Bomber Command

by Martin Bowman

  The weather was clear over Berlin but, after their long approach flight from the south, the Path Finders marked an area 6–7 miles north-west of the city centre and most aircraft bombed there. Damage was considerable and civilian casualties were high. Thirty-eight war industry factories were destroyed and many more damaged. Combined casualties for the three raids late that month had resulted in the deaths of 4,330 people killed and over 417,000 people were rendered homeless for more than a month and over 36,300 up to a month.39 Goebbels wrote ‘the English [sic] aimed so accurately that one might think spies had pointed the way.’

  Brian Soper on W/O Arthur Rew’s crew was on his third Berlin raid:

  There were many searchlights around, both at the target and at Frankfurt, with many night fighters in the Frankfurt area. On return to base, there was a problem getting the wheels to lock down. Having tried all the recommended procedures to no avail, they diverted us to another base, in case we messed up the runway for the others. After going through the final checks, Arthur landed ‘tail heavy’ and the locks came on. We stayed overnight and returned to Wickenby the following day with the undercarriage checked out.

  Flight Lieutenant Charles Owen was one of the Lancaster pilots on the Berlin raid. After leaving public school he had worked at the Supermarine aircraft factory as a boy of 17 in 1940 and had been badly injured in an air raid. He spent the winter in hospital and when fully recovered, he had been accepted by the RAF as a bomber trainee and after a spell as an instructor he had been posted to 97 Squadron. Owen noted, ‘First trip with my own crew and the Big City at that. Usual flares and aircraft shot down on way in. Target was clear and we could see fires burning from an attack on the previous night. Hundreds of searchlights and very heavy flak, firing mainly into the cones.’ Owen flew over Hannover by mistake on the return journey and was coned for seven minutes. He lost height from 20,000 to 13,000 feet during evasive action from intense heavy flak. There were several holes in the starboard wing and roof of his cockpit and the bomb aimer was wounded slightly in the leg. They were also attacked by a fighter when coned but the only damage was six inches off one of the blades of the starboard outer prop.

  No less than sixteen other Lancasters crashed or were later written off after accidents at the end of the Berlin operation, one Lancaster having crashed after turning back with one engine out at the start of the operation. A Stirling, which had been engaged on a mining operation towards the Frisians returned to Wratting Common and made two attempts to land before crashing near Bury St. Edmunds without injury to the crew. One of the Lancaster losses occurred when X-X-Ray on 50 Squadron landed at Melbourne and struck a van, killing the driver, before running into A-Apple, which was written off. Amazingly no one on either crew suffered injury. Another 50 Squadron Lancaster, which waited to land away from its home base crashed at Pocklington and hit a farmhouse at Bayton north-west of Market Weighton, killing five on the crew and injuring the two others. Two women in the farmhouse also died. On return a Lancaster on 103 Squadron that had taken off from Elsham Wolds at the start of the operation, collided with a Halifax on 428 ‘Ghost’ Squadron RCAF and went down just north-east of Middleton St. George with the loss of all except one of the crew. The Canadian Halifax too was destroyed and all the crew killed.

  Also involved in a collision this night was Lancaster B.I R5868, which had joined 467 Squadron RAAF in late September after flying 68 ops on 83 Squadron as Q-Queenie and was now the famed S–Sugar. The Göring quotation, NO ENEMY PLANE WILL FLY OVER THE REICH TERRITORY had been added below the bomb log under the cockpit canopy by LAC Willoughby, one of the engine fitters in mid-March 1944 around the time that Sugar completed 88 operations. Flying Officer Jack Colpus, the Skipper recalled:

