20. See Chased By The Sun.
21. See Confound and Destroy by Martin Streetly (MacDonald & Janes 1978).
22. See Bomber Command by Max Hastings (Pan 1979).
23. See Bombers; The Aircrew Experience by Philip Kaplan (Aurum Press 2000)
24. P/O (2nd Lieutenant) John Edward Cox on F/O Gerald Patrick Godwin DFC RAAF’s Lancaster crew on 467 Squadron was the third American lost on the raid. He and all the others on the crew were lost without trace.
25. On 22/23 March 1944 Manning and five of his his crew including Zammit were killed on the operation to Frankfurt. G/C Norman Charles ‘Shorty’ Pleasance the Bardney station commander who accompanied the crew on the raid was also killed.
26. Sergeant Jeffrey George Kirby, F/O William Laskie, Sergeant Derek Kneale and Flight Sergeant Roy Brawn RAAF were killed. One source suggests that Dorothy Robson had requested that her ashes were scattered in the air but she is buried in Yorkshire at Pocklington Road Cemetery. F/O F P G Hall subsequently joined F/O R J Bolt’s crew on 76 Squadron and he completed his tour of operations in 1944. See Chorley and Chased By The Sun; The Australians in Bomber Command in WWII by Hank Nelson (ABC Books 2002).
27. See No Particular Courage by Harry Church in Flights Into History: Final Missions Retold By Research and Archaeology by Ian McLachlan (Sutton Publishing 2007). Apart from Church only Sergeant ‘Jock’ Mason and Flight Sergeant Steve Putman survived to be taken into captivity. 49 Squadron’s other loss that night was R–Robert flown by F/L C G Thomas (KIA), which exploded near Cologne. Only three men survived and they were taken captive.
28. F/O Oien is commemorated on the Wall of the Missing at Madingley Cemetery, Cambridge. He had been awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.
29. Halifax II F-Freddie on 10 Squadron crashed in the target area. F/L Lawrence Arthur Harden, Sergeant Gordon Edward Haskings his 40-year-old flight engineer and two other crew KIA. Three others were taken into captivity.
30. See Bomber Command by Max Hastings (Pan 1979).
31. RAF Bomber Stories (PSL 1998) and Legend of the Lancasters (Pen & Sword 2009) by Martin W Bowman.
32. Heffernan was admitted to RAF Hospital Ely and spent many weeks recovering from his injuries. He remained in the service and in 1953 was awarded the OBE; retiring as Air Commodore in 1956. Chorley.
33. On 8 November 100 Group (Special Duties, later Bomber Support) was created to consolidate the various squadrons and units using the secret ELINT and RCM in the war against the German night fighter air and defence system. In tandem with this electronic wizardry, 100 Group also accepted Window ‘spoofing’ as a large part of its offensive armoury and it also controlled squadrons of Mosquitoes engaged purely on Intruder missions over Germany. Early in November about 50 German night fighters were equipped with the improved SN-2 radar, which was relatively immune to Window but only 12 night fighters and crews were operational, mainly because of the delay in training suitable operators to use the complicated and sensitive radar equipment.
34. Confounding The Reich by Martin W Bowman. (Pen & Sword 2004).
35. Jack and Patricia married on 7 February 1948.
36. In 1948 the remains were exhumed and transferred to Dumbach War Cemetery (Bavaria). Christine Smith (nee Perry) writing in 218 Gold Coast Assoc Newsletter No. 32 February 2005.
37. However, in the Path Finder Force the Stirling’s operating height of about 13,000 ft was increased by almost 8,000 ft by the simple expedient of reducing the quantity of .303 ammunition, cutting the fuel reserve of 22% by a half and further removing all the armour plating including the vast door, which measured 7/8 thick, between the front cabin and the outer fuselage. Stirling Wings: The Short Stirling Goes to War by Jonathan Falconer (Sutton 1995). Stirlings went on to perform well in other roles, notably as glider tugs and on SOE operations in the occupied countries.
38. See Bomber Command by Max Hastings (Pan 1979).
39. The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book 1939–1945 by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt (Midland 1985).
