Chapter Four
On the 5th of November 218 Squadron joined 3 Group with which it would remain for the rest of the war, and this involved it in flying its third aircraft type in six months. The first Wellington to arrive was a rather battered dual controlled Vickers Armstrong-built Mk I, L4293, which had previously served with both 148 and 75 Squadrons, before spending five months with 15 O.T.U. On arrival at 218 Squadron on November 6th it was allocated to B Flight, and initial impressions were that this machine was a “hack”, displaying clear signs of wear and tear. However, the mood changed with the arrival later of the Pegasus XVIII powered Mk Ic, R1009, fresh from 23 Maintenance Unit. This was a new aircraft, in which the dustbin turret and been removed and two detachable mid-ship guns installed in its place. Two more were taken on charge on the following day, when R1008 and R1025 were flown in by Czech pilots from 311 Squadron, and the squadron immediately set about training. With the conversion underway a number of experienced Wellington crews were posted in, among them that of P/O Dunham from 214 Squadron at Stradishall. Two Weybridge-built Wellingtons, T2801 and T2844, arrived on the 13th, followed on the 14th by a further two, T2885 and R1183 and another dual control Mk Ia, N2937. R1210 was delivered on the following day to bring the total squadron strength up to eight plus the two dual control machines.
Peter Dunham DFC seen here wearing the observer brevet. In 1940 he held the rank of leading aircraftman. During his operational career he served as a gunner, observer and finally pilot. In 1945 he had reached the rank of wing commander.
On the 23rd the squadron again began the upheaval of changing address, and completed its move to Marham on the 27th. Marham was originally opened in 1916, but like so many other airfields it was abandoned during the inter-war years until re-opening on April 1st 1937 to accommodate the heavy bombers of 3 (Bomber) Group. 218 Squadron would have to share the facilities here with 115 Squadron, which had been in residence since a few months after its re-opening. Wing Commander Combe was on ten days leave from the 20th, and the burden of overseeing the transfer fell on S/Ldr Gillam. Tragedy struck on the 28th, when one of the longest serving gunners, Sgt Evans DFM, was killed after accidentally walking into a spinning airscrew. Nineteen-year-old Evans had been awarded the DFM for his action on May 14th, when he shot down a Bf109. Squadron Leader Edward Davy was posted in from B Flight of 15 O.T.U at this time. He was an experienced pilot, who had joined the RAF in 1930 and had served with some distinction with 30 Squadron in Iraq during the early 1930s.
November’s blustery weather had made conversion training difficult, and the freezing mists of December would pose even greater problems. Twenty-six airmen were posted to the squadron on the 1st to augment the existing manpower, now that the crew complement had increased to six in a Wellington. Over the next two weeks ninety-five training flights were undertaken without major incident. Squadron Leader Davy’s time on the squadron was cut short by a posting to 40 Squadron on December 16th, to replace the outgoing commanding officer, W/Cdr Barnett. Flight Lieutenant Richmond was promoted to the unpaid rank of acting squadron leader, a popular appointment as the unassuming New Zealander was one of the squadron’s most respected and experienced pilots. In the early hours of December 20th the squadron undertook its first Wellington operation, when S/Ldr Richmond and fellow New Zealander F/O Anstey were ordered to attack the port of Ostend in R1009 HA-L and R1210 HA-B respectively. First away at 04.20hrs was Richmond, followed by Anstey five minutes later, and both crews bombed from between 11,000 and 12,000 feet, observing their six 500lb GP bombs and 120 incendiaries to burst in the docks area and cause large blue flashes and fires. Two nights later the same two crews were joined by F/L Shaw for an attack on Flushing (Vlissingen). Ault was unable to locate his primary target in the prevailing weather conditions, and bombed Calais harbour as an alternative. The two remaining crews did not encounter any problems, and their bombs started a number of fires, which were visible from ten miles away. The squadron’s final operation of the year was mounted on the 29th when six crews were briefed to attack the channel port of Boulogne. In the event, severe icing and ten-tenths cloud conditions outbound and over the target area resulted in the attack being abandoned.
Another of the pre-war New Zealanders who made a name for himself on the squadron, William Anstey. One of a few who survived the bloodbath over France in May 1940. He was awarded a well-deserved DFC in 1941.
1940 was the most difficult year of the war to categorize, having begun with the unreality of the Phoney War, before erupting into unimaginable fury as the Low Countries and then France were swallowed up by the advancing German military machine. Most of the pre-war conceptions had been swept away in the final quarter of 1939, and those that remained in 1940 were subject to rigorous reappraisal. The first attempts at strategic bombing had been attended by great enthusiasm on the part of the crews, and their efforts were much heralded in the press, but in truth, little had been achieved, other than to present a belligerent and defiant face to the, as yet all-conquering enemy. Bomber Command had played its role in the Battle of Britain, and its crews had shown commendable gallantry in flying into the teeth of those defending the invasion embarkation ports, but it was attended by a backs-to-the-wall mentality. It was already clear that this was going to be a long war, and as far as Bomber Command was concerned, the longer the better, to give time to develop the aircraft, weaponry and electronic wizardry that was essential if Britain were ever to go onto the offensive.
A second successive harsh winter restricted flying at the start of the year, and those operations which were mounted, were directed largely at German and French ports. The year began for the Command in general with raids on Bremen on the first three nights, two of which were reasonably effective for the period. The first operational activity of the New Year for 218 Squadron involved sorties by S/Ldr Richmond and Sgt Adams, who were briefed to attack Antwerp’s port facilities on the 1st. The flight commander found the target in freezing conditions, and dropped his bombs over the docks area, but Adams’s flares failed to release and he returned with his bombs. Ian Richmond was attacked while in Marham’s circuit on return from an ineffective raid on the 4th. Unseen by the rear gunner, a Bf110 had managed to position itself 500 yards astern of the Wellington before opening fire. A stream of cannon fire passed within feet of the starboard wing, upon which Richmond instinctively turned into the darkness and flicked off the landing lights while opening up the throttles to lose his pursuer, it had been a close shave. Snow and fog curtailed further operations for the squadron until the 9th when a successful raid was flown by six crews with the oil refinery at Rotterdam as the intended target. Weather conditions were ideal and crews reported a number of fires as they left the target. While the squadron was attacking Rotterdam a record 135 aircraft were sent to Gelsenkirchen to attack its synthetic oil plants. Wellingtons made up almost half of the force, and now that 1 and 3 Groups were fully equipped with the type, it would continue to be the mainstay of the Command in numbers until well into 1942.
On the following day the squadron reported that it had ten fully trained Wellington crews available. Remarkably 218 Squadron did not lose a single Wellington during the conversion and working up period, but this fine loss-free record could not last indefinitely. On the 12th F/O Phillip MacLaren, an Australian was posted in from 9 Squadron with over six hundred hours on all types to his credit. Tragedy struck him and the squadron on the morning of the 15th, when P9207 crashed near Wormegay & Pentney, six miles south east of Kings Lynn, just ten minutes after take-off, MacLaren was killed while carrying out his first solo flight in a Wellington. This was also the day on which a new Air Ministry directive was issued, stating an assumption that the German oil position would be passing through a critical period during the next six months. It was suggested that a concerted assault on the centres of Germany’s domestic oil production would have a materiel effect on its war effort. A list of seventeen sites was drawn up accordingly, the top nine of which represented 80% of production.
It would be February before Peirse could put his orders into effect, and in the meantime, Wilhelmshaven continued to be the main focus of attention. It was the destination that night for 218 Squadron’s first visit to Germany since converting to the Wellington. Six crews from the squadron were briefed to attack the important port, but in the event only two took off, those of Sgts Hoos and Morley in N2844 HA-M and L7798 HA-S respectively. Hoos located and bombed the target in good visibility, but Morley was forced to bomb the secondary target of Rotterdam Docks after developing engine problems. Snow and fog prevented any further operations until the end of the month, during which period there was a flurry of postings-in. 218 Squadron registered no further casualties from either training or operations during this time.
February began for the squadron with a change of command on the 6th, when W/Cdr Combe was posted to HQ Bomber Command, and was succeeded by the equally experienced W/Cdr Geoffrey Amison MiD. Twenty-eight year old Amison had joined the RAF in 1932 and gained his Mentioned in Dispatch while serving in Palestine. He joined 38 Squadron as a squadron leader in August 1939, before being posted to 311 (Czechoslovakian) Squadron a year later and then 214 Squadron. He was promoted to acting wing commander on the day he assumed command of 218 Squadron. The Wellington squadrons were kept busy during the first week and a half targeting ports along the occupied coast.
Operations resumed for 218 Squadron when nine crews were briefed on the 7th for an attack that night on the port of Boulogne. Led by S/Ldr Richmond in his now regular R1009 HA-L, all crews managed to locate and bomb the target, causing a number of fires in the harbour area between docks 3, 4 and 5, which were still visible to the crews as they returned over North Foreland. The first major raid of the month to a German target was Peirse’s “big night”, mounted on the 10/11th, for which 222 aircraft were sent against Hanover. 3 Group detailed over one hundred Wellingtons, ten of them from 218 Squadron, and nine of these attacked the primary target in the face of spirited opposition from both flak and searchlights. A secondary operation on this night involved over forty aircraft, including three Stirlings on the type’s offensive debut. The target was oil storage tanks at Rotterdam, which became the objective for P/O Mansfield. After turning for home he was then set upon by an unidentified night fighter, which followed him over the North Sea for around ten minutes before breaking off. Two other crews had inconclusive encounters with intruders as they arrived in the Marham circuit. Sergeant Morley was attacked by a single-engine fighter, and F/O Crosse by a JU88, which delayed his landing by an hour. The total 3 Group effort for the night amounted to a new record 104 aircraft, the first time that any group had reached, let alone exceeded, a hundred aircraft in one night. A congratulatory message from the A-O-C was duly received at 3 Group stations on the following day.
Geoffrey Amison’s command of the squadron was relatively brief, he was posted to Training Command after 3 months.
On the following night, over seventy Wellingtons, Hampdens and Whitleys took off for Bremen, home of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG, manufacturer of the Kondor long-range maritime reconnaissance bomber. Eight 218 Squadron Wellingtons took off, and those crews reaching the target found it covered in ten-tenth’s cloud and had to bomb on ETA. In all only twenty-seven crews reported carrying out an attack in the target area. Although no losses were incurred as a result of enemy action, despite the presence of night fighters, twenty-two aircraft crashed or were abandoned by their crews on encountering unexpected thick fog on return. Unable to land at Marham the 218 Squadron crews were forced to seek sanctuary further afield, and for some crews this was to prove difficult because of the shortage of fuel. Sergeant Adams managed to crash-land T2885 HA-D on the mud flats near Frampton on the River Severn at 00.40hrs, and he and his crew walked away, and Sgt Smith likewise put T2801 HA-R down safely in a field one mile south of Roos at 01.30hrs. Flying Officer Anstey strayed over London’s formidable flak defences, but made it as far as Cumberland before running out of fuel and abandoning R1210 HA-O. The aircraft crashed near Tebay, nine miles north-north-east of Kendal, in Westmoreland’s Lake District at 02.15hrs. Ninety minutes later F/O Agar belly-landed R1135 HA-S in a field, again without crew casualties.
Peirse put the oil plan into effect on the 14/15th, when the Ruhr refineries at Gelsenkirchen and Homberg were targeted, but few crews were able to identify the aiming points. 218 Squadron did not participate, but seven of its crews were briefed to attack targets in the Ruhr on the following night. Both flight commanders took part in the operation against the oil plant at Homberg, and fires were already taking hold when they arrived in the hotly defended target area. Thereafter, the Command embarked on nine nights of minor operations, mostly against French ports. 218 Squadron next operated on the 22nd when W/Cdr Amison joined S/Ldr Ault’s crew for a raid on Brest. Low cloud forced them to try their luck at Lorient instead, which turned out to be similarly cloaked, and they turned for home with their bomb loads intact. The remaining crews fared little better, although Sgt Morley did eventually bomb through a break in the cloud after stooging around for more than seventy minutes.