  We arrived at the target on time at about 20,000 feet with no cloud cover – contrary to the met forecast. The whole Berlin area was a mass of waving searchlights about forty miles in diameter. We completed our bombing run and had just selected bomb doors closed when we were coned by searchlights. They seemed to come from all directions at once. Evasive action corkscrew turns, which were made in an attempt to escape, failed. Heavy flak thumped in all around us, with puffs of black smoke and cordite smell, indicating how close they were. After a while, which seemed like eternity, the flak stopped as if by magic, which meant only one thing. Fighters were coming in. I decided on desperate action and dived steeply down to the left and picked up speed to reach 300 mph at 10,000 feet before pulling out to the right and up. At that moment the searchlights lost us, although I was still dazzled. We were climbing as quickly as possible to gain height to get away from the light flak and back into the main bomber stream when suddenly the plane lurched and dived to port. I thought we had lost power on one engine but the rear gunner said we had hit another Lancaster. Full right rudder, full rudder bias and full aileron trim was applied but Sugar still kept turning to the left. Further action was necessary, so power on the engines on the port side was increased and on the starboard side decreased until we were able to fly on course. All four motors were then switched to run off the port wing fuel tanks in an effort to eventually raise the port wing to a near level position. We jettisoned the bomb containers to lighten the load. The plane was now under control flying at the slow speed of 140 mph and gradually losing height. We decided to fly straight home as at 140 mph we would soon be out of the bomber stream, which was taking a dog-leg route back.

  After about two hours, due to a lighter fuel load, we were able to maintain height at about 5,000 feet. The crew made ready to bail out if necessary, as the amount of damage sustained could not be ascertained and now that evasive action would not be possible, we would be ‘sitting ducks’ for flak or fighters. Full right rudder was required for the four-hour trip back. The engineer went into the bomb aimer’s compartment and assisted me by holding the rudder pedal with a strap around it, to give my leg a rest. When nearing the coast of England we were directed to land at Linton-on-Ouse as Waddington was covered in fog. At Linton-on-Ouse we were given priority landing behind a plane which was over-shooting. At this time we were about 500 feet too high on the approach but I decided to land as fuel was getting short. As we touched down on the runway at 120 mph (about 20 mph too fast due to the steeper angle of descent) the port wing stalled. If I had made a normal approach at the correct speed, the plane would have stalled before landing and crashed. The aircraft ground looped at the far end of the runway due to the high landing speed and excessive braking. Inspection of the damage revealed that about five feet of the wing-tip was missing and a portion of the remaining damaged area which was turned down at right angles, caused the turning problem.

  S-Sugar was classified category Q, sent back to the manufacturers and did not return to squadron operations until 15 February 1944. The other Lancaster, from 61 Squadron was coned in searchlights and was taking avoiding action when we collided. The Skipper confirmed this, when he landed at Waddington a few days later especially to see me to discuss circumstances. We were all very lucky.40

  G-George, a 408 ‘Goose’ Squadron RCAF Lancaster at Linton-on-Ouse was hit by flak near Magdeburg after leaving the target area and was then attacked by a Ju 88 night fighter. One of the air gunners was wounded in the left foot and problems were experienced with the starboard inner engine but Flight Sergeant R T Lloyd RCAF got George back to the Fiskerton area five miles east of Lincoln, where the starboard outer failed, followed by a malfunction in the rudder trim mechanism. Lloyd gave the order for the crew to bail out but the escape hatch jammed and the Lancaster was crash-landed near a sewage disposal plant two miles south-east of Lincoln. Everyone on the crew escaped and the gunner was taken to hospital in Lincoln.

  At Skellingthorpe there was no word from N-Nuts on 50 Squadron flown by Pilot Officer John Adams RAAF who on the Berlin raid on 18/19 November had narrowly missed colliding with a twin engined fighter north-west of Hannover. He recalled:

  The episode of the near miss made me even more nervous about the possibility of colliding
in the dark with another aircraft. These fears were realized on the night of the 26th while on our 16th operation. Another Lancaster came down on us. Its tail section took out the windscreen and wrecked the two port motors. This occurred about twenty minutes after we had dropped our bombs on Berlin. About two hours later, the damage we sustained led to us crashing in Wilhelmshaven Bay. We were lucky that we only suffered the loss of two members of the crew. Bill Ward the bomb aimer was killed on impact and Cyril Billett the rear gunner, drowned. We survivors spent the remainder of the war as prisoners.41

  It was a terrible night for Skellingthorpe, which was also missing three Lancasters and their crews on 61 Squadron. H-Harry crashed south of Surwold with the loss of Pilot Officer Arthur James Douglas Eaves and crew and the crews on W-William flown by Pilot Officer John Gilbert McAlpine RAAF and O-Orange piloted by Pilot Officer Andrew P E Strange were lost without trace. Sergeant Edward F Johnson USAAF the mid-upper gunner42 on Strange’s crew is commemorated on the wall of the Missing at the US Military Cemetery at Margraten in Holland.