40. Adapted from an article by the late Stuart Howe.
41. See Nachtjagd: The Night Fighter versus Bomber War over the Third Reich 1939–45 by Theo Boiten (Crowood 1997).
42. Who had been awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.
Lancaster I DV305 BQ-O O-Oboe on 550 Squadron, which Flying Officer G A Morrison landed at Woodbridge after being attacked by a night fighter over Berlin on the night of 30/31 January 1944. Both gunners were mortally wounded by machine gun and cannon fire and one member of the crew bailed out. The Lancaster was so badly damaged that it was written off. (IWM)
A WAAF airwoman belts-up .303-inch ammunition for Lancasters on 619 Squadron at Coningsby in February 1944. (IWM)
A 4,000lb ‘cookie’ is backed into position under a Bristol Hercules radial engined Lancaster II on 408 ‘Goose’ Squadron RCAF at Linton-on-Ouse in February 1944. (IWM)
HM Queen Elizabeth meets ground crew on 156 Squadron during a Royal visit to RAF Warboys on 10 February 1944. (IWM)
Flight Lieutenant Thomas H Blackham DFC, a Lancaster pilot on 50 Squadron at Skellingthorpe, holds the crew’s lucky mascot as he is helped into his flying jacket by his flight engineer, Pilot Officer Charles Richard Ernest Walton (28), on 19 February 1944, just prior to the raid that night on Leipzig. Other members of the crew are, from left to right: Flying Officer David Gwnyfor Jones, the 24-year-old navigator; Sergeant Herbert George Ridd, the 29-year-old mid-upper gunner; Sergeant S Smith, bomb aimer and Sergeant Sydney Charles Wilkins, the 21-year-old wireless operator. On 3/4 May, Blackham’s eight-man crew were shot down on the raid on Mailly-le-Camp by a German night fighter. He and Flight Sergeant Stewart James Godfrey, the bomb aimer, evaded. Walton, Jones, Ridd and Wilkins and Sergeant William Dennis Dixon, the 20-year-old rear gunner, and Pilot Officer Cyril Edward Stehensen RAAF, the second pilot, were killed. (IWM)
Mademoiselle Janine Jouanjean ‘an attractive blonde’ whom Gordon Carter met while evading in France. They married on 11 June 1945.
35 Squadron crew at Graveley. Standing L-R: Flight Lieutenant Roger ‘Sheep’ Lamb, mid-upper gunner (PoW 19/20.2.44); Squadron Leader Gordon Carter DFC* RCAF, Navigator Leader (PoW 19/20.2.44); Squadron Leader D Julian Sale DSO* DFC RCAF; Flight Lieutenant B O ‘Bod’ Bodnar DFC RCAF (PoW 19/20.2.44), H2S operator; Flight Sergeant G H ‘Harry’ Cross DFC DFM, flight-engineer (PoW 19/20.2.44); and Flying Officer H J ‘Johnny’ Rogers DFC WOp (PoW 19/20.2.44). Kneeling in front, the ground crew of their Halifax. Julian Sale survived the shoot down on 19/20 February but he died of his wounds on 20 March 1944. (IWM)
Squadron Leader W N Dixon DFC on 76 Squadron watches as fitters work on the outer starboard Merlin of Halifax II W7813/MP-E Edward the Great. Dixon flew Edward on 8/9 March 1943, its last sortie on 76 Squadron before a major overhaul, after which the aircraft joined 77 Squadron then FTR with Sergeant Lewis William Rees’ crew on the night of 25/26 May 1943 on Düsseldorf. The aircraft crashed in Belgium and all the crew were killed. (IWM)
Lancaster being bombed up. (IWM)
Warrant Officer Jack Laurens DFM and crew on Lancaster III DV267 K-King on 101 Squadron at Ludford Magna. L-R: Laurens, who was a South African, had flown at least seven ‘ops’ to Berlin; Sergeant William Frederick Donald ‘Don’ Bolt, mid-upper gunner; Flight Sergeant Les Burton, navigator; Sergeant A E ‘Ted’ Roystone, rear gunner; Sergeant R N ‘Chris’ Aitken, bomb aimer climbing aboard; Sergeant J A Davies, special operator, who is wearing body armour; Sergeant W A G Kibble, flight engineer; and Sergeant Cassian Henry ‘Cass’ Waight, WOp, who is also wearing body armour. This aircraft was one of many ABC-equipped Lancasters and carried an additional crewmember known as the Special Duties operator. On 19/20 February 1944 DV267 was lost on the raid on Leipzig and Laurens, Bolt and Waight, who suffered a broken neck, were killed. The five other members of the crew were taken prisoner.