Typical of the ineffectiveness of operations at this stage of the war was a raid on Düsseldorf on the evening of the 25th, for which eighty aircraft took off. The city authorities recorded around seven bomb loads falling within the city, and damage was slight in the extreme. On return and while awaiting his turn to land at Marham shortly before 23.30hrs, Sgt Hoos attracted the attention of a JU88 flown by Fw Ernst Ziebarth of I/NJG2. Hoos skilfully managed to crash land his extensively damaged Wellington at a K Site field located near Red Lodge, two miles from Swaffham. All six crew members were initially taken to Swaffham Hospital, five of them with a variety of non life-threatening injuries. Twenty-five year-old Sgt John Stanley was trapped in his front turret and sustained serious burns. He was rushed to Kings Lynn Hospital, where he had a leg amputated, but succumbed to his injuries on March 3rd. Over 120 aircraft were dispatched to Cologne twenty-four hours later, and again, just a few bombs fell onto western suburbs, the remainder finding open country and outlying communities. The month’s activities ended with a tilt at the Tirpitz at Wilhelmshaven on the night of the 28th, but the raid was sufficiently inaccurate to warrant no mention in the town’s diary.
March began for the Command with a return to Cologne on the night of the 1/2nd, an operation which produced some useful damage to the docks area on both banks of the Rhine. The new month began for 218 Squadron, however, with an attack on the 2/3rd on the Hipper Class Cruiser berthed in Brest Harbour, in which six crews participated without loss as part of an overall force of fifty-four. This was the last operation of his tour for A Flight’s commander, S/Ldr Ault. He was posted to 15 OTU at Harwell for instructor duties on the 6th, swapping places with S/Ldr William Beaman, who now took over A Flight. Sadly Ault was not destined to survive the war. He would be killed on April 9th 1942, while leading 11(F) Squadron on a suicidal attack against the Japanese fleet moored in the Indian Ocean. Beaman was an experienced pilot, who had served with 70 Squadron in Iraq in 1938 and had been promoted to the rank of squadron leader in June of the same year.
A less convincing attack on Cologne on the 3/4th preceded a period of minor operations, most of which were directed at ports along the occupied coast. On the 9th a new Air Ministry directive brought a change in emphasis, in response to mounting losses of Allied shipping to U-Boats in the Atlantic. From now on, this menace, and its partner in crime, the Focke-Wulf Kondor, were to be hunted down where-ever they could be found, at sea, at their bases, at the point of their manufacture and in the component factories. A new target list was drawn up, which was headed by Kiel, Hamburg, Vegesack and Bremen, each of which contained at least one U-Boat yard, while the last mentioned was also home to a Focke-Wulf factory. The French ports of Lorient, St Nazaire and Bordeaux were also included in the hit list, for housing U-Boat bases and support facilities.
The new campaign began on the night of the 12/13th, when three major operations were mounted, to Hamburg and Bremen in line with the directive, and Berlin. 218 Squadron dispatched nine crews into a freezing moonlit night, three of them, S/Ldr Richmond with S/Ldr Beaman acting as “Second Dickie”, F/L Mitchell and F/O Agar heading for Berlin. In the event Richmond was forced to bomb Hamburg docks because of fuel problems, while F/L Mitchell returned after ten minutes with an overheating starboard engine, and only F/O Agar reached Berlin and reported a successful attack in the face of accurate flak and plentiful searchlight activity. Of the six other crews briefed for the Focke-Wulfe Factory at Bremen, one returned early with technical problems, and R1326 failed to return after being shot down by Feldwebel Hans Rasper of IV/NJG1 at 21.46 hrs. The Wellington crashed into the river at Gouwe Sloot near Opperdoes, and twenty-six year old William Crosse and three of his crew were killed. Crosse had joined the squadron in June 1940, and at the time of his death had undertaken thirteen operations, six of which were flown in Blenheims. In 1972 the wreckage of this aircraft was recovered by the Royal Netherlands Air Force. The Hamburg force inflicted some useful damage on the Blohm & Voss shipyard, and started over a hundred fires, a third of them classed as large.
Another effective operation took place against Hamburg on the following night, when the Blohm & Voss yard sustained further damage, and thirty large fires erupted in the city. Nine 218 Squadron crews were briefed for this operation, and they noticed a marked increase in German resistance, beginning as early as the Dutch coast. Flying Officer Agar’s R1448 HA-S was attacked by two Bf110s on leaving the target, and the co-pilot, Sgt Vandervord, was wounded in the leg by a bullet. A homebound R1328 HA-V was attacked from below and astern by another Bf110 flown by Fw Hans Rasper of 4./NJG1 while at 15,000 feet, and damage to the hydraulics system left it with undercarriage, bomb doors and flaps hanging down. With gritty determination a wounded Sgt McNeil and his crew managed to coax the Wellington back to Marham, where a successful crash-landing took place. Flight Lieutenant Shaw decided to make a low-level strafing attack on an enemy airfield while homebound, and then found himself being stalked by an intruder over Swanton Morley. On his return Shaw’s rear gunner, Sgt Gill, opened fire and the enemy fighter broke off without responding. Meanwhile, two freshman crews were sent to Boulogne to attack the docks, and R1183 became the object of intense flak. Sergeant Donald’s wireless operator, Sgt Jack Huffinley, was hit in the leg by shrapnel while standing beside his pilot, and he quickly bled to death, on this, his first operation.
218 Squadron sat out a raid on Gelsenkirchen on the 14/15th, which caused loss of production at the Hydriewerk refinery at Scholven, and also remained at home when the Command returned to matters maritime with attacks on Bremen and Wilhelmshaven on the 17/18th. The squadron contributed eight aircraft to a force of forty-three from the Group to attack the town of Kiel on the night of the 18/19th, when S/Ldr Beaman operated for the first time as captain since joining 218 Squadron. The squadron was briefed for operations to Cologne on the 20th, Lorient on the 22nd and Berlin on the 24th, but each was cancelled just prior to take-off. One freshman operation was carried out on the 27th by P/O Donald to Dunkirk. On the 29th, the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were reported to be off Brest, and by the following morning they had taken up residence. This proved to be the start of an Admiralty-inspired bitter eleven month-long campaign to eliminate this twin threat to the Atlantic convoys.
That night the squadron contributed nine crews to a 3 Group contingent of thirty-eight in an overall force of 109 aircraft prepared for a two-wave attack on the ships, which would be nicknamed “Salmon and Gluckstein” by the British press. The first wave found the target almost free of cloud, while the second encountered difficult visibility, but all crews reported bombing the dry docks and observing numerous explosions, although no hits were scored on the ships. This was the final operation for twenty-two-year-old F/O William Anstey, the New Zealander who had joined the squadron in November 1939. In April Anstey would fly out to Malta and then onto Fuka to join 70 Squadron. Here he would complete his tour and bring his total operations to over seventy operations. The squadron also parted company with the recently promoted F/L Mitchell, who was posted to B Flight of XV Squadron at Oakington, to which station he would fail to return from Berlin on June 2nd.
On each of the first three days of April small forces were sent to Brest, but were recalled before bombing took place. The Wellington brigade was not involved, and its turn came on the night of the 3/4th, when fifty-one of the type set out for the port and its guests in company with thirty-nine other aircraft. The warships proved difficult to locate, and again no hits were scored. A further attempt on the 4/5th left an unexploded bomb in the dry dock occupied by the Gneisenau, and on the following morning, its captain decided to move the ship out into the harbour while it was dealt with.
During the first week of April 218 Squadron dispatched thirty-five sorties without loss, and parted company with the experienced Sgt Frederick Hoos on his posting to 20 OTU at Lossiemouth on the 4th. On the 8th ten crews, including both flight commanders, were briefed to participate in an operation to Germany’s principle naval port of Kiel, which followed on from the previous night’s successful assault on the town’s docks area. The squadron was timed to attack during the first wave, between 23.30hrs and 23.59hrs, in company with a further nineteen Wellingtons from the Group. They encountered intense flak over the target, and P/O Lambert’s aircraft was hit in the starboard engine, despite which, he still delivered the five containers of incendiaries and three 500lb bombs and one 250lbs. While homebound the damaged engine suddenly seized, and the crew threw out everything possible to reduce the weight and remain aloft. With the coast almost in sight they were attacked by an unidentified night fighter, which they evaded by flying into cloud. Employing radio fixes from Hull, the Wellington was nursed back to England, where a wheels up landing was safely carried out at Horsham St Faith. Kiel recorded another damaging night, with the main weight of the attack falling this time upon the town rather than the port area.
Officers and men of 218 Squadron outside B Flights hanger, RAF Marham early 1941.
A force of eighty aircraft headed for Berlin on the 9/10th, while the maritime campaign continued at the hands of small numbers of aircraft at Vegesack and Emden. 218 Squadron was not involved, but contributed nine Wellingtons on the night of the 9/10th for the next assault on Brest and its lodgers. Two of the squadron contingent returned early, and R1442 HA-D crashed into the sea just off Brest with the loss of all on board. Pilot, Sgt John Brown, was on his ninth operation, and third as captain. At least, on this occasion, four bombs struck the Gneisenau, and fifty men were killed, while a further ninety sustained injury. The squadron returned to Brest on the 12th and 14th dispatching a total of seventeen sorties without loss. For the remainder of the month, Brest remained the most frequently visited destination, along with Kiel, but it was back to Bremen on the night of the 16/17th, when nine 218 Squadron crews attacked the port area in hazy conditions. Flight Lieutenant Shaw was in a running battle with a JU88 while outbound, and the rear gunner fired over four hundred rounds, inflicting damage on the fighter, which was claimed as a probable.
On the 22nd W/Cdr Amison was notified of a posting to 12 OTU at Benson as chief flying instructor. His replacement was to be twenty-nine year-old W/Cdr Herbert James Kirkpatrick, who was currently serving as a flight commander with 9 Squadron at Honington. A former Oxford University Air Squadron member he had joined the RAF in February 1932 and served with various squadrons, as well as spending time at HQ Fighter Command in 1939. After his time at 12 OTU. Amison would be posted to HQ 6 Group, and finish the war as SASO with 205 Group in the Mediterranean.
Group Captain Herbert Kirkpatrick DFC seen here while serving as SASO at 3 Group HQ. The 29-year-old Scotsman’s command of the squadron lasted nine months, in which time he successfully completed 12 operations.
Wing Commander Kirkpatrick presided over his first operation and casualties on the night of his appointment, when another attack took place on the German Cruisers at Brest. The squadron dispatched eight aircraft at around 19.45 hrs on the evening of the 22nd, and they encountered thick cloud and a determined defence in the target area, which thwarted the attack. On return Sgt Adams wanted to divert to Boscombe Down as ordered at briefing, because of the likelihood of low cloud at Marham. Oddly, permission was refused, and with tanks almost empty the Wellington pressed on to find Marham as “socked in” as forecast. Approaching Kings Lynn both engines cut, and the pilot gave the order to bail out. The Wellington crashed near Clenchwarton Station, two miles west of Kings Lynn at 03.15hrs, and all of the crew landed safely in the surrounding area. Flight Sergeant Shaw did land at Boscombe Down with engine trouble, and Sgt Graham forced landed at St Minver in Cornwall with wireless failure and empty tanks. Pilot Officer Mansfield’s R1496 HA-O was hit by flak over the target and force-landed at Abington with damage to the tail-plane. This was the fifth operation for the twenty-three-year-old New Zealander Sgt Swain RNZAF, and it proved to be his last. Only the rear gunner survived the crash of Wellington L7798 HA-S north of Trezeguer Farm, Milizac, eleven kilometres north-west of the target.
