Chapter Five
The New Year started with the departure of the popular W/Cdr Kirkpatrick DFC on the 1st to take up duties at 3 Group HQ at Exning Hall. Kirkpatrick would rise to the wartime rank of group captain and become a SASO at 3 Group until the end of hostilities. He was succeeded at 218 Squadron by thirty-one-year-old South African-born W/Cdr Paul Holder DFC, who had seen considerable action during the Baghdad coup in April 1941. He had been awarded a DFC in October 1941, and would be awarded a DSO in October 1942. He held an MSc in civil engineering from Bristol University and a PhD from the University of Illinois.
Operationally 1942 began as 1941 had ended with the obsession with Brest and its guests. The assault on the port resumed on the night of the 2/3rd, and by the end of the month a further ten operations would have been mounted against it, including five on consecutive nights between the 5/6th and the 9/10th. Not one resulted in damage to the warships, but this long, drawn-out epic was shortly to be resolved. Fog prevented 218 Squadron from undertaking operations until the 6th, when S/Ldr Williams led five aircraft to Brest with W/Cdr Holder as his second pilot. A British Empire Medal had been awarded to front gunner Sgt Jack Purcell earlier in the day in recognition of his courage in staying with his semi-conscious skipper, S/Ldr Gibbes DFC, following the ditching of their Wellington on return from Ostende in the previous September.
A follow-up raid on Brest on the 8th included five of the squadron’s Wellingtons again led by S/Ldr Williams. The well-trodden path to Brest was followed again on the 10/11th and 11/12th, and both assaults on the port and its lodgers involved 218 Squadron. Wing Commander Holder took an all NCO crew on his first operation as captain, when, unable to pinpoint the target, he bombed through nine-tenths cloud on ETA and flak positions. Two crews were briefed for different targets on the night of the 14/15th, one to join ten others in attacking the port of Rotterdam, and the other to bomb the port of Emden. Weather conditions over northern Germany were better than over Holland, and the aiming point at Emden was visually identified and bombed from 16,000 feet. Sir Richard Peirse was removed as A-O-C in C Bomber Command by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal, in early January, after Portal had become increasingly concerned and frustrated about the mounting losses and lack of success. Peirse was replaced temporally by 3 Group’s own A-O-C, AVM “Jack” Baldwin.
The burnt out fuselage of Short Stirling W7535 HA-C photographed May 30th 1942. The aircraft, a victim of Flak, crashed at Colombes, a suburb north west of Paris, killing the entire crew of Flight Lieutenant Arthur Jones. Note what appears to be an unexploded 500lb bomb amongst the wreckage.
Five 218 Squadron crews participated in a rather disappointing raid on Hamburg on the night of the 15/16th, and two of these returned early. Wing Commander Holder drifted off course outbound through an inaccurate wind forecast at briefing, and he attacked the last resort target. Sergeants Hinwood and Webber found Hamburg covered in cloud, and both bombed on E.T.A from 17,000 feet. Wing Commander Holder mistakenly landed at Docking, a Coastal Command station on the Norfolk coast, where he turned off the perimeter track into soft ground, collapsing the undercarriage of Z1101 HA-F. It was not a auspicious start to his command. A small-scale raid was flown against Emden on the 20/21st, followed by attacks on the French ports of Boulogne and Dunkirk on the 21/22nd and 22/23rd. By the time of the two last-mentioned the squadron had waved a fond farewell to the experienced and respected B Flight commander, New Zealander S/Ldr Wilfred Williams DFC, who departed on the 21st. After continuous service in the UK since 1936 he was repatriated to New Zealand in March 1942. Upon his return and after a number of ground jobs, Williams joined 1 Operational Training Unit, and was killed in a tragic accident on July 15th 1943 while flying a Hudson.
Five crews were briefed to attack Münster on the 28th, of which only three found the primary target. After the bomb load had been delivered, the cockpit instruments in Z1070 HA-B froze, and the Wellington fell from 19,500 to 2,500 feet before Sgt Smithson could bring it back under control. It was then that the starboard engine cut, and soon afterwards the A.S.I. failed. Ordering his crew to stand by to bail out, the pilot was informed that the front bulkhead had jammed and the front gunner could not be extricated. It was a unanimous decision to press on to Marham, where a safe landing was made a full hour after the previous returnee.
There was little major activity during the first half of February, and no operations were completed until the 6th. That night sixty Wellingtons and Stirlings carried out an attack on Brest, but only a third of the crews claimed to have bombed in the target area. Heavy snow and frost restricted operations during the first week and a half, but another twenty aircraft tried again at Brest on the 10/11th, before eighteen Wellingtons carried out a further raid late on the 11th. It was within hours of this last attack that Operation “Cerberus” was launched by the German contingent. Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen slipped anchor and headed into the English Channel under an escort of destroyers and E-Boats. It was an audacious bid for freedom by Vice Admiral and fleet commander Otto Ciliax, which was undertaken in the most atrocious of weather conditions. It was not until 10.42hrs on the morning of the 12th that the enemy fleet was first sighted. Group Captain Victor Beamish, the commanding officer of Kenley, and W/Cdr Finlay Boyd had taken off in their Spitfires on a Jim Crow sortie, and managed by some miracle to positively identify the German fleet steaming off le Touquet.
The British authorities had prepared a plan for precisely this eventuality under the code name Operation Fuller, but it seems that many of those at grass roots level charged with its implementation were not fully appraised of its requirements. The elaborate plans also had one obvious flaw, that no one knew when the break out was going to happen. Bomber Command could not remain on immediate alert indefinitely and on the morning of the break-out the vast majority of Bomber Command’s squadrons had been stood down. Twenty-one Wellingtons and three Stirlings of 3 Group had been on four hour’s standby since 07.00hrs but thirteen of the former and one Stirling were stood down in anticipation of the coming night’s operation. At 11.40hrs an Executive Order from Bomber Command requested all available group aircraft to prepare for an immediate take-off. At 13.18hrs a follow-up order informed group that the night’s planned operation was cancelled, and every effort should be made to concentrate on the German battle cruisers. This order excluded any aircraft with TR1335 equipment (Gee), and at a stroke seventy-three 3 Group aircraft were side-lined. The first sorties only got away at 13.30hrs, but the squally conditions and low cloud made it almost impossible for the crews to locate the ships, and even harder to deliver an attack.
218 Squadron’s contribution to Operation Fuller was six aircraft on what was a landmark occasion. Three Wellingtons were to carry out the final sorties by the type in 218 Squadron service, but two failed to take off and the third was forced to return early. Sergeant Griggs and crew were just five minutes into their sortie in R1448 HA-N, when the front turret hydraulics failed, and they landed back at Marham to have a hasty repair carried out. They were airborne again within minutes, and made for the search area, where, on breaking cloud on ETA, a destroyer was immediately identified. An attack was pressed home from around 300 feet in the face of both heavy and light flak, and the seven 500lb semi-armour piecing bombs undershot by a mere one hundred yards. This day also brought the first 218 Squadron Stirling sorties, flown by S/Ldr Ker in N3700 HA-O, F/O Allen in N6127 HA-T and Sgt Tompkins in N6089 HA-D, who had taken off between 14.30hrs and 15.15hrs. Squadron Leader Ker and Sgt Tompkins were thwarted by the weather conditions, the former catching a fleeting glimpse of the enemy from 3,000 feet. Both crews reported being engaged by enemy aircraft, but escaped with minimal damage. Flying Officer Allan sighted two destroyers and lost them almost immediately in cloud. Patiently he circled for thirty-six minutes, until a further sighting of a large ship was made from 1,500 feet. Undeterred by the heavy flak the crew went in to attack, and the rear gunner reported two red flashes 100 to 150 yards from the starboard quarter of the lead ship. The Stirling was hit in the bomb bay by flak, and was then engaged by three Bf110s, one of which attacked, while the other two held off. A spirited and well-coordinated defence from the Stirling resulted in one of the assailants breaking away in a vertical dive to be lost from sight.
Aircraft were taking off throughout the afternoon and evening in a desperate attempt to halt the ships’ progress, but all to no avail, and they passed through the Straits of Dover into open sea. N6089 HA-D was also attacked by a Bf110 but arrived home safely with its bombs, having been unable to locate the ships. Squadron Leader Ker was the last back at 19.00hrs, having caught the briefest glimpse of his quarry before cloud obscured the aiming point. His Stirling was engaged by a Do217 and sustained slight damage, but Ker dived the aircraft into cloud and ended the encounter. Despite the largest daylight effort to date amounting to 242 sorties, the enemy fleet made good its escape, and although the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau struck air-laid mines, which slowed their progress to an extent, all had arrived in home ports by the following morning. It was a sorry day for Bomber Command, which lost fifteen aircraft and crews in the valiant attempt to save the nation’s blushes. The whole episode was a major embarrassment to the government, but at least this annoying itch had been scratched for the last time and the Command could now concentrate more of its resources against suitable strategic targets.
Ken Spragg recalls the day’s activity and for him, the painful consequences, and his account also illustrates the commitment and conditions under which the ground crews operated:
Two things I did not know on the morning of February 13th, the Toads had left Brest and that I had mumps. I had felt bad the previous night and at breakfast I could not eat or drink anything, I was going to report sick. On the way to the S.S.Q I was grabbed by Peter Kingsbury and he told me that we were off to Lakenheath, as they had a Stirling there and we had to check the bomb gear. I told Peter I was off to the S.S.Q, but his reply was that I could not go sick and we had a job to do. He told me I could go sick on our return! I went, after all he was my Corporal! Weather was foul with thick freezing fog, not the best weather to be out at the best of times. This weather had most of our group’s stations u/s, I think only Lakenheath was serviceable. I was by now feeling far worse and my voice had turned into a croak. We found the Stirling parked on rough ground with the bomb bay doors opened and a belly full of 500 pounders. The pilot, I think a flight lieutenant, came up. He had the most beautiful ginger moustache and Peter immediately named him “Electric Whiskers”. He was obviously upset and glared at me and said “I can’t find the buggers”. He had been out twice and brought his bombs back twice. The fog had got worse and it was freezing. I was almost on my knees.
It was now dark, everyone had disappeared and we were alone. There was no transport, so we decided to head off on foot. The fog had by this time got thicker and the temperature had plummeted to below zero, and the only problem was, we did not know where to go. We walked over heaps of soil, fell down holes and clambered over rough ground. We were lost on Lakenheath. I was now feeling seriously ill, but kept going, until finally, after two hours, we stumbled by sheer luck upon a few army huts. Thank god for the army! They, for some reason thought we were spies, bloody army! I must have looked ill as they gave me some cocoa which I could not swallow. Peter got on the telephone to RAF Marham and told them of our predicament, but we were told that we would have to stay overnight at Lakenheath and would be picked up on the following morning. Feeling sorry for us the Army directed us to some huts, which had some beds and blankets. Peter was a sleep in less than five minutes, I could not sleep and spent the entire night walking up and down. The following morning a wagon arrived to collect us, and on reaching Marham I went to see the M.O. The M.O stuck something in my ear and grunted “”what is your name?” I told him and he started shouting “this is the wrong man, and get him into isolation immediately he has mumps”. I was taken into a room with a single chair, and a door with a window in it, and from time to time a head would peer in. After what seemed an eternity two orderlies arrived and keeping their distance beckoned me out of the room into a waiting ambulance, and off I went to Ely Hospital. Once booked in I was ushered into a small ward with four beds, three of which were occupied by airman with mumps. One poor fellow was bad, and looked as if he had a pair of bollocks around his neck, and down below was jaw dropping! I stayed for three weeks before I was let out, and the poor fellow with a pair of nuts around his neck was still there when I left. I telephoned Marham to arrange for collection, and I was told that I was not wanted, and I was to go home and would be sent for when I was needed. Two weeks later I ran out of cash, so I wrote a really nice letter to the commanding officer asking for help. He sent me a £5 postal order, jolly nice chap the C/O. After nearly six weeks I received a letter asking for my return, I was back that same afternoon!
On the following day the squadron gained its first experience of the Stirling malaise, when N3713’s undercarriage collapsed on landing at Lakenheath at the end of a training flight in the hands of Sgt Lamason RNZAF and his crew. This crew took part in the squadron’s second Stirling operation, when two were dispatched on the 14th to bomb le Havre and drop leaflets north east of Paris. Lamason completed the operation in N3700 HA-O, while Sgt Gregg and crew returned short of fuel, having spent too long trying to identify a snow covered target. Extremely poor visibility at Marham forced Gregg to divert to Oakington, where a 500lb bomb fell onto the runway on touch-down, having been jammed between the bomb doors. It failed to detonate, and its tail fin was found next morning embedded in one of the doors.
A new Air Ministry directive had been issued to Bomber Command on the 14th, which authorized the blatant area bombing of Germany’s towns and cities, and reaffirmed the assault on the morale of the civilian population, particularly the workers. This had, of course, been in progress for a long time, but could now be prosecuted openly, without the pretence of aiming for industrial and military targets. Waiting in the wings, in fact already at sea aboard the armed merchantman Alcantara, was a new leader, who would not only pursue this policy with a will, but also had the strength of character and stubborn self-belief to fight his corner against all-comers. Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris was approaching his fiftieth birthday, and had been recalled from his role as head of the RAF delegation in Washington. He took up his appointment on the 22nd, and immediately set about the mammoth task of turning Bomber Command into a war-winning weapon.
Harris had always been an advocate of the pre-war theory, that a war could be won by bombing alone, and he arrived at the helm of Bomber Command with firm ideas already in place about how this might be achieved. It was clear to him, that to destroy an urban target with acceptable losses, it was necessary to overwhelm the defences and emergency services by condensing an attack into the shortest possible time. This meant pushing the maximum number of aircraft across the aiming point in the shortest possible time, and concentrating his strength against a single target, rather than deliver simultaneous pin-prick attacks against multiple objectives. He also recognized, that urban areas are most efficiently destroyed by fire rather than blast, and it would not be long before the bomb loads carried in his aircraft reflected this thinking. This new approach signalled the birth of the bomber stream, and an end to the former practice, whereby squadrons and crews determined for themselves to an extent the details of their sorties.
While Harris considered his options, he continued with the small-scale raids on German ports for the remainder of the month, and it was during one of these, that the war threw up one of its ironies. While attacking the floating dock at Kiel on the 26/27th, one of the participating Wellingtons, Hampdens and Halifaxes scored a direct hit on the bows of the Gneisenau, now supposedly in safe haven after enduring eleven months of almost constant bombardment at Brest. 116 of her crew lost their lives, and the ship’s sea-going career was ended for good. Her main armament was removed for use as a shore battery. Later on the 27th an undercarriage collapse at Marham wrote off N3715 after a training sortie, but Sgt Tompkins and his crew emerged unscathed. This was Sgt Tomkins’ second incident in less than ten days, having pranged and badly damaged N3718 on return from a cross country flight on the 16th.
With the slow but steady introduction of the four-engine bomber to operational service, a number of squadrons were instructed to organise an additional flight for the purpose of familiarisation and conversion training. 218 Squadron formed its own Conversion Flight on February 28th under the commander of S/Ldr Jo Jo Ker. The flight would be independent of but affiliated to the squadron, but ultimately come under the direct control of the Australian station commander, G/C W Kyle DFC. The flight was initially equipped with four Stirlings, W7454 W, N6128 T, N6129 X and N6078 P, along with seven instructors, S/Ldr Ker and P/O A.W.I Jones looking after the pilots, while gunnery came under P/O P.T Wilkes and Sgt Stephenson, wireless operating under Sgt P.H Barnes, and the post of observer instructor remained to be filled. Flying commenced on March 24th, and the first accident occurred on the 27th as the result of yet another undercarriage collapse.
