It was just after midnight last night that the Lancasters of 463 and 467 Squadron roared into the air, en route once more for the German capital, Berlin. There were three early returns. Pilot Officer Thomas Foster, in DV229, encountered icing that he couldn’t climb above, landing back at base just after 03.30 hours. Pilot Officer Lindsay Fairclough, in ED545, had the same problem, returning some two hours later. And an embarrassing navigational error saw Pilot Officer John McManus boomerang early in JA901, when he misinterpreted a new course passed to him by the navigator and inadvertently flew its reciprocal instead. By the time the error was realised, they had lost about half an hour and did not relish the prospect of having all of Berlin’s defences to themselves after the rest of the force had left the target area, so they set course for home, arriving a quarter of an hour before Fairclough.[1]

The outbound route took the bombers out over Denmark, before they turned south east towards the target. Defences were fairly active, with six bombers shot down by flak on the outbound route and at least twelve by nightfighters before the target was reached.[2]

Once again Berlin was covered in broken cloud, and though some groundmarking was possible the attack eventually required the less accurate ‘Wanganui’ skymarking technique. Despite this, most crews thought that this appeared to be one of the best attacks on Berlin yet. Phil Smith reported “three distinct areas of fire glow on clouds; good fires must have been below.”[3] The defences, he wrote in his logbook, “seemed weak”. His impression was later confirmed when it was determined that flak probably destroyed only one aircraft over the target itself. There was a moderate barrage of heavy flak and some intense light flak near the marker flares, but the searchlights were much hampered by the heavy cloud cover.

Fighters were however very active. Over the target at least 150 were sighted – including one which followed DV372, with Gil Pate and Eric Hill keeping a very close eye on it from their turrets until it sidled off into the darkness once more.[4] “Altho’ the place was lit up by the fires like the worlds fair”, wrote Dale Johnston,[5] “we never saw another kite. Bar a Jerry, but we gave him the slip and he disappeared in the clouds.” Some 27 combats were reported over Berlin and six more heavies were shot down there.

In all, 43 aircraft were reported missing, or some 6.3% of the attacking force. Seven were known to have been lost to flak and 21 to fighters. The rest, thought the scientists of Bomber Command’s Operational Research Service, were “almost certainly due to fighters”.[6]

Despite Phil’s later recollection of this as a “straightforward”[7] trip, it was not entirely without trouble. After dropping their load of 4000lb high explosives and 5000lb incendiaries towards the end of the attack at 03.30hrs (only one of Waddington’s aircraft bombed after them, at 03.32), they were on the homeward journey when Gilbert Pate’s oxygen failed in the rear turret. Wireless operator Dale Johnston went back to give some help, but his portable oxygen also failed. When flight engineer Ken Tabor went to help and suffered the same fate, Phil needed to descend to about 15,000 feet to bring everyone around again.[8] They eventually arrived back at Waddington  at 08.30 on the morning of the 29^th – the third last aircraft to return.

Sadly each Waddington squadron lost a crew on this operation. Flight Lieutenant Norm Cooper, flying HK537, and Ivan Durston, in ED867, both disappeared without message or signal being received. Post-war it was discovered that Cooper’s aircraft had collided with an 83 Squadron bomber, crashing on the Danish island of Als. All on board died. Durston, who had been the last to depart Waddington last night and was “one of our most popular pilots and an excellent crew,”[9] had been on his 27^th trip. His aircraft crashed at Schmachtenhagen, three miles east of Oranienberg and approximately 25 miles north of Berlin. All seven members of the crew are buried in the Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery.[10]

Because of the very late return this morning from the Berlin operation, there was much sleeping during the day and the squadrons were stood down for the afternoon. There was “the usual Saturday night dance” but very little else happened.

Elsewhere, Bomber Command sent small forces of Mosquitos to attack a steelworks on Duisburg and a flying bomb site at Herbouville in France tonight, and a small group of Whitleys dropped leaflets over Northern France.[11] A force of enemy aircraft was seen on radar heading towards the English coast during the night. Bombs were dropped across Hampshire, the Thames Estuary and Suffolk. It’s thought that one of the raiders was shot down by a Beaufighter of 68 Squadron.[12]

This post is part of a series called 467 Postblog, posted in real time to mark the 70th anniversary of the crew of B for Baker while they were on operational service with 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. See this link for an in-depth explanation of the series, and this one for full citations of sources used throughout it. © 2014 Adam Purcell

For the first time since joining 467 Squadron, Phil Smith’s name was on the Battle Order tonight as captain of his own aircraft. The target – as if anyone expected anything different – was, once again, Berlin, now being attacked for the thirteenth time this winter. Two members of Phil’s normal crew did not take part in this raid. Navigator Jack Purcell, who was still off sick, and bomb aimer Jerry Parker were replaced by Flight Sergeants Leonard Connolly and F.G. Craven respectively.[1] In any case, twelve aircraft were detailed from 463 Squadron, and fourteen from 467. They joined a total of 679 heavies and four Mosquitos sent to the German capital.