Two nights later another freshman crew found themselves in difficulty on return from a trip to Ostend. Sergeant Chidgey hit trees and crash-landed T2958 HA-T in a field at Barton Bendish at 00.03hrs after overshooting his second attempt to land at Marham, but he and his crew walked away unscathed. An attack on Kiel was planned for the night of the 25/26th, for which nine 218 Squadron crews were briefed. Wing Commander Kirkpatrick chose this as his first operation, and joined the crew of Sgt McNeil in Wellington P9299 HA-R. This was one of only three crews to find and bomb the target on a night when one crew failed to return. Flying Officer George Agar and his crew were last heard of at 23.56hrs, when an SOS bearing was received showing them to be approximately eighty miles from the Dutch Coast. R1507 HA-V is believed to have crashed in the North Sea, taking with it Agar, who was on his twenty-fifth operation, and the rest of the crew. Squadron Leader Beaman was thrown off course by navigational equipment failures and inaccurately forecast winds, and arrived late over the target. After further navigational difficulties he finally landed at Sutton Bridge at 05.30hrs after more than eight hours aloft.
The month was brought to a conclusion with another attack on Kiel on the night of the 30th, for which the squadron contributed nine aircraft to a 3 Group force of thirty-one Wellingtons. Ten-tenths cloud over the target resulted in the group bombing on flak and searchlights in the general proximity of the target. Squadron Leader Beaman circled for fifty minutes drawing flak throughout, before bombing somewhere north of aiming point A. Squadron Leader Richmond was unable to locate the target, and bombed Wilhelmshaven from 10,000 feet instead. Pilot Officer Lymbery attacked Rendsburg aerodrome from 17,000 feet, starting one large fire and several smaller ones.
There was a busy start to May, with a major operation almost every night for the first two and a half weeks. It began at Hamburg on the night of the 2/3rd, when a force of under a hundred aircraft achieved very modest damage and thirteen large fires. A force of similar size produced only superficial damage at Cologne on the following night, while a small, predominantly Wellington effort kept up the pressure on Brest. Sergeant William Adams completed his first operational tour in April, and on May 6th he was posted to 23 OTU at Pershore.
This latter operation signalled the start of the new month’s operational activities for 218 Squadron, when nine of its crews took part. Weather conditions were perfect, and all of the aircraft bombed the target in bright moonlight. All returned safely to Marham, where crews reported a number of bomb loads straddling the Scharnhorst. Brest was the main target on the 4/5th, when hits were claimed on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau but were unconfirmed. 218 Squadron sat this one out but was back in action on the following night when contributing nine Wellingtons to an overall force of 140 bound for Mannheim. Weather conditions were not favourable, with ten-tenths cloud all the way into southern Germany. 120 returning crews claimed to have bombed in the target area, but the local authorities estimated around twenty-five bomb loads only fell within the city. Squadron Leader Ian Richmond dropped the squadron’s first cookie (4000lb blast bomb) on this night from a Merlin-powered Mk II Wellington, W5448 HA-Z. However unable to find the aiming point hidden beneath the cloud, he dropped it onto an autobahn one and a half miles south-east of Manheim, and witnessed a terrific explosion.
The disappointing series of major raids continued at Hamburg on the 6/7th, when damage was again slight. Another crack at the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest took place on the 7/8th, when ten 218 Squadron crews joined a further thirty-four Wellingtons drawn from 99, 149 and 115 Squadrons. The attack proceeded in ideal weather conditions and on his return S/Ldr Richmond reported:
Target BREST cruiser Scharnhorst attacked from 13,500 feet with 5 x 500lb S.A.P + 1 x 250lb G.P S.A.P. Direct hits on ship observed by the crew. Several searchlights shot out on way home. Returned safely to base.
Pilot Officer B Pape and crew in R1596 HA-D also claimed to have hit the cruiser, reporting:
Target Scharnhorst at Brest attacked at 00.31hrs from 15,000 feet one stick of 5 x 500lb S.A.P and 1 x 250lb S.A.P. Three bursts observed on jetty and on stern of ship. Brief engagements with enemy fighter over target area.
The largest effort of the month thus far was directed at Hamburg’s shipyards on the night of the 8/9th, when 188 aircraft were detailed, 106 of them from 3 Group. 218 Squadron contributed ten aircraft, whose crews were briefed to attack the Blohm & Voss Werke. Wing Commander Kirkpatrick led the squadron contingent in R1496 HA-O, when they arrived over the target city they found the weather to be excellent. Returning crews reported large fires and numerous explosions, one of which was caused by F/O Smith’s cookie, and he recorded “a pleasing explosion and blue flashes, a wizard bomb”. Not to be outdone, S/Ldr Richmond dropped his cookie on what was reported to be the Blohm & Voss Werke, and he too noted a terrific explosion. This time the bombing results on Hamburg were more encouraging, and the city authorities reported eight large fires and the destruction of a number of apartment blocks. The death toll was put at 185 people, and this was the highest death toll from a Bomber Command attack of the war to date. A simultaneous raid on Bremen by over one hundred aircraft produced widespread bombing throughout the city, but no hits on the U-Boat yards. The total number of sorties for the night was a new Command record, surpassing February’s big night at Hanover. A Congratulatory message from Senior Air Staff and the C-in-C of Bomber Command was received at Marham on the 9th, which read:
“My congratulations to you and the groups and squadrons under your command on last night’s heavy and successful raids over Germany. The skill and daring with which they carried out deserves the highest praise and the scale reveals the growing power of Bomber Command. Archibald Sinclair.”
On the same day the station records book records the following details:
The Commander in Chief desires to bring to the notice of all ranks in the command the coolness and devotion to duty shown by No.938896 Sgt Burke H a Wireless Operator / Air Gunner in No.218 Squadron.
On a night on 8/9th April 1941 this N.C.O was a member of a crew of a Wellington aircraft detailed to attack Kiel. In the course of this operation the aircraft was very badly hit and was eventually flown back to England across the North Sea on one engine after all movable equipment and maps had been jettisoned from the aircraft. Great dependence, therefore, had to be placed upon the assistance which could be obtained by wireless in order to bring the aircraft back to England. The fix aerial, however had been damaged by enemy action and before any wireless could be obtained, Sergeant Burke with more than half his body outside the astro hatch repaired the damage. The aircraft returned to England on a course guessed by the navigator, who had no means of sextant and by wireless bearings which were obtained by Sgt Burke once he had repaired his wireless. Throughout the whole trip Sgt Burke’s coolness and efficiency resulted in the aircraft being brought safely back to an aerodrome in England. He had to change frequencies and wavebands at the pilots request with great rapidity and finally homes the aircraft successfully at Horsham St Faith. It is considered that this N.C.O’s coolness and skill resulted in the safe return of this aircraft.”
Regardless of the above, Sergeant H Burke did not receive any award for his action.
On the 9th S/Ldr Beaman was posted to 149 Squadron to succeed W/Cdr Powell as commanding officer. His replacement as A Flight commander was an equally experienced and courageous pilot, acting S/Ldr Denis Clyde-Smith, who was posted across the tarmac from 115 Squadron. Mannheim had always featured prominently on the Command’s target list, and would continue to do so for the remainder of the war. One of its attractions as the bomber force increased in strength was its geographical proximity to Ludwigshafen, which nestled opposite Mannheim on the western bank of the Rhine. Any attack on Mannheim with an approach from the west would inevitably lead to the bombing spilling over into Ludwigshafen, and in time this would be incorporated into the plan of attack. On the night of the 9/10th 146 aircraft were dispatched for a joint raid on these twin cities, and for the period, a reasonably successful outcome was achieved. A little over fifty buildings were destroyed, but a substantial number sustained damage, and over three and a half thousand people were rendered homeless, although some only temporarily.
The assault on Hamburg in line with March’s directive continued on the 10/11th and 11/12th, and the two operations resulted in a combined total of over two hundred fires, seventy of them classed as large. Earlier on the 11th G/C V.E Groom OBE DFC relinquished his role as base commander, having received a posting to the Air Ministry as Director of Plans. He was succeeded by W/Cdr Andrew “Square” McKee DFC AFC, who had commanded 9 Squadron for six months in 1940. Remarkably his tenure would last only a matter of days, as he was replaced on the 18th by the substantial figure of G/C A “Tiny” Evans-Evans, who combined the role with that of commanding officer of 115 Squadron. Mannheim and Ludwigshafen came into the bomb sights again on the 12/13th, but the earlier success was not repeated and many crews bombed alternative targets. The on-going hectic round of operations took a hundred aircraft to Hanover on the 15/16th, before raids on Cologne on the following two nights produced only modest damage. Kiel also escaped lightly on the 17/18th, and this was the final major operation of the month. Tragedy struck on the morning of the 18th, when P/O Brian Lymbery and his crew were conducting a training flight in W5448 HA-W, a Mk II Wellington. The dinghy escaped from its stowage and jammed the starboard elevator, causing the aircraft to crash near Hilgay, five miles from Downham Market. All but the rear gunner died on impact, and he succumbed to his injuries two days later. To survive operations only to die in this manner was tragic, and it was the only blemish in the squadron’s otherwise loss-free month. Vickers built W5448 had joined the squadron from 12 Maintenance Unit on April 16th, and was the regular mount of S/Ldr Richmond. It had been this Wellington that dropped the squadron’s first 4,000lb blast bomb on May 5th.
On the 24th F/L Herbert Price was posted in from 15 OTU at Harwell, and promoted to the rank of acting squadron leader to assume duties as B Flight commander. On the 26th S/Ldr Ian Richmond was posted to command 27 OTU at Lichfield in Staffordshire at the end of his long association with 218 Squadron. After screening he would be posted to XV Squadron at Mildenhall. On June 29th 1942 he would fail to return from an attack on Bremen and spend the remainder of the war as a PoW. Ian Richmond was the cousin of S/Ldr Leonard Trent, who was to earn a VC during an epic daylight attack on a power station at Amsterdam in May 1943.
The performance of the Command over the next two months was to have a significance of which the crews were unaware. Photographs taken during the period’s night operations were to be used to assess their effectiveness, and a civil servant, Mr D M Butt, was charged with the responsibility of producing a report for the War Cabinet. The first operation of the new month was a low-key effort directed at Düsseldorf on the night of the 3/4th, for which forty-nine Wellingtons were detailed by the group, thirteen of them from 218 Squadron. Shortly before take-off the squadron’s participation was all but cancelled, and only S/Ldr Price flew to the Ruhr in Wellington R1148 HA-L. The target was hidden under tentenths cloud, through which heavy flak was bursting, and unable to locate the aiming point Price bombed on an estimated position. Small-scale operations then held sway until the 10/11th, when over a hundred aircraft were employed against Brest, where the Prinz Eugen had now joined its sister ships. The squadron dispatched twelve crews, whose efforts were thwarted by an effective smoke screen and they were unable to assess results.
On the 11/12th Düsseldorf was the intended target for sixty-seven Wellingtons from 3 Group, while eighty others were sent to Duisburg. It seems that neither city was troubled by falling bombs, while Cologne reported a significant number of them, some of which caused substantial damage to the main railway station, while others fell into the docks area. Whether the Rhineland Capital was bombed in error or as an alternative to the briefed targets is uncertain. Pre-empting a new directive a month hence the night of the 12/13th was devoted to attacks on railway targets at Soest, Schwerte, Hamm and Osnabrück, the two latter assigned to forces of Wellingtons. The 3 Group crews were briefed for Hamm just north of the Ruhr one of Germany’s most important railway centres, but the attack by eighty-eight aircraft was disappointing. Industrial haze over the target made identification difficult although F/L Stokes and crew glimpsed a railway line and dropped their load from 10,000 feet in one stick. That started three large fires, two of which were still burning vigorously as the crew turned for home. On the credit side only one Wellington was lost from the 150 of the type dispatched on all of the night’s activities.
Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bremen dominated the remainder of the month, the first two-mentioned were attacked simultaneously on no fewer than eight nights by forces of varying sizes. Another ineffective assault on Brest and the Prinz Eugen took place on the 13th, when haze and the very efficient smoke screen hampered the attempt. This was followed twenty-four hours later by a trip to Cologne, in which twelve 218 Squadron crews took part. Squadron leader Clyde-Smith and crew were the squadron’s only contribution to a small-scale attack on Hanover on the same night, when flying in W5447 HA-C. They found the primary target covered in thick cloud, and bombed on a concentration of flak and searchlights. Homebound just south of Amsterdam the Wellington was attacked by a Bf110, which was claimed as destroyed. In fact, the encounter was not as one-sided as the claim suggested, as evidenced by the Wellington’s port wing and fuel tank, which were riddled with cannon and machine-gun fire. What the crew didn’t know was that their adversary had been Lt Leopold Fellner of 4/NJG1, who had claimed the Wellington as shot down at 03.18hrs. Squadron Leader Clyde-Smith was awarded the DFC for this action, as was his rear gunner, P/O Frederick Chalk.
The squadron sent a respectable fifteen aircraft to Cologne on the night of the 17/18th, when industrial haze made accurate bombing difficult. Both flight commanders were among fifteen crews sent to attack Kiel docks on the 20/21st, and two aircraft failed to return. Both were captained by New Zealanders who had called for help as they struggled with engine trouble during the return flight. They sent out SOS messages which located them in approximately the same position at 54 degrees N – 30 degrees 17’ E. Sergeant Gordon Jillett was on his third operation as captain and eighteenth in all, when and his crew were lost in the sea in R1339 HA-J. Sergeant Mason Fraser and crew fell victim to Oblt Paul Bohn of 4/NJG2, who claimed R1713 HA-V at 00.20hrs twenty kilometres off Spurn Head. Twenty-three year old Fraser had joined the squadron on February 10th, and at the time of his death had flown twenty-two operations. He had previously received the following commendation:
“The Air Officer Commanding No.3 Group has highly commended Sgt Fraser, second pilot to Wellington 1328 on the night of 13/14th March, 1941. On his skilful and successful landing of that aircraft with its undercarriage retracted, after it had been severely damaged by enemy action and the first pilot wounded.”
As the North Sea was calm an air sea rescue effort was put into action in an attempt to locate the ditched crews. A high speed launch was dispatched from its base in the Humber, while two Wellingtons and three Stirlings also set out to search. Each combed the area for an hour, and a patch of oil and a dinghy were located. The dinghy was empty and there was no sign of any survivors. It was a bitter blow to the squadron to lose two experienced crews.
Briefings took place for a number of targets on the 23rd, among them Cologne, for which eleven 218 Squadron crews were dispatched, led by S/Ldr Clyde-Smith. Wing Commander Kirkpatrick, meanwhile, attacked Kiel harbour where his Mk II Wellington was bracketed by accurate flak during his bombing run. Having dropped his 4,000lb bomb in the general target area without observing results, he put the Wellington into a violent dive and ultimately landed safely back at Marham with a damaged tail. Sergeant Workman and crew were sent to bomb Emden on a freshman trip, and once again thick haze prevented an assessment of results. Thirty-four 3 Group Wellingtons were detailed as part of a force of sixty-four aircraft bound for Bremen on the night of the 25/26th, and twelve of them were provided by 218 Squadron. Electrical storms made conditions impossible and no bombs fell within the target area. The group sent a further seventeen aircraft back to Kiel on the same night, and they encountered the same appalling weather. Icing was experienced almost immediately after take-off, and six aircraft were forced to turn back before or just after crossing the Dutch coast. Three crews bombed targets of opportunity, including Soesterberg and Haamstede aerodromes, while F/L Stokes and Sgts Taylor and Rose battled against the elements to reach the target area and bomb.
On the 29th the group was again handed two targets, assigning fifty-five aircraft to marshalling yards at Bremen, and a further twenty-two Wellingtons to Kiel Harbour. Ideal conditions over Bremen allowed the crews to locate and bomb visually in the face of an intense flak barrage, and German night fighters were also noticeably active. Sergeants Taylor and Skett were among 218 Squadron participants compelled to take violent evasive action over the target to escape the flak, while Sgt Workman was forced down almost to ground level. Unable to deliver his load safely he bombed Bremerhaven as an alternative. One 218 Squadron aircraft failed to return home, T2806 HA-T crashing in Germany without survivors from the crew of twenty-seven-year-old Australian, P/O Francis Bryant who was on his 18th operation. The squadron’s sole Wellington crew to be dispatched to Kiel on this night experienced intercom problems while outbound, and this persuaded P/O Lambert to drop his 4,000 pounder on the last resort target of Rendsburg. Analysis showed that not one of the month’s raids produced significant results.
July would begin as June had ended with the accent on Bremen but the month’s first operation was by fifty Wellingtons against Brest on the night of the 1/2nd. During the course of the attack a bomb exploded along side the Prinz Eugen causing considerable damage and killing sixty sailors. 218 Squadron’s first operation of the month was again directed against Bremen, to which nine aircraft were dispatched on the night of the 2/3rd. Cloudy conditions over the target made accurate bombing practically impossible for the forty-nine 3 Group crews, and most were forced to bomb through the few isolated breaks in the clouds. Although explosions could be seen below the white stuff, the effects of the bombing could not be observed. Essen, home of the giant Krupp armaments works, had already gained a reputation for being almost impossible to identify and hit, and this was a situation that would not be rectified until 1943. A raid there on the 3/4th by ninety Wellingtons and Whitleys sprayed bombs over a wide area of the Ruhr, and few on the intended target. Bremen was also visited again on this night by Hampdens and Wellingtons, and effective bombing was reported by returning crews.
There followed yet another assault on Brest and its lodgers on the night of the 4th, conducted by a force that included twelve 218 Squadron Wellingtons led by the two flight commanders. An effective smoke screen over the docks created difficulties but Sgts Skett and Forster and F/L Stokes positively identified the dockside and jetty area, and dropped their loads accordingly. Wellington MkII W5447 HA-C developed engine trouble halfway across the channel, but Sgt Taylor opted to press on despite struggling to climb above 5,000 feet. Fierce flak accompanied the bombing run, which frustratingly ended with a total hang-up. Undeterred, a second run was attempted, only for the entire load to fall safe moments before the aiming point was reached. The squadron contributed twelve aircraft to an overall 3 Group force of fifty-four for an accurate raid on the marshalling yards at Münster in ideal weather conditions on the 5/6th. Squadron Leader Clyde-Smith didn’t find the aiming point, and bombed the railway at Albersloh as an alternative. T2887 HA-N was attacked by a Bf110 on the return journey, and the rear gunner, Sgt Bain-Killie, claimed it as destroyed. R1436 HA-N also crossed swords with a JU88 while homebound, at which the rear gunner, P/O Cranley, opened fire at thirty yards range with two short bursts. The attacker was seen to dive away with smoke pouring from an engine, and a minute later both the captain and the rear gunner witnessed an explosion in the sea below. The crew claimed the fighter as destroyed. Returning crews reported large fires in the vicinity of the railway yards. Flying Officer Ralph and crew described a tremendous bluish-white explosion which lit up the interior of the aircraft.
For the second night running favourable weather conditions enabled Münster to host what was claimed by returning crews to be a successful attack. Eleven 218 Squadron aircraft were led away by S/Ldr Clyde-Smith in the rather battered R1008 HA-A, and a number of crews reported explosions around the aiming point, including a large one believed to be from a gas holder, which lit up the surrounding area. The target area became a mass of flames and smoke which was still visible from more than sixty miles away as the crews retreated. Reports from Münster, however, mention only twenty-one people killed during the first attack, and thirty incendiaries in the town during the second. On the following night 114 Wellingtons took off for Cologne, and those reaching the target delivered upon the city its most destructive raid of the year. Residential property was badly effected, and almost five and a half thousand people were left homeless, while a number of railway lines were cut, and seven industrial buildings sustained serious damage. Also on this night Wellingtons returned to Münster, where the authorities this time acknowledged many bombs falling.
A new Air Ministry directive was issued on the 9th, which referred to Germany’s transportation system and the morale of its civilian population as its most vulnerable points. C-in-C Peirse was now ordered to direct his forces against the major railway centres ringing the Ruhr, to inhibit the movement of raw materials, and the export of finished products. The precision nature of such targets dictated that moonlight conditions prevail, while on moonless nights, the Rhine cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Duisburg would be easier to identify. When less favourable weather conditions obtained, attacks were to be carried out against more distant urban targets in northern, eastern and southern Germany.
The first large raid of the war on Aachen employed eighty-two aircraft on the 9/10th, when central districts sustained particularly heavy damage. Almost seventeen hundred dwelling units were destroyed or seriously effected, and scores of commercial premises were hit. Wellingtons played only a minor role, as the majority of those operating on this night went instead to Osnabrück. Fifty-seven Wellingtons took part in the intended attack on the marshalling yards, and ten of these were provided by 218 Squadron. Night fighters were again in evidence, and over Holland a Bf109 attacked R1436 HA-N, which contained the crew of Sgt Banks. The Station Records Book records the following:
“For a second time in succession F/O Dunham (flying as Observer to Sgt Banks) captain of A/C 1436 was attacked by a Bf109 which appeared from his starboard beam and opened fire from 300 yards with one cannon firing red tracer and 4 machine guns. Our aircraft turned and front gunner opened fire simultaneously with the E/A in a short burst. Our pilot then turned away and gave the rear gunner a chance to fire a 10 second burst. The enemy aircraft went down in a very steep dive and was seen by the 2nd pilot, 700 feet below still diving steeply. The crew consider that the E/A could not pull out of the dive and are convinced that he piled in”.
Sadly, the operation itself was less successful and the local authorities recorded no bombs falling upon the town.
Almost a hundred Wellingtons were sent to Cologne in poor weather conditions on the 10/11th, and they and a Hampden element managed to find the mark with only three high explosive bombs. After a night’s rest Wellingtons began a six night stretch of operations, beginning at Bremen on the 12/13th, again in company with Hampdens. There was a return to northern Germany for 218 Squadron on the night of the 13/14th, when eleven of its crews were detailed to join in an attack on Bremen, while the freshman crew of Sgt Huckle was briefed for Emden. Weather conditions outbound and over the target were unfavourable for accurate bombing, forcing most crews to find alternative targets, including Amsterdam and various airfields. The freshman couldn’t find Emden, and bombed Borkum Island as an alternative. An all-Wellington force of sixty-nine aircraft set off for Bremen, Vegesack and Emden on the following night, but thick cloud and icing conditions reduced the numbers reaching their assigned targets to seventeen. A predominantly Wellington force was back over Bremen on the 14/15th, when returning crews reported the whole town to be ablaze. Many fires were also claimed to have resulted from a simultaneous raid on Hanover, to which twenty-one Wellingtons contributed.
Marginal weather conditions and intense flak over Duisburg on the night of the 15/16th created problems for the twelve participating 218 Squadron crews, and the aircraft of Sgt Rose and S/Ldr Price were both hit. The latter, R1448 HA-L, lost an engine and sustained considerable damage to the fuselage. Despite being attacked by a night fighter while homebound at 600 feet over Holland Price and crew brought their mount home to a safe landing at Marham. On board for operational experience was the recently promoted W/Cdr J L Fletcher. Herbert Price was awarded a DFC for his actions on this night, the citation reading:
One night in July 1941, this officer was detailed to attack Duisburg. In spite of searchlight concentrations and heavy anti aircraft fire, he spent 40 minutes over the target, which was eventually successfully bombed. His aircraft was repeatedly hit and his rear turret put out of action. Over Holland and on the return journey his aircraft was intercepted by an enemy aircraft, which was shaken off by skilful avoiding action. The port engine failed and his aircraft began to lose height rapidly. All available articles were jettisoned but S/Ldr Price was compelled to fly at 600 feet. By skilful piloting, however, he landed at his base. He has always shown the utmost coolness, courage and determination.
Less fortunate were F/L John Stokes and his crew, who all perished when R1536 HA-G was shot down over Holland at 00.55hrs by Hptm Werner Streib of I/NJG1. The loss of twenty-three year old John Stokes, who was on his thirty-third operation, was a bitter blow to the squadron. Canadian P/O Cottier RCAF made a heavy landing on return from a training flight on the 15th, stalling Wellington X3217 onto the ground from between 20 and 30 feet, and badly damaging the port undercarriage in the process. The A.M.Form 1180 records that,
“Cottier was posted in from a Stirling squadron, and that he is unlikely to make an efficient pilot. If this was known he would have had been given duel training. Previously been at Wellington OTU 218 Squadron C.O states further tuition has now been given on the Wellington, and it is thought he will make a capable pilot.”