The first unmistakable sign of a new hand on the tiller came at the start of March in a meticulously planned operation against the Renault lorry works at Billancourt in Paris. Launched on the night of the 3/4th it involved 235 aircraft, the largest force yet sent against a single target, and was a three wave attack, led by experienced crews, and with extensive use of flares to provide illumination. In the absence of a flak defence, bombing was conducted from low level, both to aid accuracy, and to avoid civilian casualties in adjacent residential districts. 218 Squadron provided four crews, those of S/Ldr Ker in W7469 HA-M, F/L Humphreys in N3720 HA-B, with S/Ldr A W Oldroyd AFC flying on his début operation with the squadron, F/L Livingston in W7473 HA-F, with W/Cdr Holder as second pilot, and F/O Allen in N3712 HA-Y, and all completed their part in the operation. The attack was an outstanding success, which left 40% of the factory’s buildings in ruins, and halted production for a month. Just one Wellington was lost, and the satisfaction was marred only by the deaths of 367 French civilians, a figure which was double the previous highest at even a German city target.
Rochester & Bedford built Short Stirling Mk.I R9189 HA-K receiving an engine check. The aircraft was Struck of Charge on February 28th 1943 when it swung on take-off collapsing the undercarriage, it had completed 30 operations.
On return to Marham at 22.55hrs two hung-up 1000lb bombs fell from F/O Allen’s Stirling and exploded. What was left of the mangled fuselage of N3712 HA-Y immediately burst into flames, but all of the crew survived the initial explosion. Pilot Officer Gales, the bomb aimer, managed to climb out of the blazing wreckage, but on realising that some of his crewmates were still trapped inside, he courageously re-entered the Stirling, despite the handicap of a broken ankle and smashed elbow. He and the second pilot, Sgt Laidlaw, were able to extricate the severely injured flight engineer, Sgt Herring. Tragically, eighteen-year-old Sgt William Gregory and twenty-year-old Sgt Kenneth Harvey both died of their injuries soon after being admitted to hospital, while the remaining crew members suffered from shock and varying degrees of burns and broken limbs. These were the squadron’s first Stirling fatalities.
Essen was to feature prominently in Harris’s future plans, and, after a spell of severe icing conditions had prevented further operations, a series of three raids on consecutive nights began on the 8/9th against this most important centre of war production, and home of the giant Krupp complex. 218 Squadron contributed four crews to the overall force of 211, the leading aircraft of which were equipped with the TR1135 (Gee) navigation device. The main square of the old town was chosen as the aiming point, and the plan called for the flare force to illuminate the target blindly using Gee. Once illuminated the incendiary force would then follow up to provide the main force with a clearly marked and already burning aiming point. Sergeant Gregg dropped his twenty-two 250lb and four 500lb bomb load from an unprecedented attitude of 18,200 feet. A number of large fires were started in the southern outskirts of the target area, which were visible for many miles on the return journey. On board with F/L Livingston was the respected war artist David Thornton-Smith, who, with Air Ministry permission, had been given the opportunity to gain a first-hand impression of Bomber Command at work. Flak was intense, especially from around the Krupp works, and searchlights were also active and working in tandem with the flak units. Never the less all of the crews returned safely to Marham. In the event the ever-present blanket of industrial haze won out by concealing the city from the bomb-aimers high above, and only light damage was inflicted.
Over the next two nights the squadron returned to Essen with varying degrees of success. On the first occasion, on the night of the 9th, S/Ldr Ker and Sgt Lamason were part of a force of over 180 bombers to attack the cloud-free city. A flak burst over the target destroyed the port-outer engine of Ker’s W7506 HAK, and this resulted in a slower than usual return. Four 218 Squadron crews took part in the second and equally disappointing raid on the following night, when technical malfunctions with Gee combined with cloud cover to prevent a concentrated attack. The cathedral city of Cologne was targeted on the night of the 13/14th, for which 3 Group dispatched thirty-nine aircraft, including five from 218 Squadron. Wing Commander Holder accompanied F/L Livingston in W7475 HA-H, and, on reaching the target area, they found a number of large fires well established in the northern half of the city. To this they added their twenty-one 250 pounders from 17,500 feet. Visibility in the target area was good, and fires from this first successful Gee-led attack were visible from up to fifty miles away on the flight home. It was established later that a number of important war industry factories and fifteen hundred houses had sustained meaningful damage. Following this operation the squadron was effectively stood down, and over the next ten days carried out thirty-seven training flights totalling over fifty-four hours flying.
A period of minor operations saw the Command through to the 25/26th, when a new record force of 254 aircraft, including 123 from 3 Group, was dispatched for another tilt at Essen. 218 Squadron was led by S/Ldr Oldroyd AFC, in an attack that was again delivered in three waves, with the Gee-equipped aircraft of the flare force in the vanguard, followed by the incendiary force and finally the main force. The outbound weather conditions were ideal, but the customary thick haze over the Ruhr Valley prevented visual identification. The defences were active, with flak batteries working in conjunction with searchlights. Flying as second pilot to F/L Humphreys in W7507 HA-F was S/Ldr Harold Ashworth DFC, who, at the age of thirty-nine, was well beyond the average for an operational pilot. He was an experienced civil pilot, who had competed in the 1929 Kings Cup air race. Having joined the RAF in 1939 as a pilot officer, he had reached the rank of acting squadron leader by March 1942. On this night a decoy fire site at Rheinberg drew off a proportion of the bombing, and the remainder was wasted elsewhere, leaving the intended target almost entirely unscathed.
Within twenty-four hours nine 218 Squadron aircraft were again over Essen, this time in excellent conditions. For once they found the city clear of haze, and the Gee equipment performed as intended, allowing a concentrated attack to develop in the face of an increased defensive effort. Sergeant Tompkins and crew were homebound in W7469 HA-M when they were attacked by a JU88, which the rear gunner, Sgt Howes, peppered from less than seventy-five yards range. The assailant was observed to break-off in flames, but almost immediately a Bf110 was discovered off to starboard, and the mid-upper gunner opened fire, registering hits all over the fighter. This too quickly dived out of range and the crew did not see it again. Despite the enthusiastic reports from returning crews of a successful operation, there was, in fact, no improvement on previous efforts. Harris, however, would not give up, and the campaign would resume in April.
In the meantime, he sought an opportunity to deliver a telling blow against a German city, to demonstrate just what could be achieved, if only his crews could locate their target over a blacked out, hostile country, which was often covered by cloud. He was certain, that if he could provide the crews with identifiable pinpoints on the ground, they would do the rest, and the easiest pin-points were coastlines. With this in mind Harris selected the old city of Lübeck on Germany’s Baltic coast, where the defences would be weak, and the narrow streets and half-timbered buildings would be ideal for a fire-raising attack. Among the 234 aircraft taking off were nine from 218 Squadron, and the two-thirds incendiary bomb loads reflected Harris’s fire-raising intentions. The operation was conducted along similar lines to those employed so effectively at Billancourt at the start of the month, and many crews came down to as low as 2,000 feet to make their attacks. Four hundred tons of bombs rained down onto the historic Hanseatic city, and over fourteen hundred buildings were destroyed, while a further nineteen hundred were seriously damaged. Later photographic evidence suggested that 30% of the built-up area had been reduced to rubble, mostly as a result of fire. Such was the scale of the fires that returning 218 Squadron crews reported, “it was just one big party”.
Twelve aircraft failed to return, and 218 Squadron’s W7507 HA-P was almost the thirteenth. It was severely damaged by flak over the target, before being attacked by a Bf110 over the Kiel Canal on the way home. Damage was sustained to both fuel tanks, the rear and mid-upper turrets, the flaps and the fuselage, and the rear gunner was wounded in the knee. One round hit the pilot’s armour-plated head rest and exploded, sending deadly splinters ricocheting around the cockpit. Flight Lieutenant Humphreys brought the damaged bomber down to below 200 feet, and having shaken off the fighter, nursed it back to Marham, where it was declared to be beyond economical repair. The crew’s opponent had been Lt Leopold Fellerer of V/NJG2, who claimed a Stirling at 01.02hrs. Arthur Humphreys received the immediate award of the DFC, while the wireless operator was awarded the DFM, the citation reading:
Joint citation with Sgt K WHEELER, as captain of aircraft and wireless operator respectively, Flight Lieutenant Humphreys and Sgt K Wheeler participated in an attack on Lübeck on the night of 28th March, 1942. On the return journey, whilst over the Kiel Canal, the aircraft was subjected to a series of attacks by an enemy fighter. The rear ginner was wounded and the mid-upper and rear turrets were put out of action and other damage was sustained by the aircraft. During the action, Flight Lieutenant Humphrey’s aircraft was forced down to some 200ft, but largely due to the excellent collaboration between him and Sgt Wheeler, he finally succeeded in evading his attacker and flew the damaged aircraft back to base where he made a safe landing. Throughout the combat, this officer displayed high skill and courage and was greatly assisted by Sgt Wheeler who steadfastly remained at his post, giving clear directions of the enemy tactics. Both Flight Lieutenant Humphreys and Sgt Wheeler have carried out many sorties over enemy territory.
Another crew attacked on the way home was that of F/Sgt Tomkins in W7503 HA-R. The rear gunner held his nerve and his fire until the JU88 was less than eighty yards astern, and then poured machine gun fire into the fighter, which was claimed as destroyed. The mid-upper gunner engaged a second fighter, inflicting some hits, but no claim was made. This crew had also successfully fought off a fighter attack during the Essen operation on March 26th. It had been a good first full month of Stirling operations for 218 Squadron, in which forty-six sorties had been dispatched for the loss of two aircraft at home.
The first operation in April for 218 Squadron was directed at the Ford Motor Matford Factory at Poissy, near Paris on the 2nd. Five crews, including that of the squadron commander, joined a force of forty Wellingtons, sixteen of them provided by 3 Group. Conditions over the target were perfect and crews reported an accurate attack, which left buildings in flames. The first major raid of the month was delivered on Cologne on the 5/6th, for which a new record 263 aircraft were dispatched. 218 Squadron’s contribution was ten aircraft, led by S/Ldr Oldroyd. The raid was to be carried out in two waves with the Gee-equipped aircraft opening proceedings with incendiaries. Despite the numbers involved the bombing was scattered across the city with no point of concentration, and a modest ninety houses were either destroyed or seriously damaged. The squadron returned to Essen on the 6/7th once again led by S/Ldr Oldroyd. Only a third of the total force of 150 aircraft reached the target, after dense cloud and icing conditions outbound compelled most crews to return early, and, as a result, damage was described as light.
Yet another new record force of 272 aircraft included six from 218 Squadron, whose crews were briefed for Hamburg on the night of the 8/9th. They encountered icing conditions and electrical storms outbound, but even so almost 190 crews reported bombing as briefed. This was not confirmed by the local authorities, however, which recorded only around fourteen bomb loads falling within the city, and this was another major disappointment. Two further attempts on Essen on the 10/11th and 12/13th repeated the earlier failures and thus far, 1,555 sorties in eight raids had produced scant damage at a cost to the Command of sixty-four aircraft. Five crews were detailed to carry-out the squadron’s first Stirling mining operation on the 13/14th, when the target was the Nectarines area. Wing Commander Holder led them away at 21.15hrs, and of the five participants, four completed the operation successfully, while Sgt Davis was unable to pin-point his garden because of malfunctioning Gee apparatus.
Harris turned his attention upon Dortmund on the 14/15th and 15/16th, where the results were equally unsatisfactory. 218 Squadron put up eight and six Stirlings respectively three returning with flak damage from the former, and two returning early with technical problems from the latter. An attack on Hamburg on the 17/18th produced seventy-five fires, thirty-three of them classed by local authorities as large. New Zealander Roy Spear RNZAF joined the squadron from 20 OTU on the 20th. Roy would have a remarkable tour with the squadron, and would epitomise the contribution of the Royal New Zealander Air Force within the ranks of Bomber Command and, especially, 218 Squadron. 218 Squadron contributed a dozen Stirlings, two of them piloted by flight commanders, and all returned safely. Gee had proved its worth as an aid to navigation, and in consideration of its potential as a blind-bombing device, an experimental raid was carried out on Cologne on the 22/23rd. The entire force of sixty-four Wellingtons and five Stirlings carried Gee, but no more than about fifteen bomb loads hit the city. 218 Squadron, meanwhile, put up nine Stirlings for mining duties in northern waters.
The one real success of late had been the raid on Lübeck at the end of March, and so Harris selected another Baltic port, Rostock, as the objective for a series of operations beginning on the 23/24th. The presence nearby of a Heinkel aircraft factory was an added attraction, and a proportion of the force was assigned specifically to this. Six 218 Squadron aircraft were among the force of 161 aircraft, but twenty-seven year-old Sgt Shirley Davidge was soon in trouble, reporting back to base that the port-inner engine had failed. The bomb load of twenty-four 250 pounders was jettisoned in the Wash before Davidge turned back towards base. A ten-year-old eyewitness, John Mann, reported that in his opinion the pilot was attempting to make a forced landing on a narrow strip of pasture at Ingrams Farm, Clenchwarton. The darkness had concealed an oak tree stump on the edge of the field, which the Stirling struck, and this caused the rear fuselage to break-off, and the aircraft to immediately burst into flames. The local Auxiliary Fire Service was quickly on the scene, but equipped only with hand drawn pumps there was very little they could do, and there were no survivors. The bodies of the crew were taken to Ingrams Farm to await collection on the following day.
Sergeant Willem Rieter the 25-year-old Dutch 2nd pilot aboard Short Stirling W7473 HA-F.
The eyewitness report would conflict with the RAF Crash Report conclusions, which suggested that the pilot, who was on twelfth operation, had turned into the defective engine, resulting in W7473 HA-F crashing at 23.20hrs. Occupying the second pilot’s seat had been Sgt Willem Joseph Gerard Rieter, a twenty-five-year-old Dutchman from Venlo, who had fled his homeland in 1940 just weeks before the German occupation began. The following day John Mann had to walk past the wreckage of the Stirling. He recalls:
I remember going to school the next morning and seeing the huge single rudder sticking skywards, and ironically, this was the only part of the plane not badly burnt, as it was several yards from the rest. We were told that the rear gunner was alive when the plane stopped skidding but could not operate the rear turret doors as they were buckled and the heat overcome him and he perished along with the rest of his crew. I remember after school going to have a look at the remains, of course there was not much to see, just a big hole in the ground. I remember going to Ingrams Farm shed, where there was a large tarpaulin cover on a bench. I received a terrible shock, as under the cover was the remains of the crew, all horribly burned. It was a sight I will never forget.
The operation had failed to find the mark, and the Heinkel factory escaped damage, but the following night’s attack at the hands of over a hundred aircraft, including four Stirlings from 218 Squadron, caused heavy damage in the town centre. When the same target was visited again twenty-four hours later this time with just three 218 Squadron Stirlings in attendance, the town again sustained heavy damage. Also on this night, the 25/26th, flight commanders S/Ls Ashworth and Oldroyd led a six-strong force of the squadron’s Stirlings on the long trek to Pilsen in Czechoslovakia to attack the Skoda armaments factory. They found the target hidden under ten-tenths cloud, which prevented visual identification. Oldroyd came down to fifteen hundred feet and dropped his six one thousand pounders across what was believed to be the aiming point. In the process N3722 HA-E was damaged by light flak, and then during the return trip by a JU88 night fighter, but the Stirling made it back to Marham after a flight of nine hours and eighteen minutes. Oldroyd and his navigator were granted an immediate award of the DFC for “Displaying skill and courage of a high standard”. Pilot Officer Lamason almost did not return after being attacked by a night fighter and sustaining severe damage to the Stirling’s hydraulics system. This rendered the rear turret unserviceable, and a fire broke out below the mid upper turret. Acrid smoke filled the rear fuselage until visibility was practically nil, while still under attack, two crew members attended to the fire and ultimately extinguished it. For displaying “fine airmanship and great devotion of duty”, Phillip Lamason was also awarded an immediate DFC. W7506 HA-K failed to return with the crew of Canadian P/O Harrold Millichamp RCAF, and is believed to have fallen victim to Obw Karl Haisch of 4/NJG3, and crashed at 00.06hrs near Rudesheim with the loss of all on board. This was Millichamp’s seventeenth operation, and his was the first 218 Squadron Stirling to fail to return from an operation. This was a special operation codenamed “Cannonbury”, and is believed to have been the only Bomber Command main force operation undertaken throughout the war, which involved the cooperation of a resistance organisation.
