bombers

Oct

13

1942

British War Cabinet monitors German morale

Annotated vertical photograph taken over Hamburg, Germany by a specially-equipped aircraft to show the feasibility of damage plotting during a night raid. This exposure, taken without the use of a photoflash, shows areas of the city identified by the pattern of fires resulting from the bombing. The locations, all in the Wandsbek district are: 'A' - Horner Weg; 'B' - Washingtonallee; 'C' - Kamp Jenfelder; 'D' - the north end of Stengelestrasse; 'E' - fires burning among barracks; and 'F' - fires in the grandstand of the racecourse.

” Hamburg is unrecognisable. It looks as if an earthquake has taken place.” ” Very soon there won’t be even ruins in our Duisburg.” ” If the Tommies keep on bombing us like this Western Germany will soon cease to exist.” ” I cannot understand what you are doing at the front that we should be bombed four nights in succession.”

Oct

5

1942

‘Coned’ and shot down over Cologne

Short Stirling B Mark I bombers of No 7 Squadron RAF, lined up at Oakington, Cambridgeshire. The squadron became part of the Pathfinder target marking force in October 1942.

The eerie purple light of the radio-controlled searchlight, the master search-light of the Cologne air defence system locked onto us and having seen this happen to other bombers I knew there would be no escaping it. No manoeuvring, no ’jinking’, no diving nor turning nor any amount of speed would shake off that relentless finger. With the range signalled to them from this automatic light the entire search-light complex now locked onto us and we were ‘coned’, the most dreaded thing that could happen to any bomber crew.

Sep

25

1942

RAF bomb Gestapo HQ in Oslo

Mosquito on a test flight with De Havilland in September 1942. Mosquito B Mark IV Series 2, DK338, in flight after completion. DK338 served with No. 105 Squadron RAF as 'GB-O'.

An observer regretfully remarks that if the bomb had been only three metres lower it would have hit the centre of the front facade. He adds : ” German airmen and flak officers are impressed by the precision bombing, which was fantastically cleverly carried out; there are not so many German flags on the houses any longer.”

Sep

10

1942

Bomber Command target Dusseldorf

Vertical aerial photograph taken over the centre of Dusseldorf at 11 pm on 10 September 1942, at the height of the major night raid by 479 aircraft of Bomber Command. Most of the area photographed is covered with widespread incendiary fires, from which flame and smoke are rising to obscure the target.

Among them were six factories making steel products or machinery, two factories making steel tubes, one making machine tools and magnetic mines, two chemical works and many other factories producing a variety of commodities such as enamel, paper, boilers, wire, insulating materials, railway wagons and harvesting machinery.

Jul

28

1942

The USAAF start to arrive in Britain

Boeing B-17Es under construction. This is the first released wartime production photograph of Flying Fortress heavy bombers at one of the Boeing plants, at Seattle, Wash. Boeing exceeded its accelerated delivery schedules by 70 percent for the month of December 1942. (U.S. Air Force photo)

I thought I’d seen everything but this place takes the cake. The people are so backward it is pitiful. This seems to have been a wealthy place at one time. The homes and buildings are just like the pictures. The streets are narrow and very crooked. bicycles are the main means of transportation. There are very few cars the and traffic is left-handed.

Jul

25

1942

‘Routine’ mining flight off the French Coast

Avro Lancaster B Mark I, R5626 'OL-E', of No 83 Squadron RAF taking off for Bremen, Germany, on the third 'Thousand-Bomber' raid, from Scampton, Lincolnshire.

I tried to rotate my turret but the hydraulics had been shot away. So I tried operating it manually. This time succeeding, I opened my turret doors and was met with intensive heat and flames. The sparks from the fire burnt holes in my scarf. I reached for the fire extinguisher, which was situated just outside the turret on my right. Ammunition was exploding all around me.

Jun

12

1942

Under Stuka dive bomb attack in the desert

A CMP 3-ton truck carrying infantry passes along a road as bombs from Stuka dive-bombers explode in the distance, 4 June 1942.

A solitary Bofors gun to the north loosed off a magazine clip of five. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We knew only too well what that meant. The familiar prelude to an air raid. Someone shouted, ‘Coulu’ and Lieutenant Hester Hewitt, who was relaying fire orders form the O.P. yelled, ‘Take cover.’ We dived into the slit trenches. ‘The bastards are early this morning,’ said Ross, ‘they must have taken off in the fugging dark.’

Mar

10

1942

First Lancaster bombing raid

Avro Lancaster B Mark I, L7578 ‘KM-B’, flown by Squadron Leader J D Nettleton of No. 44 Squadron RAF, about to cross the western perimeter of RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, with bomb doors open during a Squadron practice for the low-level attack on the M.A.N. diesel engineering works at Augsburg, which took place on 17 April 1942. Ermine Street (A607) can be seen on the extreme right running south towards Coleby.

The principal target on three nights was Krupps’ Works at Essen, a total of 336 aircraft dropping 397 tons of H.E. bombs (including 37 of 4,000 lbs.) and nearly 78,000 incendiaries. Our bombers included Lancasters, which were taking part for the first time in offensive operations. Fifteen of our aircraft
are missing.

Jan

5

1942

The RAF continues the attack on Brest

More and more Squadrons were now being equipped with the modern four engined bombers, including the Halifax, and the tonnage of bombs dropped started to increase markedly.

On the night of the 5th, 140 aircraft dropped 203 tons of H.E. bombs and 7,200 incendiaries on the dock area at Brest, and, on four other nights, a total of 126 aircraft dropped a further 186 tons of H.E. bombs and 12,680 incendiaries on the same objective. Visibility was generally poor, but, during the heaviest raid, occasional gaps in the cloud enabled the crews to observe bomb bursts in the dock and dry-dock areas and along the torpedo boat quay. They also saw large fires followed by explosions in the town and Port Militaire.

Dec

14

1941

Bombing mission to attack Japanese Philippine landings

The Flying Fotress flown by Captain Wheless on the 14th December 1941 was found to have 1200 bullet holes in it after he managed to crash land at the airfield on Mindinao, saving his crew from further injuries,

He ran from one side to the other operating the side guns in the tail. Gootee’d reload for him while he was busy on the other gun. Then one of the Japs got a bead on Brown while he was working over the mess with his gun, shot the sights right off the gun and got Brown in the wrist. Without stopping his relay race between the two guns, he tied a handkerchief around it — tight — and went on shooting.