Squadron Leader Herbert Price DFC shows Sir Alec Burns around a squadron Vickers Wellington. Note the recently applied Donald Duck emblem and 22 bombing symbols.
Harsh words initially, but W/Cdr Kirkpatrick’s intervention would see the young Canadian given the extra hours training he obviously needed. Sadly, Thomas George Cottier failed to return from an attack on Hamburg with 419 Squadron RCAF on January 15th 1942. There would be no further operations for 218 Squadron for six nights, during which period Hamburg was targeted on the 16/17th with Wellingtons constituting half of the hundred-strong force. In conditions of poor visibility only 50% of the force bombed in the target area for little reward. The Cologne authorities reported no serious damage on the 17/18th and 20/21st, and the first major raid on Frankfurt was equally ineffective on the 21/22nd. A force of Wellingtons and Halifaxes was sent to Mannheim on this night also, twelve of the former provided by 218 Squadron. The weather was good, and for once Mannheim’s defences seemed to be taken by surprise. A number of crews reported seeing their bomb loads exploding across the railway station just south of the aiming point, but it is unlikely that damage was more than modest. The same two southern cities featured twenty-four and forty-eight hours later, on each occasion with inconclusive results.
A plan had been prepared for a major assault on the German cruisers at Brest, and this was to take place in daylight on the 24th. On the 23rd, however, it was discovered that the Scharnhorst had slipped away and was now at la Pallice some two hundred miles further south. The original plan had called for a co-ordinated attack by Wellingtons from 1 and 3 Groups and Halifaxes from 4 Group, and in the light of the new information concerning Scharnhorst it was decided that the Halifax element would target her, while the original plan went ahead at Brest. Three Fortresses from 2 Group’s 90 Squadron were to lead the operation by bombing from very high level, and it was hoped that they, and a diversion by Hampdens under a Spitfire escort at a less rarefied altitude, would draw off sufficient enemy fighters to allow the seventy-nine Wellingtons to bomb unopposed. In the event, the fighter and flak opposition was more fierce than anticipated, and the Wellington crews had to run the gauntlet as they made their final approach. In return for six unconfirmed hits on the Gneisenau, ten Wellingtons were shot down,
The nine participating 218 Squadron Wellingtons were divided into three formations. Squadron Leader Gibbes DFC, who was operating for the first time since joining the squadron, led the first trio with W/Cdr Fletcher as second pilot. They were engaged by two Bf109s, one of which was claimed as destroyed. Pilot Officer Pape landed his flak-damaged R1598 HA-D at Harwell and reported his bombs straddling the quayside. The second formation was also engaged by the defences, following which R1726 HA-O was observed to crash into the sea in the target area. Twenty-three-year-old New Zealander P/O Morrison Jolly and three of his crew were killed, while their two colleagues took to their parachutes to survive as PoWs. It was Jolly’s nineteenth operation since joining the squadron direct from 15 OTU in March. Sgt John Knott, the wireless operator, recalls the events leading up to the capture and eventual imprisonment.
Wing Commander Augustus “Rod” Gibbes DFC. The Australians tour with 218 Squadron very nearly cost him his life when he ditched on return from Oostende on September 2nd 1941.
On July 24th the target was Brest and the German Battleships. Ack – ack was very intense, and we dropped the bombs with flak exploding all around the aircraft. Having survived the flak thundering under the Wellington we encountered about fifteen Bf109s. The rear gunners all let loose. Our rear gunner gave a running commentary over the intercom. Whilst this was going on I was forced to kneel down because the bullets from the fighters were whizzing through the aircraft. I clipped on my chute and adjusted my hardness. I tapped the 2nd pilot on the shoulder and indicated back down the fuselage that a fire had broken out. I opened the escape hatch to bail out, but in my haste the chute opened in the fuselage having caught on something protruding. I gathered the billowing chute in my arms, and during this time the Canadian Observer, Sgt W “Jake” Jacobsen, had left. I followed and remember tumbling through the air thinking, I hope the chute opens correctly. I looked up and was shocked to see that the chute was only partially opened, and I remember the relief when I was jolted upwards as it finally deployed fully. I then started a slow decent watching the action unfold all around me. As I descended a German fighter circled around me, I found out later that this was to indicate where I would be coming down for those on the coast. I inflated the Mae West just before I hit the water. In my shocked state I had forgotten to release my harness and chute and started to slowly sink below the waves, I frantically tried to hit the release gear, and I finally managed it and shot up to the surface, to find my chute was floating nearby. After about half hour a green motor launch arrived, I was dragged aboard and given hot coffee and taken ashore. The beach was full of young French girl’s sun bathing with a number of German officers, while above them the battle was still unfolding. A German officer arrived from a nearby Chateau which overlooked the bay I had just landed in. The Luftwaffe officer informed me in perfect English that I was now a Prisoner of War. I was taken to the Chateau and informed my wet clothing would be dried and that I would be fed shortly. While waiting we started to chat about the war, all the time we both watched transfixed as the battle unfolded above us. The Luftwaffe officer loaned me his binoculars so that I could see that the Battleships were still undamaged. He had been using them to try and locate any other survivors from my crew. I was later informed that one chute appeared to open too late, while two chutes were seen but never located. The German officer assured me that the German Authorities will notify the Red Cross of my capture immediately and it would be broadcast. In fact my parents knew I was a PoW before they had received the telegram!! After about two hours in this beautiful Chateau a large black open-tourer arrived with two gentlemen in black shirts and close-cropped hair. They did not look particularly pleasant. I was taken to a nearby Army Barracks, given more food and asked a number of questions. I was then loaded into a large lorry and transported to a nearby airfield to be greeted by the German Bf109 pilots who had shot us down!!!
R1601 HA-T sustained considerable damage from both flak and fighters, and on return Sgt Banks claimed one of the latter as damaged and also a hit on the Gneisenau. Meanwhile the Halifaxes of 35 and 76 Squadrons had experienced an equally bruising time at the hands of enemy fighters and flak at la Pallice, and had lost five of their number, a third of those dispatched, and all of the surviving aircraft had returned with battle damage. In return a number of bombs had struck the Scharnhorst, necessitating her return to Brest, where better repair facilities existed, and this would at least ensure that she posed no threat to Allied shipping for some time. That same night the squadron dispatched six NCO crews to Kiel, five of them reaching the target and the sixth returning early with technical difficulties after depositing the bomb load onto an enemy airfield on the island of Sylt.
During the remainder of the month Wellingtons were involved in fairly minor operations against Kiel on the 24/25th and Hamburg on the 25/26th, before representing over half of the force of 116 aircraft bound for Cologne on the 30/31st. The crews encountered bad weather, and the raid almost entirely missed the city. There were no further operations for 218 Squadron after the 24th, the annual sports day went ahead on the 27th in weather fine enough to allow the squadron dance to be held on the sports field. It was a fitting way to end a hectic month, which had seen the squadron carry out six daylight and ninety-two night sorties totalling 484.25 flying hours, and deliver 317,180lbs of bombs. The award of the DFC to S/Ldr Ian Richmond was announced at the end of the month, the citation read:
“This officer has served with his squadron since 1938 and for the past year has commanded a flight with conspicuous keenness and leadership. On the night of May 7th 1941, he dived through heavy and accurate flak to obtain a direct hit on the Gneisenau at Brest. He has at all times, provided an example of efficiency, courage and devotion to duty”
The August account was opened at Hamburg on the 2/3rd, where railway installations were the targets for eighty aircraft, including fifty-eight Wellingtons. A further forty of the type, together with a handful of Stirlings and Halifaxes, carried out a simultaneous raid on Berlin, where haze hampered the bombing. 218 Squadron’s S/Ldr Price and P/O Pape were given the German Air Ministry building in the Capital as their target, but they found far from ideal weather conditions over the city, and that rendered the location of the aiming point almost impossible. Even the defences failed to open up to provide a reference, and after what seemed an eternity, both crews bombed targets of opportunity, P/O Pape dropping his cookie on Brandenburg, and S/Ldr Price his over the area of Neusterlitz.
Frankfurt was the intended target on the night of the 3/4th, but the weather prompted a switch to Hanover. Wing Commander Fletcher led a force of nine 218 Squadron participants in an operation that started badly, when, soon after take-off, X9747 HA-E crashed at Salthouse, seven miles north-east of Norwich after a fire broke out. Pilot Officer John Maxwell, a Canadian, and P/O George Crabb, who was flying as second pilot and at thirty-eight-years of age was one of the squadron’s oldest pilots, were killed. The remaining crew all parachuted to safety, but a number of injuries were sustained. Weather conditions in the target area again made pin-pointing difficult, and one aircraft failed to return after falling victim to Bremen’s Flak Regiment 22. Z8781 HA-S contained the crew of W/Cdr John Fletcher, who died with all but two of his crew when it crashed in flames near Moordeich, south of Bremen. Only the observer, F/Sgt Alexander, and rear gunner, Sgt Sponge, survived. Glaswegian Alexander, who spoke fluent German, managed initially to evade capture by stealing a civilian jacket and a scarecrow’s peaked cap from a local farm close to the crash site. Next day, while casually walking past a public house, he stole a cycle left unattended outside. By August 6th Alexander found himself in Lübeck, where, after a week in hiding, he managed to board a neutral Swedish ship heading out into the Baltic. Nine hours later Alexander’s presence on the vessel was radioed back to Lübeck. A German motor-launch was dispatched to collect him. Despite Alexander’s protestations that he was on board a neutral vessel he was forced aboard the motor-launch at gun point. Taken to Warnemünde he was put into the cells at the nearby aerodrome until transferred by train to Dulag Luft Frankfurt. Alexander was awarded an OBE in December 1945 for this escape attempt and two others while a PoW.
A lone German sentry stands guard over the crash site of Wing Commander John Fletcher’s Vickers Wellington Z8781 HA-S the victim of Bremen’s flak. Born in Germany, the thirty-one year olds RAF career began in 1930.
Wing Commander John Fletcher had joined the RAF in 1930 and spent most of his pre-war career flying fighters. It was only in 1938, when posted to 6 (Auxiliary) Group, that he began his association with Bomber Command. Fletcher is one of numerous wing commanders to pass through the squadron without any explanation in the ORB for their presence. As he does not appear to have been decorated, it seems possible that his wartime service had been undertaken in a non-operational post. The most likely scenario is that he was gaining operational experience prior to being granted a command with a 3 Group squadron, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility, that he was being groomed to replace W/Cdr Kirkpatrick at 218 Squadron.
A busy night of operations on the 5/6th involved seven aircraft attacking three separate targets, Mannheim, Karlsruhe and the docks at Calais. Squadron Leaders Gibbes and Price took the squadron’s Mk IIs to Karlsruhe, Gibbes dropping his 4,000lb bomb from 9,000 feet at 01.22hrs in the south-west corner of the town, where it started a number of good fires. Three minutes later Price dropped his from 8,000 feet into the centre of the town, and this resulted in a huge red explosion followed by two large fires, which were visible from eighty miles on the return trip. Pilot Officer Pape and Sgt Banks attacked Calais, causing considerable damage to the docks area and again creating fires visible from England’s south-east coast. Railway targets were raided at the same locations on the following night, before an attempt to hit the Krupp works at Essen on the 7/8th caused only light damage within the city. 218 Squadron sent two aircraft to attack Boulogne on this night, and then contributed five more to a low key 3 Group attack on the Blohm & Voss Shipyards at Hamburg on the 8/9th, while a single crew went to Kiel. Railway installations at Mönchengladbach were the objective for twenty-nine Wellingtons on the 11/12th, of which ten were provided by 218 Squadron. They were forced to bomb through scattered cloud, and results were inconclusive. Sergeant Fisher crash-landed R1596 HA-O at Marham on return after sustaining flak damage over the target. Damage to the hydraulic system caused the bomb bay doors to remain open, and along with a buckled starboard aileron and several holes in the fuselage, condemned the crew to a slow and cold return flight.