The Rostock series concluded on the night of the 26/27th, by which time over seventeen hundred buildings had been destroyed, and 60% of the town’s built-up area was deemed to be in ruins. The success was followed up at Cologne on the 27/28th, when five participating 218 Squadron crews were led by S/Ldr Ashworth. The Rhineland city was found clear of cloud and endured a devastating attack, in which some fifteen hundred houses and nine industrial premises were destroyed. A raid on Kiel on the night of the 28/29th inflicted damage upon all three shipyards. The Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, accompanied by G/C Sir Louis Greig, paid a formal visit to the squadron on the 29th. After a quick inspection W/Cdr Holder introduced each of the squadron captains to Sinclair, and on his departure the Secretary of State for Air congratulated the squadron on its very fine performance and told them to keep it up!
The last raid of the month took place on the night of the 29th, and was directed at the Gnome & Rhone aero-engine factory at Gennevilliers in Paris. 218 Squadron again put up five crews led this time by A Flight’s S/Ldr Oldroyd, who attacked the factory in excellent visibility, and delivered his load from 8,000 feet. All three factory buildings and the adjoining power station were reported to be ablaze. The squadron parted company with F/L William Livingston at the end of the month on completion of his operational tour. Sadly he would be killed while attacking Bremen during the final Thousand Bomber raid on June 25th 1942, while an instructor with 1651 Conversion Unit. These recent operations had produced encouraging results, with improved concentration of bombing and lower than expected losses. 218 Squadron managed a creditable 112 sorties during the month, the highest by any of the four Stirling units, and this was achieved for the loss of just two aircraft and crews.
The new month’s operations began for the squadron on the night of the 2/3rd, with a return to gardening by five crews, who were briefed to mine the Quince North garden area in the Langelands Belt. It was actually Harris who introduced the use of code names for “gardening”, and the mine fields were identified by names of flowers and plants. One aircraft failed to take-off on this night, but the remainder successfully planted their vegetables in the allotted area. On the return flight S/Ldr Ashworth attacked a tanker ship with two 500 pounders and reported a near miss. The squadron was not involved in an attack on Hamburg on the 3/4th, when, despite complete cloud cover and the relatively small number of fifty-four aircraft arriving to bomb, a remarkable amount of damage was achieved and over a hundred fires were created, half of them classed as large.
A three raid series on Stuttgart on consecutive nights began inauspiciously on the 4/5th, and was supported by four 218 Squadron Stirlings, whose crews were briefed to aim for the Bosch factory. W7521 HA-U had been hit by flak over the target, and lost the use of its port-outer engine. On arrival back over England an airlock in the fuel system shut down the good engines, and necessitated a forced-landing, which Irishman Sgt McAuley carried out at 04.55hrs five miles south of Norwich. There was no damage to the crew, but the Stirling was declared to be beyond economical repair. Meanwhile on this night five 218 Squadron Stirlings were sent back to the Skoda armaments factory at Pilsen. Squadron Leader Oldroyd’s W7469 HA-M was hit and damaged by heavy flak during the bomb run, but his load was delivered and seen to explode near the power house. During the return flight the aircraft was coned by a number of searchlights in the Rhine area, and further damaged by flak before being intercepted by a JU88 over Brussels. A twenty-minute engagement ended only after contact was broken in cloud. Flight Sergeant Webber attacked the last resort target of Mainz, leaving only P/Os Bullock and Lamason to reach the primary target, where they dropped their loads from 7,000 feet and started one small fire. N6070 HA-A crashed near Frankfurt after being brought down by flak, and F/Sgt William Gregg died with all but one of his crew. The survivor, mid upper gunner Sgt R Macafee RCAF, reported the following upon his return to the UK after liberation.
“Had trouble crossing coast at Ostend, very heavy flak, but no damage. Reached the target a few minutes late, flak very heavy and one large fire on the ground. Had difficulty bombing due to flak and left target with two 1000 pounders. Off course some time latter and pin pointed Frankfurt dropped remaining bombs from 7-8000ft, then flak barrage came up. Shell burst in cabin and seemed to set fire to all the aircraft in front of the main spar. No Inter-com or lights, aircraft went into a very steep dive, I got out immediately and seemed to hit the ground at the same time. Aircraft exploded very close to where I landed”
Tragically this was the thirtieth and final operation of Gregg’s first tour, and if this were not enough, one of those killed was Sgt K Wheeler DFM, who had survived the encounter with the persistent Bf110 over Lübeck on March 28th while flying with F/L Humphreys. One other 218 Squadron sortie on this night involved S/Ldr Ashworth and crew on a nickeling trip to Paris in R9313 HAQ. Having successfully delivered their load of six hundred bundles of leaflets, they were crossing the English coast homebound when they were attacked over Norwich by a Havoc/Hurricane combination from 1445 Flight. The crew was left with no alternative but to abandon the blazing Stirling, which crashed in a meadow at Gatehouse Farm near Horsham in Essex. What become of the Havoc pilot, S/Ldr Budd, and the Hurricane pilot, P/O Murray, is unknown. The second of the series against Stuttgart was hindered by ground haze, and a decoy fire site lured a proportion of the force away. It was a similar story on the following night, when five 218 Squadron Stirlings participated, and, despite claims of fires by returning crews, no bombs actually fell within the city.
Recent raids on Baltic coastal targets had been a great success, and perhaps this was why Warnemünde and its nearby Heinkel factory were selected for attention on the 8/9th. A force of almost two hundred aircraft was involved, including nine from 218 Squadron. Intense searchlight activity was encountered over the target, which prevented the crews from positively identifying the aiming point. Only F/L Humphreys caught a glimpse of the target, and he reported his bomb load exploding near a row of factory sheds and producing a bright green fire. In the event, the operation was at best only modestly effective, at a cost to the command of nineteen aircraft, four of which were from 3 Group. Bad weather prevented any further operations until the night of May 17th, when the group dispatched fifty-eight aircraft for gardening duties. Eleven crews from 218 Squadron were assigned to mine sea lanes at Hawthorn, Daffodil, Sweet Pea and Rosemary. Two crews returned early with engine problems, and F/Sgt Johnson was unable to open his bomb doors over the release point and jettisoned the mines on the journey home. Two night fighters attacked Sgt Medus while outbound to “Rosemary”, but the rear gunner returned fire with two short bursts, and one attacker broke off the engagement, while the other kept its distance and was soon lost in cloud.
Less fortunate was the experienced New Zealander, F/L Arthur Humphreys DFC, who was attacked by Staffel Kapitan Oberleutnant Rudolf Schonert of 4/NJG2 while outbound for the Daffodil mining area. N6071 HA-G had been abandoned by its crew by the time it crashed near Lyne at 00.57hrs. The wireless operator, Sgt Ronald Layfield, was the first to be captured, and he was taken to the crash site by local Danish Police. Layfield pointed out where the second pilot, New Zealander Raymond Hill, lay wounded with a broken ankle and a deep wound to his thigh. Hill was taken to the Varde County Hospital, where his wounds were treated, and he and Layfield were then sent to the local Police Station. At around 05.00hrs, Sgt William Lawrence, the rear gunner, was captured with a broken ankle and a number of superficial wounds, and like his crewmates he was taken to the Varde Hospital to be treated. At 06.00hrs the body of the Australian Observer, twenty-seven-year-old F/O Eliot Barnfather RAAF was discovered underneath his parachute, having died from bullet wounds to the stomach and abdomen area. His body was taken to the Chapel at Varde County Hospital, and was laid to rest on May 23rd in the Fovrfeld Cemetery. George Toynbee-Clarke was captured at 10.30hrs twelve kilometres to the north of the crash site, having sustained a bullet wound to the head that required the attention of Tarms local Doctor, Reinhold Nielson. Finally, at 22.35hrs, the pilot and the flight engineer, Sgt John Taylor, were captured hiding at a farm in Egknud. Like their colleges they were transported to the Varde Police station, where they were eventually handed over to the German authorities. This was F/L Humphreys’ twenty-seventh operation of his second tour, his first having been mostly undertaken with 75 (NZ) Squadron in 1940.
Flight Lieutenant Arthur Humphreys DFC (third from left) the New Zealand born skipper of N6071 HA-G shot down by Staffel Kapitan Oberleutnant Rudolf Schonert of 4/NJG2 while outbound for the Daffodil mining area. He survived the war as a PoW.
Almost two hundred aircraft took off for Mannheim on the evening of the 19th, 103 of them drawn from 3 Group. 218 Squadron’s contribution was eight Stirlings lead by the redoubtable S/Ldr Ashworth in N6078 HA-P. The attack was a failure in the face of scattered bombing, most of which ended up in wooded country south west of the target. Flight Sergeant Stanley Coggin and his eight man crew failed to return to Marham after disappearing without trace over the North Sea in DJ977 HA-F. Thirty-two year old Coggin was an experienced pilot, who had cut his teeth serving as second pilot to both W/Cdr Kirkpatrick and F/L Humphreys. At the time of his loss he had completed eighteen operations, seven as captain.
When Harris was appointed C-in-C, he had asked for four thousand bombers with which to win the war. Whilst there was never the slightest chance of getting them, he needed to ensure that those earmarked for him were not spirited away to what he considered to be less deserving causes. This was a time, particularly following the Butt Report, when every branch of the services seemed to be demanding bomber aircraft, among them the Admiralty for use against the U-Boot menace, and the Middle East Air Command to redress recent reversals. Harris knew that he was the only worthy recipient, and needed a major success, and, perhaps, a dose of symbolism to make his point. Out of this was born the Thousand Plan, Operation Millennium, the commitment of a thousand aircraft in one night against an important German city, for which Hamburg had been pencilled in. Harris did not have a thousand front-line aircraft, and would need the support of other Commands, principally Coastal and Flying Training, if he were to reach the magic figure. In letters to Harris on the 22nd and 23rd respectively generous support was offered, but following an intervention by the Admiralty, the Coastal Command element was withdrawn, leaving Harris well short on numbers. Undaunted as always, he, or more likely his able deputy, Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby, scraped together every airframe capable of controlled flight, or something resembling it, and pulled in the screened crews from their instructional duties. Come the night, not only would the magic thousand figure be reached, it would be comfortably surpassed.
The only question now was the weather, and as the days ticked by inexorably towards the end of May, this was showing no signs of complying. By this time aircraft from the training units had arrived on bomber stations from Yorkshire to East Anglia as the build-up of the giant force progressed, and this gave rise to much speculation and no answers. Harris was acutely aware of the genuine danger, that the giant force may draw attention to itself and compromise security, and the time was fast approaching, when the operation would either have to be launched, or be scrubbed for the time being. On the 29/30th Harris allowed an operation to go ahead against the Gnome & Rhone factory at Gennevilliers in Paris, which had escaped damage a month earlier. 218 Squadron provided a total of ten aircraft for three separate targets on this night, four for the main fare, three for a mining operation in the Nectarines area, and three for an attack on the docks at Cherbourg. Both flight commanders were involved at Paris, where a combination of low cloud, intense searchlight activity and light flak made identification of the aiming point difficult, and the target escaped with little or no further damage. During the course of the operation W7535 HA-C crashed near Colombes, a suburb of Paris, and acting F/L Arthur Jones and his eight-man crew were all killed, on this, their third operation. Arthur Jones had been instrumental in the forming of 218 con-flight.
It was in a tense atmosphere of expectation and frustration that “morning prayers” began at Harris’s High Wycombe HQ on the 30th, with all eyes turned upon his chief meteorological adviser, Magnus Spence. After deliberations, Spence was finally able to give a qualified assurance of clear weather over the Rhineland after midnight, with a likelihood of moonlight, while north-western Germany and Hamburg would be concealed under buckets of cloud. Thus did the fickle finger of fate decree that Cologne would host the first one thousand bomber raid in history, and that night the departure of 1047 assorted aircraft began before 23.00hrs, and continued until after midnight. Some of the older training hacks took to the air almost reluctantly, lifted more by the enthusiasm of their crews than by the power of their engines, and some of these, unable to climb to a respectable height, would fall easy prey to the defences, or simply drop from the sky through mechanical breakdown.
218 Squadron put up a magnificent nineteen Stirlings, led by the commanding officer, W/Cdr Holder in W7530 HA-Q, who was carrying as a passenger the most senior officer flying that night. Harris had slapped a ban on A-O-Cs taking part in this momentous operation, but 3 Group’s AVM Baldwin chose to ignore it, and worry about the consequences when he got back. The operation was conducted in the now familiar three wave system, and was by any standards an outstanding success. 868 aircraft reached the target to bomb, and they destroyed over 3,300 buildings, and seriously damaged a further two thousand. While living accommodation represented the bulk of the statistics, many public, administrative, industrial and commercial premises were included, along with electricity and telephone installations. The loss of forty-one aircraft represented a new record, but in conditions favourable to attackers and defenders alike, and in the context of the size of the force and the scale of success, it was an acceptable figure. 218 Squadron’s W7502 HA-N was badly damaged by flak, and was ultimately abandoned by three of the crew, two of whom attempted to use a single parachute. The navigator, F/Sgt Borrowdale, clung to Sgt Tate RCAF, one of the gunners, but was unable to maintain his hold when the parachute jerked open and he fell to his death. Sergeant Tate and one other survived to be taken prisoner, but P/O Arthur Davis and the rest of his crew perished in the crash near Huppenbroich on the German/Belgium Border. The eight men on board R9311 HA-L had known almost from the outset that they faced a belly landing on return, after damaging the undercarriage on take-off. Having successfully completed their part in the operation, Sgt Falconer put the Stirling down safely, and all eight men walked away. This was only Sgt Falconer’s second operation as captain, having previously carried out ten operations as second pilot to Phil Lamason. The Stirling was struck-off-charge. It had been an expensive month for 218 Squadron, which lost eight aircraft and five crews from seventy-nine sorties.
Operations board for RAF Marham dated May 30th 1942, Operation “Millennium”. Note the name of AVM Baldwin.
Harris was anxious to use the thousand force again as soon as possible, and after a night’s rest, he ordered it to be prepared for a raid on Essen on the night of the 1/2nd. 956 aircraft were available to answer the call, including fifteen from 218 Squadron, led by the flight commanders, S/Ldrs Ker and Ashworth. Sergeant McAuley and his crew were forced to return early when N3753 HA-U developed engine problems, and they walked away from yet another crash-landing. The remainder of the squadron’s crews completed their sorties, delivering over 112,000lbs of bombs. Sadly very few of them fell where intended, as bombs were sprayed over a wide area of the Ruhr and damage in Essen was light and superficial. It was a tremendous disappointment after the success at Cologne, and a follow-up raid by a conventional force twenty-four hours later was equally ineffective. Some compensation was gained at Bremen on the 3/4th, when the city authorities reported their heaviest and most damaging raid to date. Seven 218 Squadron Stirlings took part, and one of them was among the eleven aircraft failing to return. W7474 HA-K fell victim to a night fighter over Holland, flown by Oblt Ludwig Becker of 6/NJG2. The Stirling crashed at 00.27hrs near Den Helder on the Dutch coast, and only the rear gunner, Sgt K Cox, survived from the eight-man crew of nineteen-year-old P/O John Webber. This was one of the squadron’s most experienced crews, and its loss was felt deeply. Webber had commenced operations in September 1941, and by the time of his death had flown thirty operations while the majority of his crew were on their twenty-seventh.
