who Flew with XV by Martyn R Ford-Jones (William Kimber 1987).

  24. Obviously, during the approach to the target, O-Oboe had begun to catch up with another aircraft in the stream. One thing Jim Richmond did mention was that the mid-upper turret of some aircraft was fitted with an external rail against which the guns could depress no lower. The idea of this was to prevent the guns depressing into the area of the wings, tail-plane and rudder and in effect, shooting one’s self down. The Stirling was fitted with electronic sensors, which cut out the fire from the guns when they passed into these same areas. It was as a consequence of this that Jim could not open warning fire on the other Stirling that was firing at them because it had passed into the area shielded by Aaron’s Stirling’s own wingtips. This fire which raked them from wingtip to wingtip came so suddenly and hit Arthur so quickly that he did not have time to take any avoiding action to permit Jim a shot in the direction of the other Stirling.

  25. 218 Gold Coast Squadron Assoc Newsletter, No. 36.

  26. ‘As it required about 15 sorties to learn the ropes and so become efficient at the game, it became obvious that the Path Finder Force could not accept the limit of 30 trips before standing down, as was the rule in the main force of Bomber Command. In order to take advantage of the experience gained and to keep abreast of changing tactics on both sides, it was decided to extend our first tour of ops to 45. It was necessary to have eight aiming point pictures to your credit if you were to be trusted to mark a target. To get a good photograph of the target necessitated flying straight and level for a minute after the bombs were released. (I am sure that minute had well over 100 seconds in it.) So, to become a Master Bomber required about 40 trips. When one brought back eight such aiming point photographs, one received the Permanent award of the Path Finder Force Badge and a parchment signed by AVM D C D Bennett. My award was signed on 13 October 1943. Pilots treasured this document more than a gong, as it was the result of many trips requiring great accuracy.’

  27. The dams had been bombed by
617 Squadron on the night of 16/17 May 1943.

  28. F/L Ivor Charles Brian Slade DFC who had set himself the target of flying the ‘double’ Path Finder tour of 60 ops was killed flying the 59th operation when his Lancaster was hit at the start of the bomb run. Five of his crew were KIA, only one crewmember survived and he was taken prisoner.

  29. Nachtjagd: The Night Fighter versus Bomber War over the Third Reich 1939–45 by Theo Boiten (Crowood 1997).

  30. See Chased By The Sun.

  31. Their aiming points were the housing estate where the scientists and technical staff lived and the assembly buildings. After a last minute change of plan 3 and 4 Groups were assigned to the first aiming point (the workers accommodation area); 1 Group the second (the factory building the missiles) and 5 and 6 Groups the third (the experimental site).

  32. Thundering Through The Clear Air; No. 61 (Lincoln Imp) Squadron At War by Derek Brammer. (Toucann Books, 1997)

  33. Flying For Freedom; Life and Death in Bomber Command by Tony Redding (Cerberus 2005).

  34. 6.7% of the force.

  35. Lancaster III JA897 on 44 Squadron flown by Sergeant William John Drew.

  36. On the night of 23/24 August 1943 during the RAF raid on Berlin Spoden was hit in the leg when his Bf 110 was hit by return fire from a Stirling and he and his crew had to bail out. Spoden bailed out but he hit the tailplane and the speed of the aircraft pinned him for some time before he eventually broke free and pulled the ripcord. He lost consciousness and came too in a garden of a house in Berlin. His Bordfunker survived but his flight mechanic was killed. Spoden was hospitalized and only returned to action again in early November 1943. Late that same month he claimed his fourth Abschuss when he shot down a Lancaster. Spoden finished the war as Gruppenkommandeur of I./NJG6 with 24 night and 1 day (the latter probably unconfirmed) victories (a USAAF B-17 on 6 March 1944) in NJG5 and NJG6. He was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz. Post war Spoden was a senior Lufthansa pilot.