The squadron contributed six aircraft to an ineffective attack on the Krupp works at Essen on the 12/13th, while S/Ldr Price and Sgt Huckle were handed Berlin as their target in company with thirty-eight other Wellingtons and a contingent of Halifaxes, Stirlings and Manchesters. In the event, the weather conditions dictated otherwise for Price, who bombed the docks at Stettin, while Huckle bombed Kiel and set off six medium fires. Neither operation caused much damage, but one of the Gee trials Wellingtons from 115 Squadron was lost during the former, although the equipment did not fall into enemy hands. Railway stations at Hanover and Magdeburg were the aiming points on the night of the 14/15th, the former claiming two 218 Squadron aircraft. Pilot Officer Winston Wilson’s X9753 HA-G crashed near Maquise on the way home, killing all but the rear gunner, Sgt Roy Barnard. After treatment in St Omer hospital he became a PoW. Wilson had conducted all of his previous ten operations as 2nd pilot to S/Ldr Clyde-Smith and this was his first operation as captain. There were no survivors at all from the crew of P/O Arthur Mitchell, who were on their fourth operation. They were in R1008 HA-A, one of the squadron’s longest serving Wellingtons, and sent a message at 00.57hrs stating “Target bombed”.
The twisted remains of Vickers Wellington X9753 HA-G skippered Pilot Officer Winston Wilson. The Wellington crashed on farm land near Marcquise, south of Calais on August 15th 1941.
It was on the 18th that the Butt Report was completed, and its disclosures were to send shock waves reverberating around the Cabinet Room and the Air Ministry. Having studied around four thousand photographs taken on night operations during June and July, Mr Butt concluded that only a tiny fraction of bombs were falling within miles of their intended targets. This swept away at a stroke any notion that the Command’s attacks were having a materiel effect on Germany’s war effort, and it demonstrated the claims of the crews to be over enthusiastic. The report would forever unjustly blight the period of tenure as C-in-C of Sir Richard Peirse, and would provide ammunition for those calling for the dissolution of an independent bomber force, and the redistribution of its aircraft to other theatres of operation.
Typical of the claims of success was a raid on Cologne on the night of the report’s release, when crews returned with eye-witness accounts of many fires, while the city authorities announced just one building damaged. 218 Squadron’s two Mk II Wellingtons were involved in this operation and one of them failed to return. Sergeant Huckle and crew were in W5457 HA-Z, which fell to Ofw Gerhard Herzog of III/NJG1 over Germany at 02.30hrs. This was Herzog’s second victory of the night, having claimed a 149 Squadron Wellington only minutes earlier. All but the wireless operator survived the incident, and it is believed that he was killed during the engagement. A simultaneous attack on Duisburg was supported by seven 218 Squadron Wellingtons, and N2844 HA-M was shot down into the Ijsselmeer by Fw Siegfried Ney of IV/NJG1 on the way home. There were no survivors from the crew of Sgt Kenneth Shearing, who was on his twenty-third operation, but only his seventh as first pilot.
His Excellency Sir Alan Burns, Governor Designate of the African Gold Coast, visited the squadron on August 20th and officially bestowed upon it the title Gold Coast. In the Gold Coast a local “Spitfire Fund” had been inaugurated in June 1940, the total contributions to which had reached a staggering £100,000 by June 1942. The choice of name was intended partly as a compliment, and partly as a means of associating outlying parts of the Empire as closely as possible with the general war effort. In an effort to bond the squadron and the peoples of the Gold Coast even closer, a number of the squadron’s Wellingtons had the names of local towns and cities applied to them.
The Governor of the Gold Coast Sir Alec Burns is escorted by RAF Marham’s station commander, New Zealander Group Captain McKee while inspecting A Flight August 20th 1941. It is believed the visit was to mark the official adoption of the title Gold Coast. Note the smashed windows on B Flight hangers.
No further operations were undertaken by the squadron until the 26th, but the weather continued to cause problems for those involved in the meantime, and heavy cloud and icing conditions completely nullified an intended attack on Kiel on the 19/20th. Crews returning from Mannheim on the 22/23rd claimed many fires, but the authorities reported only one house seriously damaged. Storms and thick cloud ruined an attempt on Karlsruhe on the 25/26th, but even when there was clear visibility, as at Cologne on the 26/27th, only a few bombs found the mark and damage was negligible. 218 Squadron’s Sgt Thomson and crew attacked Boulogne on this night and dropped their six 500lb bombs across docks 4 and 6. Several small fires erupted, which soon merged into a single conflagration that was visible from forty miles away. The final few nights of the month brought plenty of activity but little improvement in performance. Mannheim was the target for the night of the 27/28th, when eight crews were briefed for what turned out to be a rather frustrating night for the squadron. Sergeant Rose taxied R1601 HA-T into barbed wire, ending its participation, and then a JU88 attacked Marham and inflicted minor damage to the Drem Light system and flare path that would cause problems for returning aircraft when landing. Sergeant Banks suffered port engine failure over France and returned early and Sgt Foster experienced difficulties with the bomb distribution arm, which caused his load to overshoot the target by fifteen seconds. Sergeant McBride was diverted to West Raynham and crashed on landing at 04.00 hrs after undershooting his approach, whereupon X9663 HA-D was destroyed by fire. Finally, Sgt Fisher crashed while attempting to land at Marham with an oiled up windscreen, but both the Wellington, R1596 HA-O, and crew were returned to duty. The final operation of the month involved ten 218 Squadron Wellingtons in an ineffective attack on Mannheim, when most bombed on ETA or the glow of the fires below the complete cloud cover. Eighty-two sorties had been flown during the month, delivering a total of 238,530lb of bombs.
In the light of what is now known about actual damage inflicted on targets, it is likely, that many of the fires reported by crews were decoys set by the Germans and this was the case at Cologne on the 1/2nd of September, when only one house was damaged despite the claims. Eight 218 Squadron crews were briefed for this operation, of which one failed to take-off through technical difficulties, and another returned early with a port engine malfunction. This was the first operation for S/Ldr Gerald Spence MiD, who had arrived at Marham on the previous day, and was crewed for this one with the experienced B Flight commander, S/Ldr ‘Rod’ Gibbes DFC.
Gibbes and crew were among four assigned to attack the docks at Ostende on the 2nd. They were aloft in X9810 HA-K, which was hit by flak over the target and sent diving towards the sea. At around 4,000 feet, with both engines racing, Gibbes and second pilot Sgt Helfer managed to level out and bring them under control. Helfer reported considerable damaged to the fuel and oil pipes to both engines, while the open bomb doors and lowered undercarriage suggested a hydraulics failure. All removable objects were jettisoned in an attempt to maintain height, but with both engines misfiring badly and the Wellington losing height in a nose down attitude, Gibbes had no option but to attempt to ditch. At around 90mph the Wellington’s tail section hit the sea ten miles off Orfordness, slamming the nose forward and down. The fuselage broke in two, giving four of the crew the opportunity to clamber out. Ten feet under water in the bomb aimer’s position, whence he had been catapulted on impact, the dazed Gibbes somehow made his way back to the cockpit to locate the pilot’s escape hatch. Finding it jammed he went back towards the astro hatch, but his failing strength left him unable to open it. Finally, with his lungs bursting, he chanced upon a break in the fuselage, and made his escape. He was by then too exhausted to inflate his life jacket, in a similar state his front gunner, Sgt Purcell, was too shocked and exhausted to help. Gibbes ordered his gunner to leave him and make for the dinghy, but Purcell refused and clung on to his soon unconscious skipper until they were both pulled aboard the dinghy.
For three days and four nights they drifted on the current, knowing they had come down within ten miles of the English coast. On the fourth morning they heard a train, then through the morning mist they could pick out the faint outline of buildings. Eventually at 11.45pm the crew managed to coax the dinghy ashore near Margate in Kent. For four of the crew, including the front gunner, this was their first operation. It was Gibbes’ thirty-sixth and last with 218 Squadron, and he was posted to Waterbeach on the 27th on completion of his tour. Twenty-six-year-old Gibbes was born in Australia, and joined the RAAF in 1936. Selected to join the RAF Gibbes arrived in England in 1937. He had been awarded the DFC in September 1940 while with 115 Squadron. On August 16th 1943, while serving as a wing commander with 142 Squadron, he would fail to return from an attack on Viterbo, Italy.
A major effort against the warships at Brest originally involved 140 aircraft on the 3/4th, but worsening weather conditions forced a recall of all but the 3 Group crews, who pressed on to deliver an inconclusive attack through a smoke screen. Almost two hundred aircraft set off for Berlin on the night of the 7/8th, seventy-five of them from 3 Group, while others were active over Kiel and Boulogne. The squadron dispatched ten aircraft to the former and two freshman crews to attack the docks at Boulogne. Most of the bombs aimed at the Capital fell into districts north and east of the city centre and returning crews reported brilliant fires in the target area and a number of large explosions. Wing Commander Kirkpatrick’s crew witnessed the end of an enemy fighter shot down in flames by an unidentified bomber. Squadron Leader Price had his port engine catch fire over the Dutch coast on the return trip, and the over-worked starboard engine failed suddenly over Norfolk. Price put W5499 HA-Y down safely in a recently harvested wheat field at Hall Farm near Barton Bendish at 04.30 hrs. A number of days later Price described the raid and his subsequent crash landing in a BBC broadcast.
The first large raid of the war on Kassel was mounted on the 8/9th, when a number of important industrial premises were hit along with the main railway station. The 10/11th brought a change of scenery for over seventy crews, with a trip across the Alps to Turin, where the Fiat works, an arsenal and a railway station were the intended targets. 218 Squadron contributed eight Wellingtons to the first-mentioned, each one modified to carry additional long-range fuel tanks. Conditions in the target area were not favourable, mist and industrial haze making positive identification impossible. Squadron Leader Price dropped his bomb load half a mile south of the target, where a number of fires were already visible. Other fires were started and green explosions were seen, and opposition over the target was reported as being negligible. The last crew landed at 05.30hrs after being aloft for more than nine hours. Wellingtons targeted ship yards at Kiel on the 11/12th, before forming more than half of the 130 strong force heading for Frankfurt on the 12/13th. Nine 218 Squadron Wellingtons took part, but Z8865 HA-O’s involvement was ended by flak at the enemy coast. Knowing that the aircraft would not be able to climb to the briefed bombing height, Sgt Fisher dropped his load near Ostende. The remaining crews found the target to be blanketed by low cloud, which led to widely scattered bombing, and even the town of Mainz, some twenty miles away, reported receiving many bombs and suffering some fatalities. One of the two Wellingtons failing to return was X9670 HA-N, from which the entire crew of twenty-year-old New Zealander, Sgt Charles Dare, escaped with their lives to become PoWs. Charles was on his twenty-fourth operation having joined the squadron from 20 O.T.U on May 25th.
The larger-scale raids continued at Brest on the 13/14th, when the warships lay concealed beneath a smoke-screen. Hamburg came next on the 15/16th, where a greater degree of damage occurred than had become the norm of late. Returning in the early hours of the 16th, a 57 Squadron Wellington attempted to land at Marham with its brakes shot away. Half way down the runway it swung from the flare path and crossed the airfield to crash into 218 Squadron’s R3153, causing both aircraft to burst immediately into flames. Four of the crew managed to escape, but the pilot and wireless operator were trapped and burned to death. Squadron Leader Spence carried out his first operation as skipper on this night, when forty-five freshman crews were sent to le Havre and faced only limited opposition. Gerald Spence had joined the RAF in 1932, when he was granted a short service commission. After a spell with 4 Fighter Training School Egypt he was posted to 70 (BT) Squadron at Himaidi in Iraq.
