He flew with a Handley Page Halifax (type III, serial LK838, code EY-E).
AIRBORNE OPERATIONS
(IX Troop Carrier Command): In France, HQ 442d Troop Carrier Group moves from Bonnetable to St-Andre-de-L'Eure; the 91st Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, moves from Lonray to Chateaudun with C-47s; the 98th Troop Carrier Squadron, 440th Troop Carrier Group, moves from Le Mans to Orleans with C-47s; the 303d Troop Carrier Squadron, 442d Troop Carrier Group, moves from Peray to St-Andre-de-L'Eure with C-47s.
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS
(Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
Mission 702: 1,272 bombers and 666 fighters in 3 forces attack marshalling yards in W Germany; H2X radar is used by all forces; 12 bombers and 6 fighters are lost.
1. 452 B-17s are dispatched to the marshalling yard at Frankfurt (396); 36 hit the marshalling yard at Hanau and 4 hit other targets; 1 B-17s is lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 126 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 3 WIA and MIA.
Escort is provided by 206 P-47s and P-51s; 2 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA)
2. 454 B-17s are dispatched to hit the marshalling yard (219) and industrial area (177) at Ludwigshafen; targets of opportunity are the marshalling yard at Kaiserslautern (33) and other (4); 11 B-17s are lost and 298 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 5 WIA and 103 MIA.
Escort is provided by 192 P-47s and P-51s; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA).
3. 333 of 366 B-24s hit the secondary target, the Karlsruhe marshalling yard; 12 others hit Landau; 3 B-24s are damaged beyond repair and 28 damaged; 6 airmen are KIA and 8 WIA.
Escort is provided by 228 P-47s and P-51s; 2 P-47s and 1 P-51 are lost (pilots are MIA).
Mission 703: 3 B-17s and 7 B-24s drop leaflets in France, the Netherlands and Germany during the night without loss.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS
(Ninth Air Force): 160 B-26s and A-20s strike ammunition, ordnance, and supply depots at Hamburg, Germany; fighters escort the bombers, fly armed reconnaissance, attack railroads and bridges, and cover ground forces of the V and XIX Corps; the IX Tactical Air Command aids the US 28th Infantry Division in withstanding a counterattack near Kommerscheidt, Germany.
HQ 362d Fighter Group moves from Prosnes to Rouvres, France.
The 33d Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group, moves from Gosselies to Le Culot, Belgium with F-5s.
Bochum: 749 aircraft - 384 Halifaxes, 336 Lancasters, 29 Mosquitos - of Nos 1, 4, 6 and 8 Groups. 23 Halifaxes and 5 Lancasters were lost; German night fighters caused most of the casualties. No 346 (Free French) Squadron, based at Elvington, lost 5 out of its 16 Halifaxes on the raid. This was a particularly successful attack based upon standard Pathfinder marking techniques. Severe damage was caused to the centre of Bochum. More than 4,000 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged. Bochum's industrial areas were also severely damaged, particularly the important steelworks. This was the last major raid by Bomber Command on this target.
Dortmund-Ems Canal: 174 Lancasters and 2 Mosquitos of No 5 Group. 3 Lancasters lost. The Germans had partly repaired the section of the canal north of Münster after the No 5 Group raid in September, so this further attack was required. The banks of both branches of the canal were again breached and water drained off, leaving barges stranded and the canal unusable. A report from Speer to Hitler, dated 11 November 1944, was captured at the end of the war and described how the bombing of the canal was preventing smelting coke from the Ruhr mines reaching 3 important steelworks - 2 near Brunswick and 1 at Osnabrück. In his post-war interrogation, Speer stated that these raids on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, together with attacks on the German railway system, produced more serious setbacks to the German war industry at this time than any other type of bombing.
43 Mosquitos to Hannover and 6 to Herford, 39 RCM sorties, 68 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost. The No 100 Group Mosquitos claimed 4 Ju88s and 2 Me110s destroyed and 2 other night fighters damaged, possibly their most successful night of the war.
Total effort for the night: 1,081 sorties, 31 aircraft (2.9 per cent) lost.
173 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H raid on Solingen. 1 Lancaster lost. Results of the raid were not observed, because of the complete cloud cover, but German reports show that this was an outstanding success. Most of the bombing fell accurately into the medium-sized town of Solingen. 1,300 houses and 18 industrial buildings were destroyed and 1,600 more buildings were severely damaged.
1 Wellington flew an RCM sortie and returned safely.
These 3 near-perfect raids in 24 hours - the area-bombing raid on Bochum marked by Pathfinders, the selective attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal by No 5 Group and the No 3 Group G-H raid on Solingen - are good examples of the versatility and striking power now possessed by Bomber Command. All groups had taken part, dispatching 1,098 sorties and dropping 5,130 tons of bombs accurately on the targets. The loss of 28 bombers from the Bochum raid also shows, however, that the German defences could still be effective.
65 Mosquitos to Stuttgart - in 2 waves - and 6 to Aschaffenburg. No aircraft lost.
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