  Nick Knilans’ Lancaster was attacked three times by enemy fighters. One of his engines was damaged and the American pilot feathered the propeller. The replacement rear gunner who had missed the NFT earlier in the day said that his guns were u/s and returned no fire on their attackers. Knilans lost height but continued to the target. He approached Berlin out of the darkness and the streets and the buildings began to take shape. Crossing the city amidst heavy flak bursts the rear gunner twice yelled ‘we’re not going to make it.’ Knilans ‘shut him up’. Later he would have the Gunnery Leader replace him. For the moment Knilans had other things to think about:

  From our height, with the flares above and hundreds of searchlights below, the scene became increasingly clear. It was a vivid and dramatic moment. Blockbusters, looking like 50-gallon oil drums, were tumbling down past us from the bombers above. Amid all the buffeting and noise of the light and heavy ack-ack, Ken Ryall my 18-year-old flight engineer spoke up. ‘Should we pray, Skipper?’

  ‘No’ I replied, ‘not while we are about to kill more old men, women and children down there.’

  On 27 November Goebbels travelled through the damaged areas of Berlin. In his diary he wrote:

  We also stopped at several ration distribution stations . . . The misery one sees is indescribable. It breaks one’s heart to see it; but all the same we must clench our teeth [and bear it]. Sometimes one has the impression that the mood of people in Berlin is almost religious. Women walk over to me and make signs of blessing and pray God to keep me safe. All this is very moving . . . The food [being distributed to the people] is praised everywhere as excellent . . . You can wrap these people around your little finger with small tokens of kindness. I can hardly believe that this city led a revolt in 1918. Under my leadership that would never have happened . . . Another grand assault comes due on the city. This time it is not the turn of the city centre so much as of the Wedding and Reinickendorf districts; the main target in Reinickendorf is the big industrial munitions plant . . . Back to the bunker in the Wilhelmsplatz. The situation has taken a more threatening turn as one industrial plant after another has gone up in flames. The sky arches over Berlin with a blood-red eerie beauty. I can no longer stand to look at it.

  The same day Lord Sherwood, undersecretary of state in the Air Ministry, stated concerning the air war against Germany:

  In the past Berlin expressly ordered Warsaw, Rotterdam and Belgrade to be levelled. In their enthusiasm the Germans even made documentary films of these great deeds of the German Luftwaffe so that they could be suitably admired. Now they are paid out in the same coin. The crocodile tears in the eyes of so many Germans can awaken no pity. The blows now being dealt to Germany are merely just punishment the crimes that the Third Reich has committed against small nations, their unprotected cities and minority groups in many states. We can make Germany only one promise: Our blows will increase in power until the military capacity of the Nazi Reich has been broken.

  Notes

  1. See No Need To Die: American Flyers in RAF Bomber Command by Gordon Thorburn (Haynes Publishing 2009).

  2. The London Observer by Raymond Lee (Hutchinson, 1972).

  3. Forty-two bombers were lost; 21 of them to twin-engined night fighters and 11 to Wilde Sau single-engined fighters of all three Wild Boar Geschwader that operated in force over Mannheim.

  4. One Lancaster was lost on the operation on Brunswick.

  5. No Moon Tonight by Don Charlwood (Penguin 1988). Kennard and his crew were all killed.

  6. On a previous intruder operation, on 22/23 September, when the bombers were returning from Hannover, Major Wolf Dietrich Meister of 14./KG2 had shot down a 57 Squadron Lancaster south of Lincolnshire, killing all the crew.

