He flew with a Vickers Wellington (type III, serial BJ891, code SR-).
Bremen
251 aircraft - 98 Wellingtons, 76 Lancasters, 41 Halifaxes, 36 Stirlings. 12 aircraft - 7 Wellingtons, 3 Lancasters, 1 Halifax, 1 Stirling - lost, 4.8 per cent of the force.
The Pathfinders introduced new techniques on this night, splitting their aircraft into 3 forces: 'illuminators', who lit up the area with white flares; 'visual markers', who dropped coloured flares if they had identified the aiming point; then 'backers-up', who dropped all-incendiary bomb loads on to the coloured flares. This basic pattern - illuminating, marking and backing-up - would form the basis of most future Pathfinder operations with proper target-indicator bombs and various electronic bombing aids being employed as they became available.
The weather was clear and the Pathfinder plan worked well; heavy bombing of the target followed. Bremen confirms that this was a successful raid. Property was hit as follows:
| Destroyed | Damaged | ||
| Seriously | Lightly | ||
| Large/medium Industrial | 6 | 6 | 50 |
| Small Industrial | 15 | 29 | 64 |
| Dwelling Houses | 460 | 1,361 | 7,592 |
Among the industrial buildings seriously hit were the Weser aircraft works and the Atlas shipyard. 4 dockside warehouses were destroyed and 3 oil-storage tanks were burnt out. Various public buildings together with 7 schools and 3 hospitals were hit. 124 people were killed and 470 injured.
3 Wellingtons laid mines in the Frisian Islands without loss.
This record can also be found on the maps of WW2 History Europe with Google coordinates. You can find the maps by clicking on this link on this location.
There are several possibilities to investigate the flight records on WW2 History Europe. All the flights are plotted on maps, sorted "day by day", "by squadron", "by type aircraft", "by year or month", "by location" and much more! Don't miss this!!!
If you have any information that you want to share, please add your comment at the bottom of this record. Or send your information to info@ww2history.eu. This information will be added to the record.
Your photos and your information are very welcome! The young do care and with your help we keep up the good work.