Luftwaffe personnel gather around the wreckage of Short Stirling W7474 HA-K. Skippered by 19-year-old veteran Pilot Officer John Webber the crew fell victim of a night fighter flown by Oblt Ludwig Becker of 6./NJG2 over Holland crashing at 00.27 hours 2km North of dey Kooy.
After the recent high tempo of operations there now followed a relatively quiet period for the squadron, during which mining dominated, and such operations were carried out in the Nectarines area on the 7th, 9th, 11th and 18th, all without loss. The only incident was on the 9th, when S/Ldr Oldroyd pranged N3722 on take-off at 11.45hrs. With the throttles wide open and the Stirling moments from becoming airborne, it swung violently from the runway, giving the experienced pilot no chance to correct. As a result the undercarriage collapsed, and the aircraft came crashing to a halt. Thankfully, the crew, which included an additional member, Canadian P/O Turner, who was gaining experience, was able to walk away from the scene, but the Stirling required extensive repair. Harris meantime, was determined to make his point at Essen, and tried three more times during the month, on the 5/6th, 8/9th and 16/17th, thus bringing the number of sorties during June to 1,607. Out of these, eighty-four aircraft had been lost, no industrial damage had been inflicted, and only a modest few houses had been destroyed.
Earlier on the 6/7th, the first of four raids during the month on Emden had produced an excellent return of three hundred houses destroyed, but this success was not to be repeated when the Command returned to the port later in the month. 218 Squadron sat out the first of these on the 19/20th, but dispatched nine Stirlings on the night of the 20/21st. Pilot Officer Medus returned early with technical difficulties, while the remainder pressed on to encounter unfavourable conditions in the target area in the form of five to seven-tenths cloud cover and ground haze. Returning crews reported seeing only scattered fires, but not present at debriefing was the popular B Flight commander, S/Ldr Ashworth, who had fallen victim to Lt Johannes Werth of 7/NJG2 at 02.00hrs. Attacked soon after leaving the target area the Stirling began to burn, and in the face of increasing instability and spreading flames, Ashworth gave the order to bail out. Five of the crew managed to take to their parachutes before the Stirling crashed at Wognun, four kilometres north-north-west of Noorm in Holland, with Ashworth still on board. Squadron Leader Harold John Ashworth was eventually posthumously awarded a well-deserved and long overdue DFC, which was gazetted on July 27th 1943.
One of the survivors was F/L Desmond Plunkett, the second pilot. Captured on the following day near Spierdijk, Plunkett ultimately ended up at Stalag Luft III at Sagan, where he came to the attention of Big X Roger Bushell. Bushell gave Plunkett the role of mapmaker for the forthcoming mass escape. Leading a team of fourteen men Plunkett set about producing not only maps, but forged passes and permits. At his own request he was allocated unlucky number thirteen for the tunnel escape on March 23rd. Managing to reach the local railway station he boarded a train for Breslau, and after several days on the run in Czechoslovakia he eventually managed to reach the border with Austria, where he was recaptured. After a short and rather unpleasant stay courtesy of the Gestapo, Plunkett eventually found himself at Stalag Luft I on the Baltic Sea. It was from this camp that he was repatriated after VE Day.
It was back to Emden for eleven 218 Squadron crews on the night of the 22/23rd, with W/Cdr Holder in the vanguard. The target was found to be cloud-free, and returning crews reported numerous fires in the docks area. Again this target claimed a 218 Squadron victim, twenty-year-old P/O Richard Medus and crew falling to the cannons of Oblt Rudolph Schonert of 4/NJG2 while on their way home at 02.07hrs. It would be learned later that none had survived, and thus another seasoned captain, this one on his twenty-seventh operation, had been lost. He would be posthumously awarded a DFC in July 1943.
The final thousand bomber raid took place on the 25/26th with Bremen as the target. Bomber Command was able to amass 960 aircraft while Coastal Command, ordered by Churchill to participate, sent a further 102 aircraft in what was classified as a separate operation. Never the less the numbers converging on Bremen on this night exceeded those going to Cologne at the end of May. 218 Squadron contributed fourteen Stirlings to what was a moderately successful operation, which fell well short of Cologne, but far surpassed the debacle at Essen. 572 houses were destroyed and many important war industry factories sustained damage, as did one of the shipyards, but the cost in bombers was a new record of forty-eight, including one from 218 Squadron. W7503 HA-A was shot down by Oblt Ludwig Becker of VI/NJG2 at 00.39hrs, crashing onto the banks of the Ijsselmeer in northern Holland, killing the entire crew. Pilot Officer Francis Ball was on his fifteenth operation, and had participated in all of the “thousand” raids. His wireless operator, Sgt Rogers, had completed twenty-four sorties.
Three follow-up operations against Bremen began on the 27/28th, when 218 Squadron contributed ten Stirlings. Flak was responsible for damaging two of the squadron’s aircraft, while Sgt Falconer’s R9333 HA-F was extensively damaged by two night fighters over Holland. The instrument panel, turret controls and airframe were all hit in the brief but vicious encounter, and Falconer quickly realised he had no option but to jettison the all-incendiary bomb load. This he did at 01.30hrs three miles south-east of Makkum, after which the crew managed to nurse the Stirling out over the Dutch coast to an eventual safe landing at base at 02.47hrs. For his exploits Falconer was awarded an immediate DFM. Sergeant Ralph Waters and his crew were shot down by flak during this operation, and all died in the sea off Hohenstiefersiel. This was Waters’ eighteenth operation, and his fourth as captain. The last operation of the month was once again aimed at Bremen, for which Bomber Command dispatched 284 aircraft to what proved to be a cloud covered target. 218 Squadron detailed twelve crews led by S/Ldr Oldroyd, who took off at 23.40hrs. Three aircraft returned early but the remainder pressed on and were subjected to the usual barrage of intense flak while on their bombing runs. Despite this they had the satisfaction of observing several large fires and a number of smaller isolated ones around the aiming point. Damage was inflicted on the sheds at the Neustsadt Guter Bahnhof and the Hansa Lloyd Dynamo sheds and Hansa Lloyd Dynamo Automobile factory. In all the squadron dropped a total of 53,640lb of incendiaries without loss.
A most welcome donation to the squadron was this mobile tea wagon in May 1942. The crew are those of Flight Sergeant McGregor. Sitting on the table is Roy Spear RNZAF.
July began with yet another assault on Bremen on the 2nd, 218 Squadron dispatching nine crews, who found visibility in the target area good, and this allowed an effective raid to develop. Sergeant Savage fought off three Bf110s during the return journey, and P/O Farquharson and crew claimed an enemy fighter destroyed. Fate once again played a hand, when yet another experienced crew failed to return. Having taken off at 00.28hrs Sgt Geoffrey Jeary and crew sent an S.O.S shortly afterwards, after which, nothing further was heard. Sergeant Jeary was on his twenty-third operation, and his crew on their eleventh, they had taken part in all three of the Thousand Bomber raids. N3718 HA-C is believed to have come down in the North Sea with the loss of all on board. It is possible that they fell victim to Oblt Heinrich Prinz zu-Sayn-Wittgenstein, who claimed a Stirling fifty kilometres west of Rotterdam. On the following morning Sgt Savage and P/O McCarthy carried out an extensive sea search, but after three and half hours both crews returned to Marham without finding any sign of the aircraft or crew.
Having failed so dismally at Essen Harris would turn his attention upon its Ruhr neighbour, Duisburg, during the second half of July. It had become increasingly apparent to the squadron as well as to Group HQ, that Marham’s grass runways were not ideally suited to the Stirling with its clumsy and awkward undercarriage. As a result the squadron was informed that it would be moving to a new airfield still under construction at Downham Market, situated eight miles south-west of Marham. Downham was being built to Class A specification, initially as a satellite to Marham by Messrs W & C French. The new airfield had three concrete runways, two at 1,400 yards and one at 1,900 yards, with thirty-four pan hard standings. Six T2 hangers were to be erected during 1942/43, and 218 Squadron would be the first operational unit to take up residence. The first phase of the squadron’s move took place on July the 6th, followed on the 7th by the departure from Marham in pouring rain of thirteen Stirlings. The squadron spent the next few days settling in, and the crews found to their annoyance that some of the facilities were not yet completed. A number of local flights and air tests were carried out, but the first operation from Downham Market would not take place until the 12th.
In the meantime an operation by almost three hundred aircraft took place on Wilhelmshaven on the 8/9th, when many of the bomb loads were wasted on open country. Pilot Officer Farquharson and Sgt Hartley had the honour of launching the first sorties from 218 Squadron’s new home, when delivering six mines each by TR fix from 2,000 feet in the Nectarines area. The first of five raids on Duisburg in less than four weeks was mounted on the 13/14th by a little under two hundred aircraft, of which just two belonged to 218 Squadron. Cloud and electrical storms made conditions difficult for bombing, and the city escaped with the slightest damage. Squadron Leader Powell DFM was given a leaflet raid on Lille for his first operation as B Flight commander, having recently arrived to replace S/Ldr Ashworth. Gordon Powell had been awarded the DFM in 1940 while with 115 Squadron, in recognition of his low-level attack on Stavanger aerodrome, which had been pressed home in the face of intense flak and machine-gun fire. Despite being wounded in the arm and torso he bombed the target, before dragging his severely damaged Wellington over three hundred miles across the North Sea to reach home.
Twenty-one Stirlings set off shortly before 19.00hrs on the 16th for an experimental and ambitious dusk attack on the Lübecker Flenderwerke AG U-Boat yard at Herrenwyk, located ten kilometres north-east of Lübeck. All six of the Stirling squadrons provided aircraft for Operation Pandemonium, which called for them to fly in formation at low level across the North Sea, until reaching a point where cloud cover could be exploited to carry out individual attacks on the target. 218 Squadron provided six aircraft, while the remainder were drawn from 7, XV, 149 and 214 Squadrons. In the event the raid was not a success, largely because of a lack of cloud cover on the outward flight and ten-tenths cloud in the target area. Only eight crews reported bombing as briefed, and a number of 218 Squadron aircraft were fortunate to survive being attacked by fighters. W/Cdr Holder was attacked outbound by three BF109s, and the following combat report tells the story.
While flying to Lübeck at 2125hrs at 800 feet and positioned at 5520 N 0846 E, two Bf109 aircraft were reported by the rear gunner F/Sgt Steele on the starboard quarter above at 1000 yards away and some distance apart. Shortly afterwards another Bf109 was reported by the mid upper gunner P/O Green on the starboard beam also above and approximately 1000 yards away. One attacked starboard quarter level and fired cannon and machine gun from 600 yards and broke away at 450 yards, when the rear gunner fired a four second burst. Mid upper gunner also fired a good burst. An attack was then made by one of the other fighters from the port beam above and considerably damaged our Stirling by cannon fire, also hitting the hydraulics pipe lines to the rear turret which started to slow down. This aircraft was given a burst by the mid upper and rear gunner with two guns serviceable. Then we were attacked at the rear and starboard beam level. The aircraft on the beam was taken by the mid upper and the one at the rear by the rear gunner who also gave the evasive action to the captain (which was to turn to starboard and climb) These aircraft broke away at 400 yards and were fired at on the break away. The next attack was from the port beam below when the front gunner F/Sgt Bull fired a good burst with the mid upper on the break away. The fifth attack was from the starboard quarter below. The evasive action given by the rear gunner caused the fighters fire to pass behind and below us. The 6th & 7th attacks were made dead astern. When the fighters came into 100 yards the rear gunner fired a couple of good bursts by hand from one gun, as the turret had gone u/s. This fighter is claimed as damaged. The attacks were then discontinued, and we climbed into cloud for a while, and then got back on course and went on to bomb the target.
Wing Commander Holder identified the target, before delivering his six one thousand pounders from five hundred feet. The Stirling was bracketed by both light and heavy flak, which resulted in numerous hits, but thankfully without injuring the crew. Australian P/O Sanderson and P/O Abberton each managed to identify the aiming point, and like their commanding officer, attracted the attention of the port’s flak, before managing to weave their way out of the target area. Squadron Leader Oldroyd and P/O Farquharson were unable to identify the target, and jettisoned their bomb loads. Pilot Officer Bullock attacked the aerodrome at Blankensee as a last resort target, and, while homebound, was set upon by no less than five enemy fighters. By sheer determination, crew discipline and good airmanship, which involved flying in tight circles in and out of cloud, the pursuers were eventually evaded, and the Stirling made it back to Downham Market.
An operation was mounted against the Vulkan U-Boat yards at Vegesack on the night of the 19/20th, in which thirty-one Stirlings took part in an overall force of ninety four-engine aircraft. Five Stirlings were provided by 218 Squadron, each of them carrying a second pilot gaining operational experience. Squadron Leader Oldroyd was accompanied by S/Ldr J Shewell, who had previously served in Training Command. The target was cloud-covered, and later photographic evidence revealed that no bombs had fallen near the town. It was back to Duisburg on the 21/22nd, when eight 218 Squadron crews were briefed, and once again the more experienced captains were required to show new pilots the ropes. Squadron Leader Oldroyd was joined on this occasion by S/Ldr Powell DFM, while S/Ldr Shewell accompanied the crew of W/O Johnston. Visibility over the target was excellent, and the aiming point was identified by a number of well placed flares. This allowed accurate bombing, which resulted in a number of fires in the town and docks area. Following his time with 218 Squadron S/Ldr Shewell would be posted to 7 Squadron of the Pathfinders with the acting rank of wing commander, where he would serve as a flight commander. Sadly, in a little over a month’s time, he would lose his life during an operation to Frankfurt. Duisburg was attacked twice more on the 23/24th and 25/26th, on both occasions with the participation of 218 Squadron. Cloud cover prevented both raids from inflicting any worthwhile damage, despite the commitment of over five-hundred sorties, of which 3 Group contributed 269.
218 Squadron was not involved in the losses, and prepared itself for two heavy raids on Hamburg on the 26/27th and 28/29th. The former involved the largest non-1,000 force to date of 403 aircraft, including eight from 218 Squadron, which left Downham Market in the hour before midnight. Seven from the squadron reached the target and bombed in near perfect visibility at around 01.00hrs. Returning crews reported a concentration of big fires in the old town, and widespread fires across the city. Such was the apparent success of the raid that some crews compared the area of fire to that of the “thousand bomber” raid on Cologne. Eight hundred fires were started, over five hundred of them large, and more than eight hundred houses were destroyed. Twenty-nine aircraft were missing, but 218 Squadron’s casualty occurred at home, when R9354 HA-N lost its undercarriage on landing, happily without casualties among the crew of P/O J Savage.
The second operation ran into difficulties even before take-off, when bad weather over the 1, 4 and 5 Group stations prevented them from taking part. This left just 3 Group and a contingent from 91 Group, although the latter were recalled while still over the North Sea. Now just the Wellingtons and Stirlings of 3 Group, twelve of them from 218 Squadron, continued the operation, and they struggled on in severe icing conditions. Four crews jettisoned their loads before reaching the target, three because of engine failures, Sgt Falconer eventually landed BF515 at Leconfield with two engines feathered. Squadron Leader Oldroyd found a solid mass of cloud covering the target area, and unable to identify the aiming point he and the other crews were obliged to bomb on TR. The city’s defenders put up a particularly effective intense and accurate flak barrage, working in conjunction with a ring of searchlights, and twenty-six bombers returned with flak damage. There was also much night fighter activity over the target, and 3 Group recorded twenty-four encounters. It proved to be a bad night for 218 Squadron, which posted missing three crews.