In an effort to support the force attacking Berlin, Bomber Command also sent a mining force to Kiel Harbour and several Mosquitos to harass Hannover and to bomb Berlin a full four hours before the main attack was due.[2] On the other side, sixteen Messerschmitt Me410s and ten Focke-Wulf Fw190s made a small incursion into East Anglia, Kent and Sussex. A Mosquito nightfighter accounted for one of the raiders but a defending fighter was also shot down.[3]

At Waddington, take off was scheduled for midnight. The first Lancaster – ED949 of 463 Squadron, under the command of Flying Officer Doug Dunn – roared down the runway at two minutes past the hour, and most were away by 00.36. Flight Lieutenant Ivan Durston was somewhat delayed, departing in ED867 thirteen minutes after the previous aircraft, and Pilot Officer Noel McDonald encountered engine trouble on the takeoff roll and aborted the mission on the runway. Phil Smith and his crew, meanwhile, were in Lancaster DV372, the nineteenth aircraft to depart. They left the ground at 00.28, climbed away and set course eastwards.[4]

This post is part of a series called 467 Postblog, posted in real time to mark the 70th anniversary of the crew of B for Baker while they were on operational service with 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. See this link for an in-depth explanation of the series, and this one for full citations of sources used throughout it. © 2014 Adam Purcell

A week after the last big raid on the city, Berlin was once again the target for operations for tonight. This would be the twelfth major operation against the German capital since the so-called Battle of Berlin began in November last year. Each squadron at Waddington briefed sixteen crews. Once again Phil Smith’s was not one of them. Though Jack Purcell was still in the Station Sick Quarters it is unknown why the others did not go either. Flight Lieutenant Ivan Durston began the mass take-off at 17.18 hours. All were away a little over 40 minutes later – with an average of less than a minute and a half between each heavily-laden aircraft. One aircraft was “unable to take off,” possibly due to an engine failure on the runway, and there was one early return – Pilot Officer Bruce Simpson in ED657, who ‘boomeranged’ due to compass trouble three and a bit hours after take-off. [1]

In all Bomber Command sent 530 aircraft on this trip to Berlin. In a good example of how the entire Command was coordinated to support the main force, significant diversionary and harassing operations were carried out across a wide front. Halifaxes laid mines in the Heligoland Bight and Wellingtons and Stirlings did the same off the Dutch coast (one Stirling was lost); Mosquitos dropped imitation fighter flares well away from the bombers’ route to and from the target and other aircraft flew radio counter-measure and intruder sorties targeting nightfighters. Though the fighters did intercept the bomber stream early, it appears that the spoof operations had the desired effect and “half the German fighters were lured north by the Heligoland mining diversion”.[2] Consequently fewer fighters attacked the bombers enroute to the target than usual. Even so, fighters were known to have claimed at least seventeen of the 32 aircraft that were lost on this trip.

The Main Force arrived over Berlin to find it once more blanketed in thick cloud, necessitating the use of less-accurate skymarkers. Crews reported a fair concentration of markers from the Pathfinders but there was no way to determine whether the markers themselves where anywhere near the target, so actual results of this raid remain uncertain.

The first successful aircraft arrived back at Waddington just after 01.30 in the morning. The last crew back, at 02.48, was that of Squadron Leader Bill Brill of 463 Squadron in DV274. They had been struck by incendiaries falling from higher-flying aircraft over the target and were close to baling out until Brill regained control and they set course for the long and uncomfortable trip home.

When word was received that two aircraft had landed away (Flight Lieutenant Geoff Baker in ED545 landed at a Coastal Command base at Thorney Island, near the Isle of Wight, and Pilot Officer John McManus diverted to Coleby Grange in JA901), there were still three aircraft outstanding from Waddington. Flying Officer Alan Leslie in ME563 from 463 Squadron crashed near Teltow, 16km south west of the centre of Berlin. 467 Squadron’s Pilot Officer Cec O’Brien, in ED539, crashed in the Berlin suburb of Kopenwick, 8km south east of the city. And Pilot Officer Stephen Grugeon (who had flown Phil Smith and crew to Little Snoring a few days ago) crashed east-north-east of Kassel in Germany.[3] All members of the three crews were killed.