The night of the 16/17th brought a 3 Group attack on Karlsruhe by forty-one Wellingtons, ten of which were drawn from 218 Squadron. No actual results could be assessed, but numerous small fires were seen west of the target. Squadron Leader Price was frustrated in his attempt to identify the aiming point, and after forty minutes of stooging around he decided to attack a blast furnace at Saarbrücken, where his bomb load caused a large explosion. On the 19/20th 218 Squadron contributed to an attack on the Baltic port of Stettin, which was being extensively used to reinforce the Russian front. The operation started badly for the squadron, when three aircraft failed to take off, two for technical reasons and a third following a taxying accident. The remaining crews found the distant target and bombed the centre of the port, before arriving safely back home after being airborne for over nine hours. Worsening weather forced a recall to be issued to crews outbound for Berlin and Frankfurt on the 20/21st. Marshall of the Royal Air Force, Lord Trenchard, paid a twenty-four hour visit to Marham on the 25th, and all officers were ordered to “dine in”. An informal after dinner talk was given by Lord Trenchard to the assemble officers. The following morning he addressed the aircrews and ground personnel of the squadron outside the A Flight hanger.
The last night of operational activity of the month for 218 Squadron involved further cracks at Stettin, Hamburg and le Havre on the 29/30th. Two freshman crews went to le Havre, while W/Cdr Kirkpatrick and S/Ldr Price each took a Mk II Wellington to attack the dockyards at Hamburg. On board with Price was W/Cdr Peter Heath, who was gaining operational experience before being given his own squadron. The remaining crews targeted Stettin’s marshalling yards, and all eventually returned safely to Marham. Twenty-four hours later Wellingtons went yet again to Stettin, and a mixed force took another swipe at Hamburg, starting fourteen fires. It had been a busy month for the squadron, launching seventy-four sorties totalling 480.42 hours, and delivering 170,390 lbs of bombs.
The first operation of the new month for 218 Squadron took place on the night of the 3/4th against the docks at Rotterdam, when thirteen aircraft joined others to attack in good visibility. Flight Lieutenant Dunham and crew were able to identify their bombs exploding around the warehouses in dock areas 15 and 18. Meanwhile W/Cdr Heath took Wellington R1025 HA-J to Dunkirk, where he bombed at 21.07 hrs from 13,500 feet in the face of a spirited defence. There were no operations at all by Bomber Command between the 5th and the 10th because of bad weather, and it was not until the night of the 10/11th, that the squadron next flew in anger. Eleven aircraft took off for an attack on the oil plants at Bordeaux, and two failed to return. X9677 HA-V was homebound when bracketed by heavy flak, which damaged the port engine. With the Wellington losing height and the weather worsening Sg A McLean was forced to sink below the rain-bearing cloud base to less than a thousand feet over the sea. Almost immediately the starboard engine cut, and McLean turned the Wellington into the wind for a ditching. The aircraft broke in two on impact and sank within thirty seconds. The Australian pilot, co-pilot and front gunner managed to clamber into the dinghy, but the wireless operator was swept away by a large wave, the observer went down with the tail section, and the rear gunner was observed to be floating face down. The survivors were picked up by the trawler Grimsby Town, and taken ashore at Portsmouth for transfer to the RN Hospital at Hasler.
The other missing Wellington, R1511 HA-L, shed its starboard propeller without warning while homebound over France, and Sgt V Haley gave the order to bail out. Five of the crew came down safely, but the observer, Sgt Horace Judge, was killed. Last out and with little height to spare, Haley took to his parachute and landed near a farm at le Pizou. The farmer took him into his home, where he was given a drink and time to recover. He was then provided with a pair of dungarees, an old jacket and a hand-drawn map of the area, which showed the route across the line of demarcation. Setting out at 04.30hrs Haley headed for the border, scouting around the village of Very and finally crossing the demarcation line between Mon Pont and St.Remy. Haley’s luck held as he chanced upon a farm at St. Remy, where he stayed between October 12th and December 11th. While waiting for the farmer to organise a guide to the Pyrenees he was introduced to an Englishman, who had lived in Lille since the end of the Great War. It was this unnamed Englishman who eventually arranged Haley’s journey by taxi and train to the Spanish Border. With the help of a Spanish guide he crossed the Pyrenees on December 12th 1941, initially taken to Miranda and then on to Madrid, before finally reaching Gibraltar on February 28th 1942. Victor Haley was awarded the Military Medal for his exploits, the only one awarded to the squadron. The citation read:
This airman was a member of the crew of an aircraft, which crashed returning from an attack on Bordeaux. Evading capture on bailing out, he showed great resource in journeying across France, and after overcoming many obstacles, he finally made his way without a guide over the Pyrenees into Spain from where, after a period of detention, he was repatriated.
The slight lull in activity enabled Peirse to prepare his forces for a major night of operations on the 12/13th, for which the main course was to be Nuremberg by a mixed force of 152 aircraft, half of them Wellingtons. While this was in progress, a predominantly Wellington effort would be directed at Bremen, while 5 Group attacked a chemicals factory at Hüls. 3 Group put up ninety-three aircraft for this effort and a further twenty-six for Bremen, along with fifteen Wellingtons for Boulogne, bringing its total for the night to a magnificent 134. The total number of sorties, 373, represented a new record for the Command, but sadly, this mammoth effort was not to be rewarded with success. The bombing at Nuremberg was scattered over a wide area up to a hundred miles from the intended target, and the other operations were inconclusive in the face of complete cloud cover. The night’s losses amounted to thirteen aircraft, not including 218 Squadron’s Z8910 HA-F, skippered by Sgt McGlashan, which was damaged beyond repair when it collided with a 115 Squadron Wellington while taxying on return.
On the following night Düsseldorf escaped serious damage from a scattered attack by a predominantly Wellington force, before eighty aircraft set off to return to Nuremberg on the 14/15th. 218 Squadron supported this operation with ten Wellingtons, one of which, Z8865 HA-O, encountered engine problems soon after take-off. With the port engine feathered Sgt K Fisher turned back, and after misjudging his approach, struck some trees and crashed just short of the runway at 01.00hrs. All of the crew members sustained minor bruising, apart from Sgt Barrowdale, who fractured a leg, Z8865 HA-O was a write-off. Weather conditions outbound and over the target were very bad, and bombs were dropped on ETA or flak explosions. Low on fuel Sgt J Vezina RCAF made a wheels-up landing at Hampton Park near Eastbourne at 06.15hrs, extensively damaging veteran Wellington R1025 HA-J. Bombs were once again spread all across Germany, and only one crew positively identified Nuremburg.
Two nights later eight 218 Squadron aircraft were detailed to attack the main power station at Duisburg, one of them captained by F/L Dunham, flying as observer. Z8957 HA-L took off from Marham at 01.25hrs carrying a cookie, the first occasion on which a 218 Squadron Mk Ic had carried a blockbuster. On his return to Marham the pilot, Sgt Jim Hinwood, recorded the events of that night.
On the 16th of October 1941 I was detailed to air test a new aircraft, which only had flown 2 hours. I remember the controls were very stiff and it all smelt very new. The air test lasted 15 minutes and then the bomb was loaded. Take off was 01.25hrs on the 17th. Take off was up the hill past “Lady Woods”, and at the fence I lifted off and then touched down again briefly in the field outside the boundary. It really was touch and go. We climbed rather slowly, and after about 15 minutes as we reached 3,000 feet the port motors started to misfire badly with lots of flames from the exhaust. I throttled back, but the props would not feather on the Pegasus engines. As height could not be maintained on one, we continued to the coast to drop the bomb into the sea. Inside the fuselage, alongside the navigator’s position, the aircraft floor had been raised and a bomb beam fitted. The beam, the bomb release hook and a manual release lever were above floor level. Two Vickers hoists were also in place, one in the front beam, the other behind. The hoists were initially used to lift the bomb into the bomb bay by means of two steel cables to the hoist, the hoists and cables being left in place to stabilise the bomb during the take off and climb. Once clear of the coast the co-pilot had slackened off the cables, releasing them from the anchorage point. The co –pilot was also responsible for the manual release in an emergency.
We crossed the coast north of Great Yarmouth and the co-pilot, Sgt McKay, went back to jettison the bomb. The fuselage of the Wimpy is not over large and with the raised floor, bomb beam and hoists there is not a great deal of room for someone wearing an Irvin flying jacket and Mae West. Anyway, when the release was pulled one cable was not clear so that the bomb fell off the hook and the front end dropped into the slipstream whilst the back end push the floor up even higher. There was only one thing to do, using the fire axe the co-pilot Sgt McKay chopped through the ply-wood floor and then through the cable which was resting against the bomb casing. By this time we were down to 1,600 feet, and the good engine running at maximum continuous power was getting very hot. The last strands of the cable parted and we turned for the coast. With the port engine still spitting flames we could not dump the full fuel load. The coast was crossed in bound at Lowestoft, but as we were still losing height, the first crew member was told to jump at 1,300 feet using the rear escape hatch. The co-pilot and rear gunner were followed by the front gunner at 1,100 feet, and the wireless operator at 900 feet. The observer, F/Lt Peter Dunham, was the captain, unusually, but he was on his second tour. So after checking that the rest of the crew were clear, and handing me my chest type parachute, he left from the front hatch. I closed the throttles at 700 feet, trimmed the aircraft and dropped from the seat only to find my harness had caught up in the seat-lowering handle. Struggling free I went out of the hatch head first, well below 500 feet by now, and pulled my rip cord. I landed in a ploughed field impacting on my shoulders with my parachute canopy streaming behind me. The flight had lasted 45 minutes. The aircraft landed in a field in which a potato crop was being harvested. None of the crew was injured, but Sid Turner hurt his knee when climbing over a gate, and Ken Wheeler fell into a dyke. Peter Dunham and I finished the night at the house of a local Policeman in Cantley between Yarmouth and Norwich, while the rest of the crew found a pub. Next day we were collected by personnel from Horsham St Faith and returned to Marham by road.
On the following day 115 and 218 Squadron witnessed the departure of the popular station commander, G/C McKee AFC DFC, whose successor was G/C A.H.H McDonald. Pilot Officer Harper’s was the only 218 Squadron aircraft operating on the night of the 20/21st, when he and his crew went to Antwerp. Bremen was the main target on that night and again twenty-four hours later, while Mannheim was the host on the 22/23rd. When Kiel was the objective on the 23rd, S/Ldr Spence was among seven 218 Squadron participants finding the target hidden under cloud. After observing the flash from the explosion of their 4,000 pounder they reported that an estimated twelve flak guns stopped firing. The spate of engine related incidents afflicting the squadron continued on the 29th, when X9833 HA-A crashed near Washpit Farm, Rougham, Norfolk at 12:50hrs, killing Sgt Reg England. The pilot, Sgt Tomkin and his remaining crew all suffered minor cuts and bruises. Another assault on Bremen brought the month’s operations to a close on the night of the 31st, when 3 Group dispatched sixty-two aircraft, eleven of which were provided by 218 Squadron. Once again weather conditions over the target thwarted an accurate attack, and most crews again bombed on ETA or on the flashes of flak. Sergeant Thompson’s X9674 HA-H was attacked and badly damaged on the way home by a night fighter flown by Oblt Siegfried Ney of IV/NJG1 at 23.38hrs. The port main tank, tail-plane and cockpit instruments were hit and rendered useless by cannon fire, and the rear gunner, nineteen-year-old Sgt John Northcote, was killed. The Wellington was skilfully coaxed back to Marham, where a successful landing was made. It had been a costly month for the squadron, but with eighty sorties launched, it claimed second place in the group behind 115 Squadron, and top spot for bomb tonnage delivered.
November began with a raid on Kiel by 134 aircraft on the night of the 1/2nd, but only half of the force reached the target to bomb through heavy, low cloud on estimated positions. No bombs found the mark, and this situation, recently highlighted by the Butt Report, was about to come to a head. The new month began for 218 Squadron with a low-key attack by two crews against Brest on the 3/4th. Squadron Leader Price and Sgt Webber departed Marham in bad weather, which hadn’t improved by the time they reached the target. Price orbited the target for eight minutes, while trying to draw a bead on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and Z8375 HA-Z was hit by flak in the process. Sergeant Webber fared little better and was forced to bomb on ETA in the face of accurate flak. It was back to the Ruhr and Essen on the 4th, when eight aircraft took off and again encountered ten-tenths cloud over Germany. Bombing was carried out on ETA, and once more failed to find the mark.