Sergeant John Johnson and his crew had borrowed the Conversion Flight’s W7464 HA-Z, which fell victim to Oblt Paul Gildner of Stab 5/NJG2, and crashed into the North Sea twenty kilometres north-west of Terschelling at 01.30hrs. Johnson, who was a thirty-one-year-old Yorkshireman, died with his crew, who were on their fifth operation together. The second loss involved the recently appointed flight commander, S/Ldr Gordon Powell DFM, who was on his third sortie as captain since joining the squadron. There were five survivors from the crew of BF309 HAM, which was also brought down by a night fighter, and crashed at 01.57hrs in the Waddenzee off Busum. One of the survivors was Canadian wireless operator Sgt H Hawker RCAF, who was on his second operation. He recalls:
“Took off from Downham Market at 22.20hrs. Everything went smoothly until Dutch coast, we were unable to gain altitude due to icing conditions which were very severe at 12,000ft. We still continued on and the nav reported Gee Box was out of commission. Wireless reception was very bad for the beacon. Around 01.30hrs reached target and we were preparing to drop the bombs and flares when the R/G reported fighters, Ju88 and a Bf109 approaching from the rear, front gunner reported almost simultaneously a 109 fighter from the port. Bombs were dropped and I made certain the flares went out the chute and returned to the wireless set and looked out the Astrodome. Pilot turned plane sharply and went into a long dive levelling out a 3,000 to 3,500ft. Fighters followed us and put our recuperators out of order. The fighters come up from underneath and the mid upper gunner put a burst over the port wing. Soon after the port wing caught on fire, the mid-section was now burning. We reached the coast and the pilot told up to bail out, the fighters were still following and the rear gunner firing along with the mid upper. I helped the pilot on with his chute while the 2nd pilot released the front gunner. I watched the 2nd pilot, Observer, engineer bale out and I followed. I had just pulled the rip cord when the aircraft exploded. I was unconscious until just before landing in the water, I swam until I reach a sand bar and stood on it, trying periodically to make for shore until I was captured in the morning”.
The body of S/Ldr Powell was found in the wreckage, and was subsequently buried in the Neun Friedhof Cemetery on July 31st. Finally the experienced P/O Colin Farquharson and crew were shot down in N6129 HA-X, another aircraft on the strength of the Conversion Flight. The Stirling was shot down into the North Sea at 02.01hrs, three kilometres east of the Island of Sylt, by an unidentified night fighter of 4/NJG.3. This was Farquharson’s sixteenth operation, eight of which were undertaken as second pilot to S/Ldr Ashworth. It was 218 Squadron’s heaviest night loss of the war to date, and to add to the general gloom on the squadron, its former flight commander, the popular Herbert Price DFC, now a wing commander, also failed to return from this operation as the commanding officer of 156 Squadron at Alconbury.
A highly effective raid on Saarbrücken on the 29/30th included five Stirlings from 218 Squadron, and almost four hundred buildings were left in ruins in return for a more acceptable loss of nine aircraft. The month was brought to a close at Düsseldorf on the night of the 31st, when another contribution from the training units swelled the numbers available to take part to 630 aircraft. Of these 484 crews claimed to have bombed as briefed. As would always happen when a large force targeted this city, some of the bombing spilled over into Neuss, and more than nine hundred fires were started, while over 450 buildings were destroyed at the two locations. Losses were again high, at twenty-nine aircraft, but 218 Squadron came through unscathed. This was the last operation for the respected veteran S/Ldr Arthur Oldroyd DFC AFC, who had now completed his tour, he would survive the war. The squadron launched ninety sorties during the month, for the loss of three aircraft and four crews, plus two aircraft from the Conversion Flight.
The first major operation in August was undertaken by a force of over two hundred aircraft against Duisburg on the night of the 6/7th. Eleven 218 Squadron crews were briefed, and those arriving early found the target relatively free of cloud. This situation quickly changed however into complete cloud cover, forcing bombing by the later waves to be on ETA. It was yet another disappointing attack that cost Bomber Command five aircraft, among them 218 Squadron’s N6072 HA-P, which was dispatched at 02.57hrs by Hptm Ludwig Bietmann of V/NJG1. Four members of the crew lost their lives, while Sgt W.J Laidlaw and two others survived as PoWs. This was Laidlaw’s eleventh operation and the majority of his crew’s fifth. One of the survivors was F/Sgt David Moffet, a twenty-two-year-old wireless operator from Downpatrick, County Down in Northern Ireland. At the age of eighteen he joined the R.A.F, and on completion of his training was posted to 9 Squadron in 1940, where he completed his first tour of thirty operations. After a spell at 20 OTU he was posted to 218 Squadron in April 1942, and he was at the time of his loss one of the most experienced NCOs on the squadron. It was another disappointing attack on this highly industrialised city, which managed to destroy only eighteen buildings, giving a tally over the five raids of 212 houses destroyed for the loss of forty-three aircraft from 1,229 sorties.
190 aircraft took off for Osnabrück on the 9/10th, and those reaching the town left over two hundred houses in ruins. 218 Squadron put up ten Stirlings, and they all returned safely. While this operation was in progress, F/L Dodkin and his crew joined seventeen others from 3 Group in a freshman attack on le Havre. Seven crews were detailed to carry out a mining operation in the Silverthorne area on the 10th, when weather conditions proved to be near perfect and all crews reported successfully planting their mines. This was followed by two raids on Mainz on consecutive nights beginning on the 11/12th. Shortly after take-off a fire broke out in the starboard-outer engine of W7568 HA-D, which had reached around 3,000 feet in its climb-out. The crew’s efforts to extinguish the fire failed, and the flames began to spread towards the main wing fuel tanks and the electrical wiring in the wing. The bomb load was jettisoned, and P/O John Abberton ordered the crew to bail out. At around 22.55hrs the burning Stirling crashed onto a woodland track at Wiltonhill Wood near Brandon in Suffolk, killing the pilot and his Irish observer, Sgt Jeffrey. Abberton had joined the squadron in March 1942, and undertook his first twelve operations as second pilot to A Flight’s commander. He had been alongside Oldroyd on the Pilsen trip, when Oldroyd had earned the DFC. Since taking on his own crew, Abberton had operated nine times. The operation itself was a success that caused extensive damage in the city centre, and this was added to significantly during the latter raid, when industrial districts were also hit. Squadron leader Oldroyd reported; “Visibility was such that the whole area on both sides of the town was seen blazing long after the target was left”. Eight 218 Squadron crews joined in the return to the same target on the following night led by the recently promoted S/Ldr Arthur Samson, a native of St John’s, Newfoundland, who had just assumed command of B Flight. Fires were still burning when the force arrived in the target area, and damage was again concentrated in the centre of the city and industrial areas.
A wonderful photograph of two Short Stirling’s carrying out a low level beat up of RAF Downham Market. It is believed this was in preparation of the low level daylight operation to Lingen.
A relaxed looking Squadron Leader Sammy Samson DFC seen here while screened from operations.
A new era began on the 15th, with the formation of the Pathfinder Force under the then Group Captain Don Bennett. Harris had always been opposed in principle to an elite target finding and marking force, a view shared by all but one of his group commanders. Harris’s staunchest ally was 3 Group’s A-O-C, AVM Baldwin, who had opposed the creation of an elite force from the outset, and insisted that selected crews from within each group should be specially trained for the task. Harris, once overruled by higher authority, and in typical fashion, gave it his unstinting support, and his choice of Bennett as its leader, although controversial, proved to be inspired. Given Baldwin’s outspoken opposition to the formation of the Pathfinder Force or “Bomber Commandos” as he often referred to it, the relationship between 3 Group and its lodgers was surprisingly cordial, if at times a little fraught. All orders would reach the Pathfinders via Baldwin’s 3 Group HQ, but they would remain operationally independent. A lesser man than Bennett might have been fazed, but the Australian possessed a brilliant mind that operated on a plane beyond the reach of most, and although initially still only a group captain, this, and his somewhat humourless character, equipped him to hold his own against all-comers.
Three 3 Group units were hived off, the Wellington-equipped 156 Squadron at Alconbury, 7 squadron with its Stirlings, and finally 109 Squadron and its mixed bag of Wellington Mk.VI and Mosquitos. Each of the Command’s four heavy groups would be responsible for maintaining a supply of fresh recruits from among its most promising crews. 3 Group would be responsible for feeding crews to 7 Squadron, while the former 3 Group 156 Squadron became affiliated to 1 Group. 83 Squadron would draw its Lancaster crews from 5 Group, and 35 Squadron was to be supplied with Halifax crews by 4 Group. In addition 109 Squadron moved into Wyton, and this, perhaps, would prove to be the most significant posting of all.
Harris was keen to pitch the Pathfinders into battle at the earliest opportunity, and this arose on the night of the 18/19th, when the west-Baltic port of Flensburg was selected, presumably because of its ease of location on the narrow neck of land where Germany and Denmark meet. 218 Squadron dispatched ten Stirlings, the crews of which encountered unexpectedly difficult weather conditions outbound and in the target area. 218 Squadron’s returning crews were unanimous in their disappointment, reporting that flares and incendiaries were scattered all over the target area, and a number of bombs fell on the Danish towns of Sonderdorg and Abenra, twenty-five miles or more north of the intended target. 218 Squadron’s W7618 failed to return after been attacked by Uffz Friedel Krause of 8/NJG1 at 00.48hrs over the North Sea west of Esbjerg. Pilot Officer Irven McDaniel, an American from Arkansas, was forced to ditch the severely damaged aircraft, and he and two of his crew alone survived after clambering aboard the dinghy. They were on their first operation together, and endured three days afloat before being chanced upon by the Danish fishing boat E 28 “Dania” out of Esbjerg. On reaching the port the airmen were ultimately handed over to the Luftwaffe at Esbjerg airfield. There is an interesting postscript to this incident. It would appear that the Stirling’s gunners had inflicted damage to Uffz Krause’s Bf110, because it crashed a couple of kilometres north of Tønder shortly after 01:10hrs while attempting an emergency landing, and Krause and his wireless operator were killed.
A major mining operation was organised for the evening of August 20th involving sixty-five crews from 1, 3 and 5 Groups, who were briefed to deliver 130 mines in the western Baltic. 218 Squadron contributed nine crews, who could not know that this would be the squadron’s worst night for operational losses of the entire war, and, by a cruel twist of fate, result in the loss of four of the squadron’s most experienced and long-serving crews with just one survivor between them. Twenty-five year old Australian, F/O Owen Sanderson RAAF and his crew, who were operating together for the tenth time, were victims of the local flak defences situated around the airfield at Schleswig. W7573 HA-U was heading for the “Radish” area at the time, and, with wing tanks ablaze, Sanderson jettisoned the four mines, only to crash almost immediately at 22.30hrs with the loss of all on board. W7615 HA-M was brought down by Lt Rolf Bussman of 9/NJG3, and sent crashing into the sea with no survivors from the crew of Irishman P/O George McAuley DFC, who had run out of luck following the two incidents recorded earlier. Their target had been the “Forget-me-Not” area near Kiel harbour. This was a particularly tragic loss of a pilot on his thirty-second operation, and obviously close to the end of his tour. This operation was the eleventh in the tour of F/Sgt Leonard Hartley and his crew, and they too fell foul of German flak, crashing at 23.56hrs near Hoffnungstal–Mariental while heading for the Kadet Channel. The rear gunner, Sgt Young, was the sole survivor from BF338 HA-Q, which unusually contained four married crew members with an average age of twenty-six. The final loss of the night was that of New Zealander P/O Derek Bullock and crew, who had been briefed to mine in the “Forget-me-nots” area. BF319 HA-C crashed at 00.50hrs near Langwebel, seventeen kilometres south-west of Kiel, again as the result of flak, and all on board were killed. The crew had joined the squadron on April 1st from 1651 Conversion Unit, and were on their twentieth operation, while twenty three year old Derek was on his twenty-ninth. One can only imagine the sombre atmosphere in both messes on the following morning over breakfast, with four crews missing, and twenty-eight airman lost. Not since May 1940 had the squadron lost four crews.
A fresh faced Pilot Officer Irven McDaniel of Hot Springs, Arkansas USA striking a menacing pose with his service revolver. The nineteen year was shot down on his first operation as captain. He had previously flown three operations as 2nd pilot including a trip to Lubeck on July 16th with Wing Commander Holder DFC when attacked by Bf109s.
Squadron Leader Raymond DFC arrived to take command of A Flight on the 24th. A New Zealander, Raymond was a seasoned bomber captain, having completed a tour of thirty-nine operations with XV Squadron during 1940/1941. “Bobby” Raymond arrived having just completed a six month spell as an instructor with 1651 CU, where, as B Flight commander, he had participated in all three of the Thousand Bomber raids, along with another to Düsseldorf. The squadron was called upon to make available nine crews for an attack on Frankfurt on the night of Raymond’s appointment, and he was to take the lead. This was the Pathfinders’ second operation, which twenty of their number were to open at 23.40hrs with the delivery of 30lb and 250lb incendiary bombs onto the aiming point. In the event, only three aircraft arrived on time, and they, like the rest of the force, found the target under nine-tenths cloud. The results were predictable, and the majority of the bombs fell into open country. Flight Sergeant Robert Yates and crew failed to return from this operation following an encounter with Major Kurt Holler of Stab III/NJG4 at 23.41hrs. W7562 HA-R crashed near Dinant in Belgium, and all eight crewmen, seven of whom were on their eleventh operation, were killed.
New Zealander Bobby Raymond DFC on his wedding day. He brought a wealth of experience when he joined the Squadron, having previously completed 39 operations with XV Squadron. While screened from operations he flew 4 operations with 1651 CU.
Three nights later, the Pathfinders registered their first success, when providing good illumination at Kassel for the main force crews to exploit. 218 Squadron supported the operation with eight Stirlings, and among those taking part were both flight commanders. For once conditions in the target area were favourable, and crews were able to identify the city below, where a number of concentrated fires soon developed. It was still only a moderately successful operation, however, with 144 buildings destroyed, but it was a marked improvement on earlier performances. On the debit side a massive thirty-one aircraft were lost, and the month’s misfortunes continued for 218 Squadron with the failure to return of two more crews. Pilot Officer John Gruber and his crew were on their maiden operation together when shot down by Hptm Werner Streib of Stab I/NJG1 at 01.04hrs. BF315 HA-F crashed two kilometres west of Elst and south of Arnhem with just two survivors. One of these, rear gunner Sgt Edward Green, died while in captivity on April 21st 1945. The second loss of the night involved the crew of P/O William McCarthy, and they also fell victim to a night fighter. R9160 HA-G was brought down over the North Sea, west of Bergen aan Zee at 01.40hrs by Oblt Ludwig Becker of 6/NJG2, Becker’s second kill of the night. There were no survivors from the eight-man crew, which again included a second pilot, twenty-year-old Sgt Henry Russell RCAF, who had arrived from 218 Conversion Flight on August 20th. The crew had been on its twenty-fifth operation, and McCarthy on his thirty-first. This brave Australian would not live to wear the DFC so strongly recommended by his commanding officer just three days prior to his death, and it would be almost a year before it was gazetted.
The wreckage of F/Lt Du Toits Short Stirling N3717 HA-S at RAF Manston.