This post is part of a series called 467 Postblog, posted in real time to mark the 70th anniversary of the crew of B for Baker while they were on operational service with 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. See this link for an in-depth explanation of the series, and this one for full citations of sources used throughout it. © 2014 Adam Purcell

A clear day dawned at RAF Waddington to the news that operations, once more, were on for tonight. Phil Smith and his crew completed a half-hour air test in Lancaster EE143[1] but they again found themselves off the battle order for the evening’s raid.

Fourteen 463 Squadron aircraft were detailed for tonight, with most headed for the night’s main force attack on Magdeburg. Two however went on a diversionary 5 and 8 Group raid to Berlin and one of the Magdeburg force made an early return. 467 Squadron sent thirteen aircraft to Magdeburg and two to Berlin, with take-off commencing at 19.50 hours.[2] Interestingly another crew (captained by Pilot Officer Ross Stanford) took EE143, the aircraft that Phil Smith had air tested earlier in the day.

Elsewhere, Bomber Command also attacked military targets in the Pas de Calais and Cherbourg areas, Mosquitoes bombed targets in the Ruhr. Other aircraft scattered leaflets over France, laid mines off St Nazaire and carried out intruder patrols.

This was the first big raid to Magdeburg, with a total of 648 aircraft despatched. The Pathfinders initially marked the target accurately but decoy markers set by the Germans successfully distracted the Main Force and the raid became scattered. The diversionary raid to Berlin may have contributed to a delay in the defenders identifying the main target, but in any case it appears that German nightfighters had infiltrated the stream before it had even crossed the enemy coast. Consequently it was believed that a large proportion of the 55 aircraft lost fell to the fighters.[3]

One of those missing was ED803, piloted by Pilot Officer Jack Mitchell, of 467 Squadron. It departed Waddington at 20.20 but crashed near Eikendorf, south of Magdeburg. There were no survivors.[4]

Tonight the Germans launched what they called a ‘Steinbock’ (Capricorn) raid on London. Among the attackers were fifteen Heinkel He177s, the first time that aircraft was used on operations. 21 of the raiders failed to return.[5]

This post is part of a series called 467 Postblog, posted in real time to mark the 70th anniversary of the crew of B for Baker while they were on operational service with 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. See this link for an in-depth explanation of the series, and this one for full citations of sources used throughout it. © 2014 Adam Purcell

Early fog cleared at Waddington by the mid morning, so the flag was run up over the 463 Squadron ‘A’ Flight office[1] to signify that war was on for tonight. The target, once again, was Berlin.

463 Squadron had eleven crews detailed for the night’s operation, including Wing Commander Kingsford-Smith, who arrived back from Acklington just in time for briefing. 467 Squadron named sixteen crews, but one aircraft broke down before take-off so fifteen got away in the end. For unknown reasons Phil Smith and his crew were once again not on the battle order, so it’s likely that at least some of them were beside the runway with the usual crowd of WAAFs and ground crews watching the take-off.[2] The first aircraft, ED532 with Flying Officer Stuart Crouch at the controls, got away at 16.16, with each successive aircraft following an average of about 90 seconds thereafter.[3]

Apart from one early return (Flying Officer Jack Colpus in JA901 ‘boomeranged’ with an unserviceable rear turret and icing inside the fuselage), all aircraft from Waddington got away OK.

They bombed through thick cloud and returned safely. “The consensus”, wrote Flying Officer McDonald, “was that it was an easy night’s work”. Sadly, however, tragedy struck on board DV274, a 463 Squadron machine piloted by Pilot Officer Freddy Merrill. The crew encountered trouble with their oxygen system, and all were in some way or other affected by it. The mid-upper gunner was affected worst of all and was unconscious by the time the crew left the target area. “All efforts were made to disentangle [him] from his turret, and every effort was made to revive him for fully two hours, but this was of no avail”, and Sergeant Bertie Turner was dead on arrival at Waddington.

Unfortunately for the bombers, it also turned out to have been an easy night’s work for the German nightfighters. There was some attempt to confuse the defending fighter controllers with a route swinging towards the north of the direct line to Berlin, and feint attacks were sent to Kiel, Hannover and Dusseldorf, but “the diversions were not large enough to deceive” and nightfighters got stuck into the stream early. They accounted for at least sixteen of the 35 heavy bombers that failed to return, out of a total of 769 sent against the German capital.[4]

This post is part of a series called 467 Postblog, posted in real time to mark the 70th anniversary of the crew of B for Baker while they were on operational service with 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. See this link for an in-depth explanation of the series, and this one for full citations of sources used throughout it. © 2014 Adam Purcell