L-R: Warrant Officer Jack Laurens DFM; Ser
geant J A Davies, special operator; Sergeant Cassian Henry ‘Cass’ Waight, WOp; Flight Sergeant Les Burton, navigator; Sergeant W A G Kibble, flight engineer; Sergeant William Frederick Donald ‘Don’ Bolt, mid-upper gunner; Sergeant ‘Ted’ Roystone, rear gunner; Sergeant ‘Chris’ Aitken, bomb aimer. (IWM)
The crew on Lancaster C-Charlie on 44 ‘Rhodesia’ Squadron pretend to warm their hands for the benefit of the camera in their Nissen hut at Dunholme Lodge after returning from Stuttgart on the night of 1/2 March 1944. (IWM)
The 101 Squadron Lancasters equipped with ABC (Airborne Cigar) were distinguishable by their large masts above the fuselage as on Lancaster I ME590/SR-C. On 26 February 1944, Flight Sergeant R Dixon piloted the aircraft back from Augsburg, where at 20,000 feet ME590 was hit by flak, which fractured hydraulic lines, after which a Me110 attacked and holed the elevators. Dixon crash-landed at Ludford Magna, wrecking part of the FIDO (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation) pipework in the process. ME590 was repaired, converted from B.I to B.III and sent to 1651 HCU at Woolfox Lodge. After further service on 5 MU, ME590 was finally scrapped in April 1947. (IWM)
Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation at Graveley. In the winter of 1944–45 fifteen airfields were equipped with FIDO. (IWM)
A Halifax III with H2S radar scanner under the fuselage takes off from Elvington on 11 March 1944. In the background are aircraft on 77 Squadron. (IWM)
A game of cards helps pass the time in the crew room at Oakington on 18 March 1944 as Lancaster crews on 7 Squadron wait to leave for the operation on Frankfurt. (IWM)
(Left) Flight Sergeant Ed Clode of Invercargill, New Zealand, a bomb aimer on 101 Squadron at Metheringham, on his return from the Frankfurt raid of 22/23 March 1944, the last operation of his tour. (IWM)
(Right) On 22/23 March on the operation on Frankfurt 46-year-old Wing Commander Vashon James ‘Pop’ Wheeler DFC* MC* (right, when CO of 157 Squadron flying Mosquitoes January–August 1943) CO of 207 Squadron at Spilsby, died at the controls of Lancaster A-Apple on what was his 158th operational flight. Three other men on the crew were killed, three surviving to be taken prisoner. (Theo Boiten via Richard Doleman)
Photo reconnaissance picture of Frankfurt showing the devastation.
Lancaster III ME790 U-Uncle on 106 Squadron prepares to take off from at Metheringham for Bomber Command’s last major raid on Berlin, 24 March 1944. ME790 was lost on 22/23 May 1944 on the operation on Brunswick. Flight Lieutenant Sidney Jack Houlden and six of the crew were killed. (IWM)
‘Cookie’ going down.
Ernest Peter Bone, Lancaster mid-upper gunner and bomb aimer on Squadron Leader Richard Lane’s crew, who completed a tour on 626 Squadron at Wickenby. (Bone)
Bomb ravaged Kaiser Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin.
The search begins in war damaged Berlin.
War damage in Berlin.
A fallen RAF Bomber Command crewmember by the wreckage of his aircraft.
Crews putting on a brave face for the camera on the flight line. (IWM)
Devastated buildings in a Berlin neighbourhood immediately after a raid.
RAF personnel attach tail units to 1,000lb and 500lb MC HE bombs at dispersal. (IWM)
Ground personnel in front of a Lancaster. (IWM)
CHAPTER 4
An Orchestrated Hell
Berlin was a kind of orchestrated hell – a terrible symphony of light and flame. It isn’t a pleasant kind of warfare. The men doing it speak of it as a job . . .
Ed Murrow of CBS, Berlin, 2/3 December 1943
Standing behind the armoured seat of the Lancaster, Walter King of the Sydney Morning Herald looked over the shoulder of Squadron Leader William Alexander ‘Bill’ Forbes, the imperturbable CO of 460 Squadron RAAF and watched the fascinating and fantastic scene over Berlin. King was one of a trio of press correspondents who flew aboard three of the 25 Lancasters that took off from Binbrook. He wrote:
The skies over the target were indeed in turmoil, but the target area itself was in even greater turmoil as 4,000lb bombs – ‘cookies’ smashed amid the built-up area and thousands of incendiaries cascaded down and took a hold among the blocks of buildings . . . From the time we sighted [the TIs] about ten miles out, until we passed beyond them was the most exciting ten minutes through which I have lived. The two central figures on that brief period were two ‘Bills’ [Forbes and Flight Lieutenant William James Douglas ‘Bill’ Grime, the bomb aimer] who co-operated directly and instructed each other over the intercom phones.1
It was the fifth heavy attack on Berlin within a fortnight but most of the Halifaxes, about 210 aircraft, were withdrawn from the raid late on 2 December because of fog, which was forming at their airfields in Yorkshire. And so 458 Lancasters, 18 Mosquitoes and just 15 Halifaxes were dispatched to the ‘Big City’ that night. There were no major diversions and the bombers took an absolutely direct route across the North Sea and Holland and then on to the capital. Unexpected winds en route blew many aircraft off track and nullified the Path Finders’ efforts to make dead reckoning (DR) runs from Rathenow. Consequently there were gaps in the cloud covering the city; most of the bombing was scattered over a wide area of open country to the south. The enemy’s running commentary began plotting the bombers from the neighbourhood of the Zuider Zee and the JLOs announced that Berlin was the main objective at 19.47 hours: 19 minutes before zero hour. Many illuminated targets were provided for the night fighters over the capital.2 At the beginning of the attack heavy flak was fired in a loose barrage up to 22,000 feet around the marker flares and was predicted at seen targets through gaps in the cloud. Searchlights were active in great numbers and took every opportunity the weather offered for illuminating the bombers. After the raid had been in progress half an hour and soon after the appearance of fighter flares the ceiling of the barrage was lowered and the flak decreased, although individual aircraft were heavily engaged when coned.