  37. Schrage Musik was in fact a modernized version of a combat technique used in 1916 by Gerhard Fieseler, then a front-line pilot in Macedonia. His friends used to call it ‘fieseling’. With this tactic Fieseler was able to stand up to overwhelming odds and won 21 air kills without receiving a single machine-gun hit. In spring 1918 when Fieseler was a pilot in 38 Fighter Squadron on the Balkans Front, he took a round-turreted Lewis machine-gun from a Breguet he had shot down and mounted it in the upper wing indentation of his Fokker D VII, in front of the pilot’s seat, so that he could fire it upward at an angle. Each time he attacked he would fly underneath the enemy aircraft and his slanted MG rarely missed its target.

  38. G9+JN.

  39. Musset’s Bf 110 crashed north of Güstrow at 0250 hours. When he had recovered from his injuries he joined Stab. II./NJG1. Musset died in a flying accident at Harderode on 9/10 February 1945.

  40. Sandys was Joint Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Supply and Chairman of the ‘Crossbow’ Committee which Winston Churchill had formed in 1943 to examine evidence from all sources on the secret German developments of flying bombs and rockets and which was now charged with responsibility for reporting on the effects of these rockets and bombs and upon the progress of counter-measures and future precautions to meet them. See Bomber Harris by Dudley Saward.

  41. Extract from Most Secret War by R V Jones Sunday Telegraph 26 February 1978.

  42. Miller would be shot down over Berlin on 2/3 December flying on the crew of P/O James Herbert John English DFC RAAF. Miller was taken prisoner.

  Pilot Officer W H Eager’s crew on ‘P’ Flight, 61 Squadron at Syerston on 15 July 1943 with Lancaster I W4236 QR-K K-Kitty and the ground crew. Standing L-R: Flight Lieutenant Hewish, radio operator from Heston; 23-year-old Pilot Officer Eager, who was from Winnipeg; Sergeant Stone, WOp from Pontypridd; Sergeant Vanner, rear gunner from Romford; Sergeant Petts, navigator from Ripley; Sergeant Sharrard, mid-upper gunner from Toronto; and Sergeant Lawrence, flight engineer from Barnsley. Seated L-R: Leading Aircraftman W Long; Corporal C Bowyer and Leading Aircraftman J Blackwood. On 9/10 August 1943 this Lancaster (and a Halifax II) were shot down on the trip to Mannheim by Leutnant Norbert Pietrek of II./NJG 4. Three of Sergeant J C Whitley’s crew on the Lancaster, which crashed at Marbehan, Luxembourg, were KIA. Whitley and three others evaded capture.

  Pilot Officer R Brown’s Stirling crew at interrogation at Mildenhall after their return from operation on Berlin on 22/23 November 1943. Seated left to right: Pilot Officer R Brown; Sergeant W Brodie, flight engineer; Sergeant F Forde, wireless operator; Flight Sergeant P Harwood, bomb aimer and Sergeant F Tidmas, navigator. This was the last bombing raid on Germany in which Stirlings took part. (IWM)

  WAAF sparking plug testers at Snaith, home base for Halifaxes on 51 Squadron. (IWM)

  Lancaster III ED664 AR-A2 A-Aussie on 460 Squadron RAAF at Binbrook in 1943. This aircraft was lost on the operation on Berlin on 23/24 November 1943. There were no survivors on Flight Sergeant Maurice Joseph Freeman RAAF’s crew.

  Flight Lieutenant John Alfred ‘Red’ Wakeford DFC entering Lancaster III ED689/WS-K on 9 Squadron for his 50th operation at Bardney on 20 June 1943. The target was Friedrichshafen and after bombing, the Lancasters landed at Blida in North Africa, returning two nights later and attacking Spezia en route. On 3/4 July 1943 luck ran out for the Wakeford crew and the same Lancaster when they were the only loss on the squadron in a raid on Cologne. All eight crew including Wakeford and Flying Officer Jonah B Reeves RCAF, an American from New York State, were killed. (IWM)

  Lancaster III EE190 QR-M on 61 Squadron which was wrecked in landing at Blida, Algeria following the attack by twelve Lancasters on 617 Squadron and twelve more in 5 Group on targets in Northern Italy, one near Bologna and the other near Genoa, on 15/16 July 1943. There were no injuries to Flight Lieutenant T A Stewart RNZAF and crew. (IWM)

