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On 14th/15th February, Flt Lt Jack Playford, and his crew took his regular aircraft ND458 HW-A ABLE, named ‘Able Mabel’ to Chemnitz on her 100th operation. The logbook of bomb aimer Alan Smith notes that the fires of Dresden were visible from over 200 miles away on the return trip. Dresden had been developed as an evacuation centre for German government departments, and as a vital point for transport of troops and supplies for the Eastern Front. The crews bombed on clear instructions, and photographs of the action showed intense fires all over the city. The 100 Squadron crews arrived over Dresden to find fires still burning from the first wave made by 5 Group. 805 aircraft attacked Dresden in two waves, and 100 Squadron supplied eighteen aircraft in the second wave. Thunderclap opened with the raid on Dresden.
#Ww2 bomber crew losses series
This operation was to be a series of attacks against targets in eastern Germany. The IWM film ‘Maximum Effort’ follows a New Zealand crew during their ops in Bomber Command, and a copy of this film is available on DVD in the Squadron archive.īomber Command initiated ‘Operation Thunderclap’ on 13th/14th February. There were, as we know, a significant number of crews from the Commonwealth flying with Bomber Command. Flt Lt Ordell of the RAAF and his crew, comprising 5 Australians and 2 Brits, were lost.
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On 3rd February 1945, the Squadron Boss, Wg Cdr Ian Hamilton led the Squadron on a raid against the oil refineries at Bottrop. Clearly, 100 were still paying dearly night after night. February opened with 100 Squadron suffering its third loss of 1945, when Flt Lt Conn, flying PB572 HW-F FOX, failed to return from a raid against Ludwigshafen. January 1945 ended with a raid against the Bosch works at Stuttgart. Other Lanc veterans also recall the feelings when mates failed to return. During the morning of the 17th a very grim faced officer and two very quiet clerks from the Squadron Orderly Room came in and quietly removed all of the personal possession of the young Canadians. On the 16th, it was Quigley’s crew that failed to return from the raid on Zeitz. Of course there was ample room, and so Quigley and his crew moved in. It was just shortly before the raid on Zeitz that Flt Lt Quigley came into the hut occupied by Arthur and other members of his crew, asking could he and his crew ‘bunk down’ with them. Arthur White recalls this particular loss with some poignancy. 100 Squadron lost one aircraft, and this loss brings home to us the feelings of gloom amongst the survivors when such a loss was experienced. The raid on Meresburg was followed on 16th with a raid against the oil refineries at Zeitz where the attack was pressed home despite heavy flak over the target. Albert Speer described this raid as one of the most damaging ever carried out by Bomber Command against the synthetic oil refineries. There was a resumption of the attacks against oil refineries on 14th January when the Squadron joined a raid on Meresburg. One tail gunner reported seeing Swiss searchlights pointing vertically upwards, and then as his Lanc edged closer to the border, the lights pointing like fingers of light north towards Germany! The message seeming to be, please bomb over there and not here! This resulted in aircraft getting very close to the Swiss border. Arthur White recalls this particular mission as one during which he had to cope with 100 knot winds that veered by up to ninety degrees. On 7th January, the Squadron’s target was Munich which involved one of the longest operational sorties of WWII. It is worth emphasising again, the rapport and good relationships that existed between the air and ground crews. That the squadron managed to keep flying under such difficult conditions is a great tribute to the ground crews who were often working outside in sub-zero temperatures. ‘Take it Easy’ was on her 111th trip, and one of the Squadron’s centurions.Īrctic weather curtailed operations during January. Just three days later, during the night of 5th January, Fg Off Barker and his crew were lost on a raid to Hannover flying JB603 HW-E EASY. Weatherley had only flown 6 operations, yet had 1480 hours in his log book, indicating that he may have been an instructor before joining 100 Squadron. A New Zealander – Flt Lt Weatherley and his entire crew were killed. HW-L LOVE, more affectionately known as ‘ell for leather’, crashed in the Wash during a practice bombing sortie.