Flight Sergeant Brian Soper and his fiancée Mary had agreed to get married if the young flight engineer got through his tour of ‘ops’. She was working in a factory in Battersea during the bombing raids, machining uniforms by day and doing part time duties with the London Fire Service so many nights a week. Soper recalls:
This time, on the way to Berlin we lost all the oil from the port inner engine and had to shut it down and feather it. The rear turret was ‘U/S’ and the starboard inner engine running hot. After shutting down the port inner, we lost several thousand feet. We were still losing height and very near to Hannover. It was decided that Berlin was still a long way off and if we got there, we wouldn’t make it back. A suitable point was found near Hannover and the bombs released. With a lighter load we were able to maintain height and in spite of the return flak were routed for base. As we were damaged we kept a special lookout for night fighters. Due to all the problems and only three engines, we arrived back a little early due to the shorter journey.
Forty bombers, 37 of them Lancasters, were shot down by night fighters. The missing air crews were a mixture of young and old and several different nationalities, from different parts of the world, and they all died equally violent deaths. Three Lancaster IIIs on 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds failed to return to Lincolnshire. Pilot Officer Arthur James Wakefield on Flying Officer Charles Peter Ready’s crew was 42 years old. They were killed and the rest of the crew were lost without trace. Another three missing Lancasters were from 12 Squadron at Wickenby. At Ludford Magna too, 101 Squadron lost three Lancasters. One of the crews survived to be taken prisoner but all fourteen crew members and the two special operators were killed on the two other Lancasters, which included Sergeant J J Kelly USAAF, the rear gunner on the crew skippered by Flight Lieutenant George Albert James Frazer-Hollins DFC. Kelly was laid to rest in the US Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz in the Belgian Ardennes. Lieutenant Gunnar Hoverstad and his crew were on one of two Halifaxes on 35 Squadron that failed to return to Graveley. The Norwegian pilot was killed, all his crew bailing out safely to be taken prisoner.3 Fift
y-three aircraft were damaged by flak.
Walter King returned safely from Berlin, as did Ed Murrow of CBS (who flew on Lancaster D-Dog on 619 Squadron piloted by ‘Jock’ Abercromby), but five Lancasters on 460 Squadron RAAF, including two that carried press correspondents, were lost and Captain Nordhal Greig of the Free Norwegian Army representing the Daily Mail and 40-year-old Australian, Norman Stockton of the Sydney Sun, were killed.4 A 50 Squadron Lancaster that carried Lowell L Bennett, a 24-year-old war correspondent employed by the Daily Express also failed to return to Skellingthorpe.5
When interviewed, Flying Officer Ronald McIntyre a 20-year-old Australian pilot on 460 Squadron told waiting reporters at Binbrook:
There were blocks of searchlights; hundreds of them. They were trying to probe the clouds and the rear gunner saw two aircraft coned. The flak was pretty solid. The enemy seemed to be using the type that looks like hose-piping when it comes up. It gives you the impression that it is impossible to get through it but you do somehow, though we had one or two holes in the bomb doors.
McIntyre would die on the last raid of the year on Berlin, on 29/30 December, when he crashed at Grossziehten. The Australian pilot and four of his crew were lost without trace. Pilot Officer Tony Bird DFC on 61 Squadron back from his sixth trip to Berlin was interviewed by British Movietone News. The newsreel was shown at cinemas across Britain and was seen by his mother at a cinema in Croydon. She jumped up and cried out ‘That’s my Tony!’ Her son was shot down on the raid on Brunswick on the night of 22/23 April 1944 and he was taken prisoner. Six of his crew died.
Bomber Command Page 27