  At 04.26 hours on 26 July 1943, Flight Lieutenant Colin McTaggart ‘Mick’ Shannon DFC RAAF on 76 Squadron crash-landed Halifax V Series I (Special) DK148/MP-G at Holme-on-Spalding Moor. On approach to Essen the port inner engine appeared to have been damaged by shrapnel as vibration set in. Shortly after bombing, at 17,000 feet, the propeller on the port inner became uncontrollable, eventually separating from the engine and slashing into the aircraft’s nose. The impact caused a loss of control and when Shannon brought Johnnie the Wolf back to level flight it was discovered that Sergeant G W Waterman, the mid-upper gunner had bailed out. The broken wooden propeller blades lessened engine damage but in this case the damage sustained in flight, plus that of the crash-landing, rendered the Halifax a write-off. Two weeks later, on the night of 9/10 August, Shannon and crew failed to return from the raid on Mannheim. All were killed.

  Late hay is taken beside 77 Squadron’s Halifax II DT807/KN having its port engine checked at dispersal at Elvington in mid-July 1943. DT807 was lost on its 32nd sortie on 3/4 October 1943 on the Kassel raid. Sergeant Harold Edward Cracknell and four crew were killed. Two sergeants who survived were taken into captivity. (IWM)

  (Left) Wing Commander ‘Johnny’ Fauquier DSO** DFC, the Canadian Commanding Officer on 405 ‘Vancouver’ Squadron RCAF was the Master Bomber on the Berlin raid 23/24 August 1943.

  (Right) Wing Commander Kenneth Holstead ‘Bobby’ Burns DSO DFC*, who resumed his flying career after he was repatriated from a German PoW camp in 1944. He had been shot down on the Berlin raid on 31 August 1943 when he lost a hand and he and four crew were taken prisoner. Two men were killed. Burns later served on the PFF Headquarters’ staff. (IWM)

  Halifax JD379/KN-M on 77 Squadron at Elvington, flown by Flight Sergeant Alexander Massie and crew was one of the 56 RAF Bomber Command aircraft that FTR from Berlin on 23/24 August 1943. Hit by flak, the bomber came down at Quelch, north of Celle. Massie and two crew were killed, the rest were taken prisoner.

  Halifax II HR782/MH-V on 51 Squadron with Flying Officer R Burchett and crew successfully carried out an attack on Mönchengladbach during the night of 29/30 Au
gust 1943. At 04.03 hours, while at 4,000 feet, ten miles south-east of their base at Ossington, there was a collision with a Lancaster from an HCU, thought to be on a reciprocal course. The top of the port fin was knocked off and both port propellers were damaged. Burchett could only keep control by increasing speed, but he successfully brought the aircraft down at 180mph. HR782 was finally lost on the Leipzig raid of 3/4 December 1943. The pilot, Flight Sergeant Stanley Ainsworth, and one of his crew were KIA. The five other crew members were taken prisoner.

  Standing in front of Wellington HE984/HD:H Snifter with its insignia of Hitler, Mussolini, Goring and Goebbels confronted by a canine puddle are Flight Sergeant J P Hetherington, bomb-aimer; Pilot Officer J H Cameron, pilot; Pilot Officer J J Allen, navigator; Flight Sergeant J Samuels, WOp/AG; and Pilot Officer A C Winston, rear gunner. This crew was an Australian ‘Gen’ crew on 466 Squadron RAAF and completed their tour on 30/31 August 1943, the penultimate operation before the squadron was stood down to convert from Wellingtons to Halifaxes. The last of five Royal Australian Air Force heavy bomber squadrons to become operational with Bomber Command, 466 served as part of 4 Group.

  Flight Sergeant S Mason and his crew on Stirling EH906/WP-T on 90 Squadron at interrogation at Wratting Common following the 23/24 August 1943 operation on Berlin. A few minutes after midnight the crew sang ‘Happy Birthday’ on the intercom as Mason turned 21. EH906 FTR on its 39th sortie on 5 March 1944, a SOE operation dropping equipment to the French Resistance. Flight Lieutenant Cyril Vincent French, who crash-landed at Ste-Hilaire-de-Gondilly, was killed. Three men were taken prisoner and three evaded capture. (IWM)