Nuremberg brought the month’s activities to an end on the 28th, when six 218 Squadron crews were scheduled to operate against this distant target. A seventh crew, that of Sgt K Ryan, was given the freshman target of Saarbrücken. The Pathfinders employed target indicator bombs for the first time, despite which, the bombing was not concentrated, and much of it missed the city by many miles. At least on this occasion all of the 218 Squadron participants came home. Diverted because of a fuel shortage, South African P/O Du Toit was dazzled by Chance lights as he landed N3717 HA-S at Manston, and with his night vision impaired, he failed to notice a line of parked aircraft until it was too late. The Stirling swept into a line of Spitfires belonging to the Northolt Polish fighter wing, destroying Spitfire Mk.Vb MB566 of 317 Squadron, before colliding with a 841 Squadron Fleet Air Arm Fairey Albacore. The Stirling was written-off, but the crew emerged unscathed to enjoy what would be a temporary reprieve. It had been the squadron’s blackest month since those far-off days in France, and had cost eleven aircraft either failing to return or written off in crashes, sadly it also meant the loss of 10 crews some of whom were almost tour expired. At the end of the month the respected W/Cdr Holder was posted to 3 Group HQ. He had operated a total of sixty-five times, fourteen of them while commanding 218 Squadron. He would be awarded the DSO on October 27th.
The hope was that September couldn’t be as bad for the squadron as August had been, although the omens were not encouraging, when N3714 HA-Q went missing from an operation to Saarbrücken on the very first night. The attack, much to the embarrassment of the Pathfinders and the chagrin of the inhabitants, had actually fallen on the non-industrial town of Saarlouis, which suffered extensive damage. By the time the mistake was discovered, the 218 Squadron Stirling, one of eight dispatched by the squadron, was a shattered wreck on Belgian soil. It was the victim of Hptm Walter Ehle of Stab II/NJG1, and F/Sgt Keith Ryan RNZAF and four of his crew lay dead, while two of their colleagues were beginning a period of extended leave as guests of the Reich. This posting of a “black” by the Pathfinders could have portended an unfortunate month generally but in fact, from this point on the Command embarked on an unprecedented run of effective operations, which took it through to mid-month.
In the meantime, thirty-year-old Canadian W/Cdr Montagu F B Read assumed command of the squadron on the 2nd vice S/Ldr Samson. Born in East Wellington, Vancouver, British Columbia, Read was granted a Governor General nomination to join the RAF in 1933. Throughout the thirties he served with both 99 and 83 bomber squadrons, before being posted to the British Forces HQ in Aden in October 1939 to undertake personnel duties. From there he was seconded to the American Legation in Cairo, again in an administrative role. Promoted to the rank of wing commander on the 1st of June 1941, he returned to England a year later. Wing Commander Read had no previous war-time connection with Bomber Command, and had only completed his conversion course at 1651 CU at Waterbeach on September 1st.
The run of successful operations began at Karlsruhe on the night of Read’s appointment, when 218 Squadron contributed six aircraft, one of which contained the new commanding officer operating in the role of second pilot to S/Ldr Raymond. A seventh crew, captained by F/Sgt Cozens, was tasked with mining in the Nectarines I area. The main operation wrought heavy damage on the town of Karlsruhe, in which twenty-seven factories were damaged and sixty acres of industrial buildings and yards were devastated. A further 260 acres of residential and commercial properties were also destroyed. While outbound to the target, P/O Du Toit’s Stirling was attacked by an enemy fighter, and the rear gunner was killed. An uncontrolled dive then ensued, during which five thousand feet were lost, the bomb load was jettisoned, and the order to abandon ship was given. However, Du Toit regained control and managed to bring the badly damaged aircraft home. Blood stains in the empty mid-upper turret suggested that the occupant had been wounded before baling out. Once on the ground it could be seen that the rear turret had virtually been shot away, and there was much damage to the tail plane. The rear gunner was thirty-year-old Irishman F/Sgt Francis Rogers, who had been twice Mention in Dispatches. “Frank” Rogers had served in the RAF for over seven years, and had operated in France during 1939-1940. The gunner’s body was taken to his home town of Newry, County Down. Pilot Officer Du Toit reported:
“Up till the encounter nothing much had happened, but when we got just north of Saarbrucken, which we had bombed the night before, I saw one of our bombers shot down by a night fighter, so I knew that we were in a danger area. Then I saw a series of lights on the ground marking our track, and I knew this was a signal to the German night fighters. Next thing I knew was that, without warning, a cannon shell burst over my head and the front cockpit panel was shattered. I did not wait for any more but put the Stirling into a diving turn to port. Down we went, and then I pulled at the stick to change our course and perplex the fighter, but the aircraft was out of control and I could not pull her out of the dive. Down and down went the Stirling, diving steeply all the time, while I was struggling with the controls. I gave up hope of pulling her out of the dive and as the intercom had been shot away I switched on the emergency signal for bailing out. This signal lights up a series of lamps all over the aircraft. But when down to 6000ft, we had already dropped 7000ft out of control, I got control again and brought the Stirling out of the dive. I sent the wireless operator back to tell the rest of the crew to hang on, but the mid upper had already made a dive for it and when my wireless operator came to the rear gunner, he found him lying dead and the turret shattered. The Stirling was not fully under control yet for she was climbing steeply and then diving. All the electrical controls had been shot away and the elevators had probably been damaged. The engineer tied up the controls with the odd bit of rope and that helped a lot.
We struggled on keeping a fair height and speed. All the compasses were useless except one on the bomb aimer’s sight so we had to plot our course from that. The rest of the trip was just a steady struggle to hold the Stirling on course while we all hoped that no more fighters would appear. When we arrived over our base, I found that the wireless was shot away and the undercarriage would not come down. I circled while the undercarriage was wound down by hand, wondering all the time how we would land with most of the controls shot away. When the time came, I just pushed the stick forward and down we came to make a fair landing all things considered. I got out of the aircraft and looked at it. The rear turret was shot to pieces, the elevator and tail plane was riddled, the wireless aerial had gone and there were holes all over the fuselage.”
The Command returned to northern Germany on the 4/5th with Bremen as the intended target. 3 Group dispatched sixty-three aircraft, including seven from 218 Squadron, with W/Cdr Read once again accompanying S/Ldr Raymond. The Pathfinders adopted the three-phase system of illuminators, visual markers and backers-up for the first time, and returning crews were once again enthusiastic about the flares. They remarked on their concentration and high visibility, but also reported that flak over the target was intense. By the end of the attack at 02.20hrs 480 buildings had been destroyed, including some of an industrial nature, and almost fourteen hundred others had sustained serious damage. A return was made to the Ruhr on the 6/7th, with Duisburg selected as the target. The five 218 Squadron crews found the city cloaked in ground haze and the Pathfinder flares scattered, but a number of large fires could be seen developing in the docks area. 114 buildings were destroyed, and whilst this was a modest haul, it still represented something of a victory at this most elusive of targets. While their colleagues were over Duisburg, two other 218 Squadron crews were successfully planting their four mines in the Rosemary mining area.
The run of successes was halted temporarily at another notoriously difficult target, Frankfurt, on the 8/9th, for which 218 Squadron put up six Stirlings with S/Ldr Raymond in the lead. A combination of a very dark night and ground haze in the target area resulted in the flares being scattered east of the intended aiming point. Düsseldorf brought a return to winning ways two nights later, when the training units contributed to the 479-strong force, and 3 Group put up sixty-six aircraft. The Pathfinders employed “Pink Pansies” for the first time, and over nine hundred houses were destroyed in the city and neighbouring Neuss. This was the most destructive operation since the thousand-bomber raid on Cologne, but at thirty-three aircraft, the losses were also the highest from a non-1,000 effort. Two 218 Squadron crews failed to return, one of them, that of F/Sgt Geoffrey Milligan RCAF, were on their first operation, having been on the squadron for less than forty-eight hours. They were unfortunate to meet Luftwaffe ace, Hptm Heinrich Prinz zu-Sayn-Wittgenstein of 9/NJG2 at 23.54hrs. BF351 HA-C crashed near St Philipsland (Zeeland), there were no survivors. For F/Sgt Cozens and crew this was their twentieth operation, and they were outbound when forced to ditch R9357 HA-E thirty miles off the Dutch coast. An explosion in the starboard-inner engine almost tore the Hercules from its mounting, and blasted away a large section of fuselage. To add to his worries, both outer engines began to lose power, giving Cozens no alternative but to ditch. Sadly, the navigator and front gunner drowned. At 22.46hrs an SOS was received and a 2nd class fix obtained, which enabled the surviving crew members to be located in their dinghy and rescued by an air-sea rescue launch.
Bremen was attacked for the second time during the month on the 13/14th, when 848 houses were destroyed, and many important war industry factories suffered varying degrees of damage. This result by around four hundred aircraft surpassed that achieved by the thousand force in June, and this was a sign of the burgeoning effectiveness of the Command. The only casualty for 218 Squadron was W7622 HA-P, which ran into a ditch on landing at 05.00hrs. Six of the squadron’s crews set out in company with over 190 others to attack the docks at Wilhelmshaven on the 14th, when well-placed Pathfinder flares illuminated the naval docks area, giving the crews an ideal opportunity to inflict serious damage. The all incendiary loads were delivered from between 13,000 and 16,000 feet in the face of reported intense flak and tracer. A large explosion was reported by a number of returning crews, and the glow of fires was visible for up to eighty miles from the target. Local authorities reported the town’s heaviest raid of the war, and specified the central districts as those hardest-hit. While over the target the starboard-inner engine of N3725 HA-D failed, forcing P/O Frankcombe RAAF to make the return trip on only three engines. While in the circuit over Downham Market the starboard-outer cut, and the Stirling crashed at 00.55hrs, one mile east of Stoke Ferry. There were just two survivors, the wireless operator, who lost both legs, and the mid-upper gunner, who sustained only slight injuries. This was John Frankcombe’s sixteenth operation. On the following day ACM John Baldwin CB CBE DSO was succeeded by AVM the Hon Ralph Cochrane, CBE AFC, and the effects of the change at the top would be immediately apparent.
Wing Commander Montague Read occupancy as squadron commander lasted just a month before his death over Denmark.
Even Essen received what was probably its most destructive raid thus far, when attacked on the 16/17th by over three hundred aircraft, including five from 218 Squadron. The Krupp complex was hit by fifteen high explosive bombs, and thirty-three large fires were reported in the city, but the defenders fought back to bring down thirty-nine aircraft, the Wellington brigade proving itself to be particularly vulnerable. However, it can be no coincidence that this series of effective operations came at a time when the Pathfinder Force was emerging from its unconvincing start, and its crews were coming to grips with the complexities of their demanding role. There was to be no overnight transformation, and failures would continue to outnumber successes for some time to come, but the encouraging signs were there, and it boded ill for Germany in the years ahead. On the 18th the squadron bade farewell to Sgt Sidney Godfrey Falconer DFM, who was posted on completion of his first tour to 21 OTU, and was one of the few to have completed a tour over the summer. Falconer returned to operations in 1943 with 214 Squadron were he was awarded a DFC on completion of his second tour. He was killed in an accident while flying as a passenger in a Horsa glider with 81 O.T.U in May 1944.
Four of 218 Squadrons most distinguished pilots throughout 1942. Left to right F/Lt Roy Spear DFC RNZAF, F/Lt Geoff Corser DFC RAAF, F/Sgt Henderson, S/Ldr Phil Lamason DFC RNZAF and F/O Don Thomson DFC RNZAF.
Bomber Command carried out two separate raids on the 19th, on Saarbrücken and Munich. Nineteen 3 Group aircraft were assigned to the latter, including four from 218 Squadron. The Pathfinder flares were concentrated and illuminated the target well, allowing the aiming point, the railway station, to be easily identified. The squadron’s all-incendiary loads went down from between 10,000 and 13,000 feet, and most of the high explosive tonnage fell onto the southern and eastern suburbs, where damaged was heavy. On the way home S/Ldr Samson was bracketed by accurate flak of such intensity and ferocity, that he ordered the crew to stand by to abandon the aircraft. The navigator did, in fact bail out, and ended up as a PoW at Stalag Luft III. A number of those on board sustained wounds, but after what seemed an eternity, the Stirling left the flak behind and eventually landed at West Malling after eight hours and thirty-two minutes aloft. The attack on Saarbrücken included two crews from 218 Squadron after a third returned early. Once again they found the target easy to identify, due, on this occasion, to the bright moonlight. On arriving over the target, the 218 Squadron boys found the bombing to be scattered, and noticed only a few isolated fires, whereupon they delivered their loads of 4lb incendiaries from 6,840 feet, before returning safely to Downham Market.
The squadron contributed ten Stirlings to operations on the night of the 23/24th, five heading for the Bremer-Vulcan ship yards at Vegesack, while five all NCO crews went gardening in the Nectarines II and III areas. The mining force met with an electrical storm outbound, and ultimately planted their vegetables with the aid of Gee. The Vegesack force encountered the same weather conditions, and F/L Spear RNZAF, who was on his ninth operation in sixteen days, jettisoned his bombs because of icing. Pilot Officer Stubbs returned with his bomb load still on board, Sgt Griffiths bombed the last resort target of Oldenburg from 1,000 feet, having been unable to identify the primary target through the low cloud, and P/O Du Toit dropped his load from 2,000 feet over the eastern part of the briefed target. It is not known whether or not S/Ldr Cuthbert Raymond bombed the primary target. What can be ascertained is that he was shot down by Uffz Karl-Georg Pfeiffer of 6/NJG2 at 03.55hrs, and crashed into the sea forty miles off Nordeney. It was Pfeiffer’s first victory, and there were no survivors from R9187 HA-U. At the time of his death twenty-six-year-old S/Ldr “Bobby” Raymond DFC had flown fifty-eight operations, eight of them with 218 Squadron. A number of mining operations saw the month out, and the tally for 218 Squadron was one hundred sorties dispatched at a cost of a more tolerable five aircraft, but this still involved the loss of four complete crews. Sergeant pilot Reginald Elsom DFM completed his tour of thirty operations in September, but would be killed while instructing with 22 OTU on October 13th 1942, before he could collect his award.
October began with a small-scale all-Stirling raid against the U-Boat yards at Herrenwyk near Lübeck. Twenty-five Stirling’s were drawn from XV, 149 and 218 Squadrons, 218 waving off nine crews between 19.45hrs and 20.05hrs. There was the almost inevitable early return, but the remaining eight crews crossed the North Sea, keeping as low as the conditions would allow. Visibility was initially poor in the target area, and an estimated twenty-five search lights were active, although without the usual accompaniment of flak. Once the first bombs began to explode, however, the flak defences opened up with an accurate barrage aimed at the Stirlings bombing from around 6,000 feet. Sergeant Thompson made three runs across the target before his bomb aimer was satisfied, and dropped the five one thousand pounders onto the slip-way. His experiences mirrored those of the rest of the attacking force, who all found identification problematic. Two crews failed to return, and among the missing crewmen was the squadron commander, W/Cdr Montagu Read. He was flying as second pilot to the popular and respected F/L Johannes Du Toit, who was on his seventeenth operation. W7613 HA-N was homebound when it was intercepted and shot down at 01.40hrs by Major Gunther Radusch, Kommandeur of II/NJG3, and there were no survivors. The Stirling is believed to have crashed to the north west of the island of Rømø. The bodies of the recently promoted F/L Du Toit and W/Cdr Read were found washed ashore near Hvidding on October 17th. Flight Lieutenant Du Toit sent a letter home to his parents dated September 28th, in which he told them with some pride,
Twenty six year old South African Flight Lieutenant Johannes Du Toit.
“I have my promotion, still very lucky to get my double stripe up. It also means I am duty flight leader, a bit of extra work, but it is what I like.”
The second loss of the night was that of Sgt Maldwyn Griffiths and crew, who fell victim to Naval Flak units I/161 and I/259. N3763 HA-Q crashed near Hubertus in Germany between 00.18hrs and 00.24hrs, and once again there were no survivors. The crew was on its sixth operation, although the pilot was on his ninth.
