He flew with a Handley Page Halifax (type V, serial LK664, code MP-U).
569 aircraft - 322 Lancasters, 247 Halifaxes - to Kassel. The German controller was again successful in assessing the target and 43 aircraft - 25 Halifaxes, 18 Lancasters - were lost, 7.6 per cent of the force.
The initial 'blind' H2S marking overshot the target but 8 out of the 9 'visual' markers correctly identified the centre of Kassel and placed their markers accurately. Although German decoy markers may have drawn off part of the bomber force, the main raid was exceptionally accurate and concentrated. The result was the most devastating attack on a German city since the firestorm raid on Hamburg in July and the results at Kassel would not be exceeded again until well into 1944. The fires were so concentrated that there was a firestorm, although not as extensive as the Hamburg one.
28 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of No 8 Group carried out a diversionary raid to Frankfurt. Bombing was scattered. 1 Lancaster lost.
12 Oboe Mosquitos to Knapsack power-station and 1 to Dortmund, 17 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians and off Texel, 10 OTU sorties. 1 Mosquito lost.
It was on this night that an RAF ground radio station in England, probably the one at Kingsdown in Kent, started its broadcasts with the intention of interrupting and confusing the German controllers' orders to their night fighters. The Bomber Command Official History describes how, at one stage, the German controller broke into vigorous swearing, whereupon the RAF voice remarked, 'The Englishman is now swearing'. To this, the German retorted, 'It is not the Englishman who is swearing, it is me'.
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