  7. Intruders over Britain: The Luftwaffe Night Fighter Offensive 1940 to 1945 by Simon W Parry (ARP 2003).

  8. Possibly S/L G B F Cousens on 61 Squadron whose Lancaster came under a sustained attack from a night fighter while south of Munich. A fierce fire broke out as the Lancaster dived and at about 6,000ft the bomber exploded, throwing Cousens and his rear gunner clear. The other five members of his crew were killed. RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Vol. 4 1943 by W R Chorley (Midland 1996).

  9. Adapted from Night Trip To Munich by D W Pye in 70 True Stories of the Second World War, (Odhams Press).

  10. 218 Gold Coast Squadron Association Newsletter No. 14 edited by Margery Griffiths. JB278 was cut in two and the rear half from mid upper aft was scrapped and a new one fitted. On 24/25 April 1944, JB278 was badly damaged over Karlsruhe. The crew were making for Manston when the fuel ran out so they ditched in the North Sea. All the crew took to the dinghy and were rescued.

  11. Private memoir, Major Hubert Knilans, A Yank in the RCAF, RAF Museum, Hendon, archive B2455. In June 1944 Knilans, now a pilot on 617 Dam Busters Squadron, was interviewed by Edward R Murrow for his This Is London radio programme.

  12. Night Air War by Theo Boiten (Crowood Press 1999).

  13. A further diversion was carried out by 16 Lancasters of 8 Group to the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen, all aircraft returning safely. Three Stirlings and two Wellingtons were lost on Gardening operations.

  14. Chorley.

  15. See RAF Evaders: The Comprehensive Story of Thousands of Escapers and their Escape Lines, Western Europe, 1940–1945 by Oliver Clutton- Brock (Grub Street 2009)

  16. See Thorburn.

  17. The only other survivor was Flight Sergeant J O Simpson RAAF. See Chased By The Sun.

  18. ‘Several years later when I was serving as an Air Traffic Controller in Amman, Jordan I was chatting to the senior captain of a resident airliner (and a Hon Member of our Mess) ex Luftwaffe and in the course of conversation the mention of Stirlings interested him. He confessed that he had been flying an experimental jet fighter and had shot down two Stirlings that night and badly damaged a third. When we later compared our log books there was no doubt left in our minds but it also answered another question. It had always amazed us that we had only been hit by small calibre stuff and no cannon. He had used up all his cannon on the other two and could not understand how we had managed to survive after all the bits and pieces that had flown off of us. But they were not bits and pieces they were bundles of leaflets. I had not wasted time in cutting the strings!’ 218 Gold Coast Squadron Assoc Newsletter No. 37 November 2005.

  19. The two Canadian gunners are believed to have completed their tours before returning to Canada. Tommy Ellwood’s cut affected his eyesight and he was permanently grounded. He resumed his previous career as an engine fitter. P/O N G Emery the navigator was the only survivor of Halifax II JP123 TL-F, which crashed on the Stettin raid on 5/6 January 1944 killing F/L Robert Reginald George Appleby DFC and crew. Emery spent the rest of the war in the infamous PoW camp at Sagan. On the night of 22/23 May 1944 when Dortmund was the target for the bombers, F/O Harold Thomas ‘Mac’ Maskell and P/O Derrick Coleman flew in Lancaster ND762 TL-
E. The 35-year-old Maskell was flying as a second wireless operator. Homeward bound, their Lanc was shot up by a night fighter over Holland and the Lancaster exploded, throwing out three survivors – the pilot, F/O E Holmes, W/O F J Tudor DFM and Coleman. Maskell was one of the five airmen who died in the explosion. Another was 37-year-old Sergeant Alastair Stuart McLaren. Derrick Coleman, who was not yet 21, avoided capture, moved under the cover of Dutch and Belgian undergrounds but he was betrayed and he joined Emery in Stalag Luft III. In February 1944 S/L Max Muller transferred to 25 OTU as an instructor but he returned for a further operational tour with 35 Squadron, this time piloting Lancasters. On 8/9 April, just thirty days before the end of the war, he volunteered for yet another raid over Germany, to Hamburg. His Lancaster (NG440 TL-C) was believed hit in the nose by flak and Muller and five of crew were killed. Flight Sergeant Charles Wilce DFM survived while F/L Patrick Baring Oates Ranalow died from his injuries on 10 April.