Welshman Wing Commander Owen Morris DSO seen here while a group captain. He was station commander of both RAF Station Mildenhall and Tuddenham on posting from 218 Squadron.
Wing Commander Owen Morris assumed command of the squadron on October 5th, on completion of his conversion course at 1651 CU at Waterbeach. Welshman Aubrey “Busen” Morris had joined the RAF in June 1931, and by 1941 had reached the rank of temporary wing commander. He had carried out operations on Whitleys with 102 Squadron during 1940/41, and experienced a number of close shaves. Between April 1941 and July 1942 he had commanded the station at Cranage in Cheshire.
On the 2nd the conversion flight moved from Marham to Stradishall, where it would amalgamate with other conversion units to form 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit. That night a return to the Ruhr brought Krefeld into the bomb sights of a force numbering over 150 aircraft. Six 218 Squadron crews were detailed, but Sgt Hill lost control of W7636 on take-off after over-correcting a swing, and the aircraft came to grief and was written-off, thankfully without injury to anyone on board. Within days, Sgt Hill would become F/Sgt Hill, and a few days later he and his crew would go missing. Another aircraft turned back with engine failure, while the four remaining Stirlings pressed on to encounter considerable ground haze in the target area, which made identification impossible. Crews bombed on scattered Pathfinder flares, and a number of small fires were reported along with some larger ones, but Krefeld escaped serious damage.
Aachen was the objective on the night of the 5/6th, when weather conditions over the stations were made marginal by an electrical storm. Among the forty-four 3 Group aircraft on duty were eight from 218 Squadron, four of which carried second pilots gaining experience. Tragedy struck almost immediately, when BF322 HA-F crashed at 19.45hrs at Icklingham Marshes, Barton Mills, killing the entire crew of Sgt Phillip Hall. Eyewitness reports suggested that BF322 had exploded in mid-air after being struck by lightning. Sergeant Hall and crew had arrived on the squadron from 101 Conversion Flight during the week of Friday the 11th of September, and this was their fourth operation together. The operation was not a success, and Pathfinder flares were scattered as far as the Dutch town of Lutterade, seventeen miles from Aachen. A moderately successful attack fell on Osnabrück on the 6/7th, and then came a lull in main force operations, during which extensive “gardening” activities involved the Stirling brigade.
A series of mining operations began on the 8th, when five aircraft were dispatched to Nectarine I. This was the last operation carried out by F/L Roy Spear RNZAF on completion of his first operational tour, and after a well deserved period of leave, he would join 1657 HCU as an instructor, and be awarded a well-earned DFC for his tour with 218 Squadron. Wing Commander Morris undertook his first operation as commanding officer on the 10/11th, when accompanying S/Ldr Samson in R9184 HA-U on a mining sortie in the Deodars area. A large-scale mining operation took place on the 11/12th, when twenty-five 3 Group Stirlings contributed to a force of over eighty aircraft. 218 Squadron put up seven aircraft, two allocated to the Pollock area in the Baltic Sea, and five to the Geranium area. R9190 HA-E was hit by flak, and the previously mentioned F/Sgt Hill found it necessary to carry out a ditching in shallow water off Siø, during which the bomb-aimer died. Hill and four others clambered aboard the dinghy and started paddling away from the island, which they apparently could not see in the dark. However, the ditching had been observed from Rudkøbing and Langeland Island, and a search was immediately organised by the local German garrison. Within a few hours the dinghy was located and the crew taken to Rudkøbing. Four of the airmen were wounded and were escorted to the local hospital, while Sgt White was placed in the jail. The mid-upper gunner, F/Sgt Richards, had lost contact with his comrades during the ditching, but a couple of eel fishermen had witnessed the ditching and decided to sail over to the wreck. They found Richards next morning, wading confused off shore, and suffering from concussion and exposure.
The funeral on October 1st of Sergeant Joseph Curle bomb aimer aboard R9190 HA-E. His crew mates Sergeant Richards and Sergeant White attended the funeral.
Moderate success was achieved at Kiel on the 13/14th, when W/Cdr Morris was once again flying in S/Ldr Samson’s right hand seat, but a decoy fire site probably spared the town from a more severe pounding. A similar ruse at Cologne drew away most of the bombs on the 15/16th, so that damage in the city was light. The disappointment was compounded by the continuing rate of early returns, a problem not confined to 218 Squadron. The whole of 3 Group was experiencing an increase, and the matter had already been raised by AVM Cochrane in a memorandum to the C-in-C dated September 19th….
Dear C-In-C,
I hope you will not mind me sending you these few impressions after being in the group such a short time. This has always been a first rate group, but all in it now realise that the leadership has passed to 5 Group. Equally, everyone is determined to wrest it back. The staff and station commanders are all good and the majority have recent operational experience, I am, however, losing McKee, who is stalwart, to your headquarters.
The squadron and flight commanders are also good, but in crews we are getting very close to the vicious circle. The squadrons have had fairly heavy casualties over a long period and the percentage of inexperienced crews is high. This is leading to many unavoidable troubles as well as, in some squadrons, a lack of determination to press home attacks. The Essen raid came as a shock. Out of 72 detailed, 4 failed to take off and 19 turned back. I took the opportunity of a stand down the next day to interview the captains of these crews and their flight commanders, I found only two cases in which the captain took the correct action in returning. The remainder returned because of minor or imagined defects!
Ralph Cochrane then records his disappointment regarding serviceability:
Air serviceability is bad, in fact shocking. Much of it is due to engine trouble, which I believe to be mainly caused by over driving the engines when climbing, or overheating them on the ground. This again is caused by inexperienced crews. The airframe and the electrical systems have also been giving trouble, partly due to bad workmanship, but also to inexperienced maintenance crews faced with the task of maintaining what is probably the most complicated aeroplane in the service. I am changing the Group Engineering Office and a competent electrical engineer has also been posted to the headquarters.
The group commander had pulled no punches in the face of the unacceptably high number of early returns, but Cochrane was the right man to confront the situation. The new initiatives were not immediately felt at squadron level, where return rates were still high, but the number of early returns would decrease over the ensuring months.
A new campaign began on the night of the 22/23rd, after Harris was instructed to give priority to targets in northern Italy in support of the forth-coming invasion of North Africa, code named “Operation Torch”. Harris, typically, was not in favour of diverting attention away from Germany, and raised his objections with Portal, who, in equally typical fashion, instructed Harris to make his Command available. These distant raids would occupy much of the Command’s attention until mid December, and the campaign opened on October 23rd against the port of Genoa. 3 Group dispatched thirty-nine Stirlings and eleven Wellingtons, which, together with fifty-three 4 Group Halifaxes, made up the main force. Nine Stirlings left Downham Market between 18.20hrs and 18.35hrs, but within an hour one was back in the Downham Market circuit with a feathered starboard-inner engine. BF375 HA-Q was hit by flak while crossing the French coast at 8,000 feet, and despite a wing fire and leaking tanks and oxygen system the Stirling made it home. BF342 HA-M was also hit by flak just inland of the French Coast, and it too came home after jettisoning its bomb load. With the Alps in sight and only a hundred miles from the target, F/Sgt Thomson’s starboard-outer gave up after misfiring for most of the outward flight. A three engine Stirling was incapable of crossing the mountain range, and its load was jettisoned north-east of Notre-Dame-De-Briancon. Of the nine aircraft dispatched only four are believed to have reached and attacked the target, among them the one captained by the commanding officer.
Genoa was easily identified, and the town and its port area were bombed between 22.12hrs and 22.43hrs. Wing Commander Morris went in from just below 5,000 feet, dropping his two one thousand pounders and ninety-six 30lb incendiaries into the Sampierdarena marshalling yards. Flight Lieutenant Hickling identified the harbour and docks, and his bomb load started a fire in the south-west corner of the harbour. It was this fire that a number of crews reported, along with two large explosions seen near the electrical power station. Wing Commander Morris’s W7616 HA-J was intercepted by a Bf109 while flying at 8,000 feet in the Campiegne area on the way home, but after an aggressive response from the rear turret, the enemy aircraft disengaged. R9184 HA-U failed to return with the crew of F/O Reginald Studd AFC, having crashed into the sea off Dieppe without survivors. It had probably fallen victim to Hptm Karl-Hans Godbersen of E. Stab/NJG2, who claimed a Stirling at 02.50hrs. It was only after the event, that it was discovered that the attack had actually been aimed at the town of Savona, some thirty miles away from Genoa.
On the 24th seventy-one aircraft of 1 and 3 Groups took off for Milan. Crossing the Alps was never a picnic for the lower-ceilinged Stirling, and on this night the crews encountered storms during the outward flight, which prevented almost half of them from reaching the target. Seven 218 Squadron crews were briefed, but only six made it to take-off. After thirty-five minutes in the air, F/Sgt Higgott RNZAF noted that the port outer exactor was not working. He shed height and ordered the bomb aimer to jettison the bomb load, which fell un-armed into the sea off Harwich. Shortly afterwards, while at 3,000 feet, the starboard-outer engine burst into flames, and it was soon apparent that the fire was uncontrollable. The order was given to bail out, but sadly it came too late. R9241 HA-L broke up and crashed at 19.29hrs east of Colchester, taking Frederick Higgott and six of his crew to their deaths. One of the gunners just managed to escape by parachute at the last second, and was injured in the heavy landing. Frederick had joined the squadron from 218CF on August 10th, and had flown on six operations as second pilot, before completing a further six as crew captain. Other early returns again depleted the squadron’s effort, and it was left to Sgt Richards and F/Sgt Thomson to attack a cloud covered Milan. Fires from the earlier daylight raid by 5 Group were still burning, and provided the crews with an ideal reference point to bomb. There was heavy flak in the target area, where Pathfinder flares were unmistakable but scattered.
The squadron sent seven aircraft mining on the 26th, led by the recently promoted acting S/Ldr Peter Hickling DFM, who had assumed command of A Flight and taken over the crew of the tour-expired Spears. Twenty-eight mines were successfully planted without loss, the squadron stayed at home until the 31st, when two more crews undertook gardening sorties in the Gironde Estuary. The squadron despatched ninety-four sorties during the month, the highest by any Stirling squadron, for the loss of seven aircraft and six crews.
Squadron Leader Waldo “Wally” Hiles DSO DFC was one of the squadrons more aggressive pilots with a fondness for low level attacks on German military transport.
November began quietly for the Stirling squadrons in general, but an element from 218 Squadron was selected for a rather secretive affair, a hastily organised special daylight raid against the railway workshops at Lingen on the 3rd. The crews of P/O Hiles DFC, F/Sgt Thomson and Sgt Gough were selected, each accompanied by a second pilot, which, given the fact that this was a highly risky daylight undertaking, was somewhat surprising. The Stirlings were airborne from Downham Market by 15.50hrs, each carrying six one thousand pounders and twelve 30lb incendiaries. Over Holland they came down to as low as 200 feet, and Dutch workers waved at them as they raced towards Lingen. Over the Dortmund-Ems Canal Sgt Gough’s gunners opened fire on a number of barges, but the cloud that had cloaked their presence so far now proved to be a hindrance. None of the crews could find the workshops in the low cloud and failing light, so using the Dortmund-Ems Canal and the River Ems as pin points, the crews found the railway leading directly to Lingen. Sergeant Gough’s crew made two bombing runs over the general target area, finally dropping his bomb load four hundred yards from the railway station. Pilot Officer “Wally” Hiles DFC came down to below a hundred feet in an attempt to identify the workshops, and finally, after a number of runs, dropped his load, which was seen to explode near some buildings south of the target. Thirty minutes after Hiles and Gough had turned for home, F/Sgt Thomson and crew were still being frustrated by the visibility. Three runs across the target area failed to provide a pinpoint in the conditions of ground haze, low cloud and failing light and the decision was taken to abandon the attempt and head for home.
Five aircraft took off for the “Deodars” mining area on the 6/7th, and only four came back. R9185 crashed into a hill near Lambarquet at 21.00hrs, killing the bomb-aimer and navigator outright. The pilot, Sgt Galbraith Hyde RNZAF, who was operating as crew captain for the first time, was found lying dazed beside the wreckage. Two Frenchmen carried him to their home, where he was treated for his wounds. Next morning Hyde started on what would be an eight-day trek north-east towards Paris. On November 15th he stole a bicycle near Rennes and continued towards Paris, living on the land and eating mainly apples. At Fecamp Hyde became ill with flu, and was cared for by the Varme family. It was while being sheltered that Hyde was betrayed by the local barber, Louis Villebratee, and captured by the German Feldgendarmerie on December 31st. Sergeant Hyde was sent to the notorious Amiens jail, where for the next thirty-two days he was questioned by both the Gestapo and the SS. Found wearing civilian clothing Hyde was told by his captors that he would be shot for spying, but, undeterred by the threat, Hyde only gave his name, rank and number. His defiant and dogged determination to keep quiet, and protect the identity of those who had bravely helped him, finally resulted in his transfer to a PoW Camp. In 1943, while a PoW at Stalag 344 Lamsdorf, Hyde managed to change identity and joined an army working party at Gleiwitz aerodrome. On October 13th, together with P/O Bragg RCAF and Sgt McLeod RCAF and T O’Shaunessy RN, Hyde attempted to steal a single engine Junkers JU 34, which had been parked away from the main runway almost out of site of the control tower and German sentries. Scrambling aboard the Junkers the crew were familiarising themselves with the controls, when they were found and recaptured. They had been within a few minutes of starting the engine and flying to natural Sweden. The four were given a full dress Court Martial, and were sentenced to a two-year civil imprisonment. It was while awaiting the confirmation of the sentence that Sgt McLeod, a former Spitfire pilot, managed to escape to Switzerland. In Switzerland McLeod made a case to the Red Cross, which in turn put pressure on the German authorities, who reduced the sentence to six-months military imprisonment. In 1946, in recognition of his escape attempts, Sgt Galbraith Hyde RNZAF was awarded the MBE, the citation reads,
Warrant Officer Hyde’s aircraft crashed near St Marlo in November 1942. He walked for eight days in a south easterly direction, obtaining food and clothing from pheasants. Eventually he stole a bicycle near Rennes and made towards Paris. At Fecamp became ill and was sheltered by a French family but was betrayed and arrested with his hosts in December 1942. In the summer of 1943, Warrant Officer Hyde and three others, having changed their identities, went to Gleiwitz on a working party. They made a daring attempt to seal an aircraft and where in the aircraft for ten minutes before they were detected. The Germans treated this escape as sabotage and meted out a very severe punishment. Warrant Officer Hyde was still serving his sentence when liberated in January 1945.
The Command returned to northern Italy on the 7th, when Genoa was again the target. Six 218 Squadron crews took off, and met a solid mass of ten-tenths cloud at the French coast. One aircraft dropped out thirty miles south-east of Paris with exactor trouble, but the remainder crossed the Alps to find conditions quickly improving. The docks area was easily identified, and a number of fires sprang up. All five 218 Squadron crews bombed the target between 21.16hrs and 22.09hrs, and S/Ldr Hickling reported a number of buildings ablaze, while Sgt Richards more expansively declared “The whole town ablaze“. Returning crews reported that the fires at Genoa could be seen from the French Alps. BK606 HA-N was hit by flak in the starboard wing fuel tank while homebound, but quick action by the flight engineer saved most of the remaining fuel. Sergeant Richards nursed the Stirling back across the Channel, only to undershoot his approach to Oakington as a result of two fuel-starved, dead starboard engines. After colliding with trees the aircraft crashed, but remarkably, only the rear gunner sustained severe injuries.