No doubt frustrated by the persistently unfavourable weather that had prevented him from having a real crack at Germany, and anxious to erase the stigma arising from the Butt Report, Peirse planned his most ambitious night of operations yet. The original order of battle had allowed for Berlin to be attacked by over two hundred aircraft, while a 1 and 3 Group force went to Mannheim. There were again doubts about the weather conditions, however, which prompted an objection from the 5 Group A-O-C, AVM Slessor, who was authorized to withdraw his contribution and send it instead to Cologne. The total number of sorties for the three main operations and those of a minor nature amounted to a record 392, of which 169 were destined for Berlin, seventy-five for Cologne and fifty-five for Mannheim. Seventy-five aircraft were provided by 3 Group, of which the largest contribution was by 218 Squadron, which sent thirteen Wellingtons to Berlin, and two to the Ruhr. It was to be an ill-fated night for the Command, although in some ways, not for 218 Squadron, whose crews were among the seventy-three claiming to have reached the “Big City”. None succeeded in identifying Berlin in the conditions, and bombing was carried out on estimated positions. A few buildings were hit, and fourteen houses were classed as destroyed, but this was a poor return for the effort expended and the loss of twenty-one aircraft. The Wellington of New Zealander, Sgt Phil Lamason was enveloped in accurate heavy flak over the target, and sustained damage to the intercom and heating system, the astro-hatch, both wings and turrets, the port oil tank and Perspex windscreen. Amazingly the crew sustained no injuries and made it back to Marham.
The squadron did, however, post missing the crew of P/O J McGlashan in Z1069 HA-J, which had reached and bombed the target at 20.34hrs. It is believed the aircraft crashed south of Krefeld as result of severe icing. Flying on his first operation with Sgt McGlashan was Australian 2nd pilot Sgt W Fraser. News eventually came through that the entire crew was safe, albeit in enemy hands. It was McGlashan’s twentieth operation and the crew’s eleventh. The squadron’s other twelve aircraft returned without major incident and this praise-worthy performance was doubtless due in part to the quality of leadership enjoyed by the squadron at this time. The 5 Group force fared better at Cologne in terms of casualties, all of its aircraft returning, but Cologne had also escaped damage, while no bombs at all fell into Mannheim, and seven Wellingtons failed to return. A further nine aircraft were missing from the various minor operations, bringing the total to a massive thirty-seven, more than twice the previous highest in a single night. This was the final straw for the War Cabinet and the Air Ministry, and Peirse was summoned to a meeting with Churchill to make his explanations. On the 13th he was ordered to restrict further operations, while the future of the Command was considered at the highest level. This edict would be in force into the coming year, and was quite opportune for 218 Squadron, whose time with the venerable Wellington was drawing to a close. Immediately after this operation S/Ldr Spence was posted to Alconbury to oversee the rebuilding of 40 Squadron, after most of its air, ground and administrative personnel had been posted to Malta. On the 26th of November he would be given command of 149 Squadron, a post which he would hold until the following May.
Other than for training purposes, the entire Command remained on the ground from the 10th to the 15th. That night there was a return to Germany for twelve 218 Squadron Wellingtons, which were part of a force of forty-seven aircraft bound for Kiel, while two others joined an attack on Emden. Both operations proved to be testing in the extreme for 218 Squadron as the weather intervened. Four crews jettisoned their bombs because of icing or technical difficulties, another brought his load home, while the commanding officer and another crew bombed on ETA. The squadron suffered further when R1135 HA-N failed to return with the crew of Sgt Alan Cook RAAF. An SOS message was received at 02.04hrs, fixing their position north of the intended track, no doubt as a result of the night’s unexpectedly strong winds, and only one body was recovered after it washed ashore in Norway. The night’s ordeal come to an end at 06.00hrs, when Canadian Sgt Forsyth’s Z8853 HA-H made a forced landing at Redcar on the north-east coast, killing the twenty-one year old front gunner, Sgt Charles Collins, and seriously injuring the second pilot.
One 218 Squadron Wellington took part in small-scale operation against Dunkirk on the 23/24th, when weather once again thwarted the attack, and the bombs were jettisoned safe in the sea. Eighty Wellingtons were joined by Hampdens for a raid on Emden on the 26/27th. Just one 218 Squadron Wellington was in attendance, Z1103 HA-A, which reached the target and bombed through tentenths cloud. Heavy flak was encountered on the way home, and once over the sea it was discovered that fuel was leaking away at an alarming rate. After a tense flight the pilot descended to 3,500 feet expecting to sight land. Failing to do so a priority fix was acquired, which put them still one hundred miles out. On reaching the Norfolk coast the Wellington was guided by searchlights, but within minutes both engines began to splutter and back-fire through lack of fuel. It was decided to ditch rather than risk encountering anti-invasion obstacles on the shoreline. Sergeant Helfer put the Wellington down half a mile off the shore at 23.06hrs, and the crew clambered into the dinghy. It took two hours for rescue to arrive in the form of an RAF launch piloted by the coxswain of the Wells Lifeboat. One of those rescued was Sgt Jack Purcell, former front gunner to S/Ldr Gibbes, who had also ditched on return from Ostende on September 2nd 1941.
The last operation of the month for 218 Squadron was directed at Düsseldorf on the 27/28th, when nine of its Wellingtons contributed to a 3 Group force of forty-nine. Strong winds hindered the less experienced crews, some of which bombed Cologne, where over a hundred buildings were hit. Damage in Düsseldorf was concentrated around the railway yards. The city authorities, however, reported only two high explosive bombs and light superficial damage. Undertaking his first operation as a squadron leader was Wilfred Williams DFC. Soon after crossing the Dutch coast Williams encountered a problem when the starboard engine blower of Z8431 HA-J failed. This resulted in the heavily laden Wellington’s inability to climb above 9,000 feet, and the airfield at Haamstede was attacked as an alternative.
Within a matter of days Williams would take over B Flight on the departure of S/Ldr Price DFC, who was posted to HQ 3 Group as Squadron Leader Operations at the end of the month. Promoted to wing commander he would assume command of 156 Squadron on May 31st 1942, after the loss of W/Cdr Peter Heath, who had cut his teeth with 218 Squadron between October and November 1941. Sadly W/Cdr Herbert Price would also be lost, in his case over the North Sea on return from an attack on Hamburg on July 28/29th 1942. This fine and inspirational officer would have completed sixty-one operations at the time of his death. Williams was a worthy replacement, who had a first tour of thirty-one operations and a DFC with 75 (NZ) Squadron behind him. Born in Napier, Williams had joined the RAF in 1936, and after graduating as a sergeant pilot he was posted to 9 Squadron. In July 1939 he was transferred to the RNZAF to join the squadron tasked with ferrying six newly purchased Wellingtons to Ohakea in their homeland. However, on the outbreak of war the New Zealand government magnanimously allowed the aircraft and crews to remain in the RAF. On completion of his first tour with 75 (NZ) Squadron he was posted to 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, where he assisted in the training of Czech pilots.
No further operations were carried out by 218 Squadron during the remainder of a month, in which a total of only forty-eight sorties were flown, and 143,530lb of bombs were delivered. The month ended for the Command with 181 aircraft heading for Hamburg on the night of the 30th, and a further fifty bound for Emden. The former was modestly effective in starting fires, and rendering 2,500 people homeless, but it was achieved at the high cost of thirteen aircraft.
December began with a blanket of fog that prevented any operations until the 7th, when twelve crews were briefed as part of a force of 130 aircraft to be sent against the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst at Brest, while Sgt Gregg carried out a simultaneous freshman trip to Dunkirk. For once the weather over the main target was good, until an effective smoke screen made identification difficult. Pilot Officer Cottier and Sgt McGregor positively identified dock 8 and bombed accordingly. This was the first of a number of raids directed against Brest, and no fewer than thirteen operations of varying sizes would be directed against the port during December. It was on this night that Stirlings of 7 and XV Squadron conducted the first operational trials of the Oboe blind-bombing device.
With the battle of the Atlantic swinging in favour of the Axis, Bomber Command was instructed on December 10th to direct more of its effort against Biscay ports, and this would continue on and off over the next fourteen months, depending on how much pressure the Admiralty applied. The cathedral city of Cologne was the main target on the 11/12th, while 218 Squadron contributed eleven aircraft to a thirty-strong 3 Group attack on Brest. W5727 HA-V developed a port engine fire while outbound at 6,500 feet, and Sgt Brewerton ordered his crew to bale out before carrying out a successful crash-landing at Upavon in Wiltshire. The remaining crews bombed on flares dropped by the Stirlings of 7 and XV Squadrons over a completely cloud covered target. Operating with the squadron for the first time was S/Ldr Beverley Ker in R1436 HA-M.
On the 16th Stirling N6127 arrived at Marham to begin a new era for 218 Squadron, which thus became the fourth 3 Group unit to receive the type after 7, XV and 149 Squadrons. Six crews paid a return visit to Brest that night, led by W/Cdr Kirkpatrick in Z1101 HA-F. Weather conditions were marginally better and returning crews were enthusiastic about the flares that illuminated the primary target. There was only one loss, that of Sgt J.F Vezina RCAF and crew, whose starboard engine caught fire at 11,000 feet while outbound. Unable to extinguish the fire the pilot ordered the crew to bail-out, and all but the observer, P/O Brown, landed in the area around Maiden Newton. Brown landed in the same field as the Wellington, X9785 HA-O, which Sgt Vezina, who was on his nineteenth operation, had crash-landed five hundred yards west of Home Farm, Chilfrome, Dorset. Taken in by Mrs Egerton the dazed and concussed Brown was given hot soup and a set of her son’s pyjamas before being sent to bed! Despite the insistence of the authorities that Brown be taken to Dorchester, Mrs Egerton refused. The local Police visited Mrs Egerton to check Brown’s identity while he slept, and insisted he could only stay until the morning. On his return to Marham, Brown sent a postcard to Mrs Egerton on which he wrote; “To the nicest people I have ever dropped in on”. This was the final Wellington to be written off in 218 Squadron service. Joseph Vezina would be posted to the newly formed Canadian 419 Squadron at Mildenhall in January 1942, and would fail to return from the ill fated “Channel Dash” episode on February 12th.
Stirling N6126 was taken on charge on the 17th and N6128 on the 23rd, but it would be February before the crews were fully converted and the working up period was completed. The year came to an end with another disappointing attack on Düsseldorf on the 27/28th, and a surprisingly effective one on Wilhelmshaven on the following night, which inflicted widespread damage. Two DFCs were announced in December awarded to W/Cdr H Kirkpatrick and F/L Peter Dunham, the latter’s citation reading:
“This officer has participated in attacks on a wide variety of important targets in Germany and the occupied territory. Throughout he has displayed great courage and leadership, often descending to low attitudes to ensure accuracy of bombing. On two occasions, when acting as captain, fighters have attacked his aircraft, but in both instances the enemy was destroyed and the mission completed. Flight Lieutenant Dunham has displayed great ability and devotion to duty. Although normally employed as an observer, he has also acted as captain of aircraft”
It had been a year to forget for Bomber Command, ending under a black cloud and with its future hanging in the balance. There had been little significant advance on the performance of 1940, and the three new heavy types introduced into operational service early in the year had all failed to live up to expectations. Each had undergone lengthy periods of grounding as essential modifications were put in hand, and consequently, the re-equipping programme had progressed much more slowly than anticipated. The damning Butt Report had sealed the fate of C-in-C Sir Richard Peirse, who had done his best to fulfil the frequently changing and often unrealistic demands placed upon him by the decision makers. The fate of a strategic bomber force also lay in the hands of the boffins, who were working hard to develop the electronic aids to navigation and bombing, without which, it was impossible to envisage any improvement in performance.