On the following night a special Nickel raid was undertaken, for which W/Cdr Morris took what was presumably a freshman crew, to deliver “toilet paper” to the residents of the Toulon area of France. Twenty-four Stirlings from XV,149,214 and 218 Squadrons were tasked to drop over twelve million leaflets informing them of the Allied invasion of the Vichy French-controlled North Africa on the previous day. The only casualty of the night was the aircraft flown by the 218 Squadron commanding officer. W7612 HA-T was short of fuel as W/Cdr Morris attempted to land at Tangmere, and it turned into an emergency when his engines cut and the Stirling clipped treetops before crashing. Thankfully all of the occupants were able to walk away. Northern Germany was the destination on the 9/10th, when Hamburg was the target. Four 218 Squadron aircraft took off and encountered a combination of ten-tenths cloud, icing and strong winds, which made the whole process of accurate bombing impossible. Squadron Leader Hickling DFM failed to return after W4775 HA-H was brought down by flak thirty kilometres east-north-east of Osnabrück. Twenty-eight year old Hickling was on his fourth operation with the squadron, and had been awarded the DFM in 1941 while serving with 4 Group’s 10 Squadron. This all NCO crew had previously been captained by the tour-expired F/L Spear DFC, and was on its twenty-eighth operation. It was a bitter blow to the squadron to lose such an experienced crew so close to the completion of their first tour, and with them yet another flight commander.
The Italian campaign continued with main force Stirling involvement at Genoa on the 15/16th and Turin on the 18/19th. Turin was the target again on the 20th, when eight 218 Squadron Stirlings joined an overall force of 232 aircraft. It was the largest operation directed at Italy during this campaign, but the weather did nothing to assist the crews as they crossed the French coast at le Crotoy. The journey to the Alps was undertaken in ten-tenths cloud, but east of the Alps the route to Turin was almost clear, allowing the crews to identify the River Po and pinpoint the Fiat steelworks located in the east of the city. Dense smoke was rising up to a height of nearly 7,000 feet from a series of large fires in the target area, and a large explosion was witnessed, which was thought to be the end of a gas holder near the Royal Arsenal. While this operation was in progress four other 218 Squadron crews were minelaying in the mouth of the Gironde River. All successfully delivered their mines and returned safely, and on the following night six crews returned to the estuary, and successfully planted a further twenty-three mines without incident.
A force of over two hundred aircraft delivered a disappointing attack on Stuttgart on the 22/23rd, before the month’s final major effort. The Fiat works at Turin was the target for 228 aircraft on the night of the 28/29th, for which 3 Group’s contribution was a disappointing thirty-four aircraft, eleven of which were from 218 Squadron. The group had been selected to attack the Fiat Mirafiori Factory, located three and a half miles south-west of Turin’s old city, but four crews were forced to abort their sorties over France, among them S/Ldr Hiles, whose BK607 HA-X suffered an engine fire. Wing Commander Morris led the remainder to the target, which, despite haze over the aiming point, was identified visually. Pilot Officer Jerromes straddled the plant with his 500 and 1,000 pounders from 2,000 feet, while F/L Sly AFM dropped his 5,000lbs of high explosives onto the north-western corner of the Fiat Works from 4,000 feet, and P/O Bickenson watched as his bombs exploded in the northern part of the factory complex on his third pass. All the time he was subjected to light flak emanating from the factory roofs, but thankfully the gunners’ aim was off. The last three 218 Squadron crews to arrive on target attacked the town as instructed, and the operation was a complete success. On return to Downham Market with only three good engines at 00.25hrs, S/Ldr Hiles overshot the landing and lost his undercarriage. No one on board was hurt, but it proved to be the end of the line for his Stirling. Waldo Hiles was promoted to acting squadron leader on the 22nd, and he assumed command of A Flight.
The over worked ground crew seen here undertaking an inspection on the starboard inner engine of Stirling R9189 HA-K RAF Downham Market 1942.
Bomber Command had intended to carry out a full scale return to the Fiat Mirafiori works at Turin on the 29/30th, but deteriorating weather over much of England left just 3 Group and a Pathfinder element heading towards the departure point of Dungeness on the south coast. 3 Group managed to put up just twenty aircraft, of which eight returned early. Seven 218 Squadron aircraft left Downham Market between mid-night and 00.20 hrs, and three turned back before reaching the target. Thick cloud during the outward flight had thinned by the time the target approached, but a blanket of thick haze combined with smoke from the previous night’s attack to cover the target area. Squadron Leader Hiles dropped his 5,000lb bomb load into the centre of the city from 8,000 feet, and B Flight commander, S/Ldr Samson, brought his aircraft down to 3,000 feet in an attempt to identify the factory. He made a number of passes before his bombs were seen to explode close to a large building. This was not an effective operation, and was carried out in the face of a much-bolstered flak defence, but 3 Group losses amounted to just two aircraft and one crew.
218 Squadron launched the second highest number of sorties during the month, eighty-two, but was just pipped to first place by 115 Squadron with eighty-three. 218 Squadron did deliver the highest tonnage of bombs, however, but came second again to 115 with the number of mining sorties. The Monthly Summary of Events publication, which was distributed throughout the group, was openly critical of the group maintenance and early return levels. Cochrane once again pulled no punches in his views, and he ordered the re-issuing to all squadrons of the 3 Group Tactical Notes, and instructed crews to “read, then re-read, and to discuss and argue until they are understood by everyone”. Cochrane was under the opinion that a lack of tactical knowledge was the cause of a number of preventable operational losses. He was also concerned about the number of early returns due to icing, “some captains are inclined to exaggerate the dangers of icing and abandon their mission as soon as ice forms“. To improve bombing results a new group table was introduced in November, by means of which the accuracy or otherwise of each squadron would be recorded for all to see. The criticism did not stop there, gunnery and the apparent lack of a basic understanding of when and where to shoot was also discussed in some detail. In the opinion of Cochrane the failure laid squarely with the squadron gunnery leaders! Cochrane was proving to be a hard task master.
December began with an attack on Frankfurt on the 2/3rd, when weather conditions once again prevented all of the groups from participating. None the less, 112 aircraft were dispatched, of which seven represented 218 Squadron. Frankfurt was covered by a thick layer of cloud, which made accurate marking impossible, and consequently the bombing was reported to be generally scattered. Sergeant Smith’s BF401 HA-N was coned and held while on the bomb run at 12,000 feet, and was repeatedly hit in the fuselage and wings, miraculously without damage to the fuel tanks and engines. It was while on the homeward leg that the stream was attacked by what was described as “particularly persistent fighters”. Three 218 Squadron aircraft were attacked, among them the above-mentioned BF401, which was north-east of Koblenz when a Ju88 carried out five separate attacks. Close co-operation between the gunners and the pilot, Sgt Smith, allowed only a few rounds to hit the wings and fuselage before the fighter finally broke off the chase. The Stirling’s undercarriage collapsed on landing, but none of the crew was injured. Perhaps the crew’s deliverance was due in part to the efforts of Sgt Holland in the rear turret.
3 Group carried out an extensive mining operation on the 4/5th, which involved twenty-three aircraft in the Nectarines area off the Frisian Islands. 218 Squadron dispatched four crews, all of whom identified their respective gardens and delivered six mines from between 500 and 900 feet. Mannheim escaped with all but the most superficial damage on the 6/7th, when the eight participating 218 Squadron crews were forced by ten-tenths cloud to bomb on scattered flares and the glow of a few isolated fires beneath. Two crews returned to the Frisian Islands on the 7/8th, P/O Cozens and Sgt Smith delivering their six mines from below 900 feet without encountering any problems. Oddly, Downham Market’s Station Records Book records this operation as cancelled. Eighty aircraft were dispatched for a large-scale night of mining in northern waters on the 8/9th, twenty-seven of which were provided by 3 Group. 218 Squadron made the Group’s largest contribution by putting up eight Stirlings, which were allocated to the Kattegat Channel (Silverthorne), each carrying four 1,500lb magnetic mines. Fighters were active as were flak ships, and of the eighty aircraft dispatched five were lost, three of them from 3 Group. On the positive side, 218 mines were delivered into the busy enemy shipping lanes.
With the end of the current Italian campaign in sight, the Command targeted Turin on the night of the 9/10th, for which the 3 Group element was assigned to the main railway station area. Three 218 Squadron crews took off, and found the skies over France to be free of cloud. Only three Pathfinder aircraft arrived over the target area at the appointed time, and this caused the initial stages of the attack to be rather scattered. However, later Pathfinder arrivals kept up the continuity of flares, and a successful attack developed. All three 218 Squadron representatives identified the River Po, and bombed between 21.34hrs and 22.16hrs on a number of flares south-east of the town centre. On leaving the target three particularly large fires could be seen to have taken hold in the centre of the city, and they were visible from two hundred miles on the return journey.
Four crews carried out an air-sea rescue search on the 13th over the North Sea, when weather conditions forced the crews down to below 500 feet. Nothing was found. Squadron Leader Samson experienced a few anxious moments when two single engine fighters and a twin engine aircraft were sighted, but they turned out to be friendly. This would be the final operation undertaken by the courageous Canadian after a hectic operational tour.
Pilot Officer Ted Gough’s rear gunner, Bill Jackson, recalled the end of tour party.
“It was always an occasion when a crew finished a tour, because it didn’t happen too often. This occasion called for a real party, as we were determined to see this popular Newfoundlander off with a bang! The party started off early in both the Sgts and officers messes, and it was not long before the CO and Sammy arrived in our mess, complete with the whole commissioned caboodle. Everyone wanted to make a speech about the amiable Canuck, but only a few stalwarts could keep their balance on the chair. As usual Ted started singing, and eventually fell off the chair, and stayed in the horizontal position giggling his head off until the crew came to his assistance and positioned him on the couch, where he continued singing and conducting as if the audience were suspended from the ceiling. I had always thought that aircrew NCOs threw the craziest parties, but the officers took the cake. At least we didn’t go around pouring pints into our friends’ trousers to cool them off! When I eventually left the mess to try and find the way to my hut, Sammy was lying fast asleep in the place of honour, the lounge table, and the carpet was strewn with bodies of officers and NCOs, the cream of the Commonwealth, either passed-out, asleep or stiff and unmoveable.”
Sammy would be awarded a well-earned DFC in January 1943, and return to operations later in the year when taking command of 3 Group’s 514 Squadron. Sadly, he would lose his life in September 1945, while commanding 117 Squadron in the Far East.
Eight 3 Group aircraft were sent to attack the aerodrome at Diepholz on the 16/17th, three of them from 218 Squadron. Over Germany, Canadian P/O Pettit experienced engine trouble that forced him to bomb the last resort target, a military camp near Furstenau. The all-incendiary load was dropped from less than 2,000 feet, and was seen to explode amongst a group of buildings. Flight Lieutenant Sly was also unable to locate the aerodrome, and he too attacked the last resort target. Pilot Officer Jerromes managed to locate Diepholz aerodrome in failing weather, and the all-incendiary load went down from 4,000 feet to straddle the hangers and start a small fire. On the way home they were attacked by a JU88, but gave as good as they got, and the damaged enemy aircraft was seen to dive away and break off the engagement.
The K.D.F Opel works at Fallersleben was attacked on the following night, and this was another all 3 Group effort. Of the twenty-two aircraft involved, almost half were drawn from 218 Squadron. They traversed the North Sea at low level, and on crossing the Dutch Coast over the Zuider Zee at 300 feet, Sgt Gough’s Stirling sustained a hit from a flak ship, which caused the port wing to immediately burst into flames and the port-inner engine to misfire and vibrate. For the next five minutes the crew worked frantically to extinguish the fire, and were ultimately successful in bringing BF406 home, where it underwent extensive repairs at 54 Maintenance Unit. Only four crews attacked the primary target, among them that of S/Ldr Hiles, who had sped across Holland and Germany at 300 feet shooting at anything on road or rail, and on reaching the target had climbed to 3,000 feet to deliver two 1,000 pounders and five 500 pounders on what was believed to be the factory complex. They then descended again to 300 feet to make their way home, shooting up any manor of transport. Pilot Officer Cozens’ aircraft was badly hit by flak while in the target area, causing severe damage to the fuselage and port aileron. Turning away from the target Cozens found the Stirling vibrating violently, and he struggled with the controls to bring it down to less than 100 feet to attempt to avoid any prowling night fighters. With the enemy coast in sight the Stirling was bracketed by light flak, and the starboard-inner engine immediately burst into flames. The flight engineer battled for the next fifteen minutes to extinguish the raging fire, and at last managed to subdue it. The flight across the North Sea was made with a smouldering engine, but they eventually landed at Marham after a flight of six hours. Sadly two crews failed to return from what proved to be a rather ineffective raid. W7614 HA-J was shot down by flak north of Hanover, and F/O Marshall RNZAF survived with three others of his crew. It was the eleventh operation for the crew as a whole, and F/O Marshall’s eighteenth. BF403 HA-R contained the crew of fellow New Zealander, F/Sgt Leonard Shepherd RNZAF, and was brought down by a flak ship to crash into the Waddenzee between Den Helder and Texel without survivors. It was Shepherd’s seventh operation and his third as captain.
The squadron was involved in only one more major night operation before the year closed, and this came on the night of the 20th, when Duisburg was the objective for over two hundred aircraft. The squadron dispatched six aircraft, which arrived in the target area in near perfect weather conditions. They were met by intense flak, but the Pathfinder flares were plentiful and accurate, and, taking full advantage of the clear conditions, the crews identified and bombed the Ruhrort Docks. Night fighters were active over the target, and F/Sgt Beecroft described seeing “a fighter chasing a bomber out of the target area”, while F/Sgt Thomson reported nine bombers shot down. In fact twelve aircraft were lost in return for particularly severe damage in the south of the city. Unnoticed as this operation proceeded, a contingent of 109 Squadron Mosquitos carried out an Oboe calibration exercise on a power station in the Dutch town of Lutterade, to ascertain the device’s margin of error. Sadly, unanticipated bomb craters from a previous attack on Aachen, (as mentioned earlier), invalidated the results, but the trials programme would continue into the coming year, and its success would ultimately change the course of the bombing war. The year ended for 218 Squadron with a mining sortie by F/L Treves and crew in BF405 HA-S on December 28th. Accompanied by five Wellingtons of 115 squadron, the crew successfully mined the Nectarines area without incident.
It had been a difficult month operationally for the squadron, with weather conditions restricting activity to just eleven raids, totalling fifty-four sorties. Thankfully, in contrast to previous months’ severe losses, only three aircraft and two crews had been lost. It had been a testing year for the squadron, and one in which it had lost fifty-two Stirlings on operations, more than any other operator of the type. More alarmingly, the squadron had the third highest casualty rate in the group and suffered the fifth highest casualty rate in Bomber Command, while 3 Group as a whole had a significantly higher casualty rate than any other group within Bomber Command. Although the losses had been grievous over the preceding twelve months, morale remained relatively high, and this was largely due to the influence of the experienced commanding officers and flight commanders. The squadron had been fortunate in having among its ranks a number of pre-war regulars, whose professionalism and courage instilled confidence throughout the squadron. Officers in the mould of S/Ldr “Sammy” Samson and S/Ldr Oldroyd were the back bone of the squadron, and the newly promoted S/Ldr Waldo Hiles was of a similar calibre.
The coming year would bring with it huge advances in the development of new bombing aids and marking techniques, which would ultimately result in Bomber Command fulfilling its long awaited potential. The squadron was honoured with the announcement of a number of awards in December, S/Ldr Waldo Hiles, Australian F/L Edward Corser and New Zealander A/F/Lt Roy Spear, were awarded the DFC. Not to be out done, three DFMs were awarded to NCOs. Air gunner, F/Sgt Bernard Bull received his in recognition of an operational tour which started in February 1941 and finished in August 1942. Between these dates he completed a remarkable fifty-six operations. Wireless Operator F/Sgt William Street’s DFM was in acknowledgment of also completing fifty-six sorties.