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Avro Lancaster I (W4355 LS-A) on a mission to Stuttgart on 1944-03-15

1944-03-15 · Golaten · Switserland

The story

On Wednesday, 15 March 1944, (a part of) the aircraft of the 15 squadron (RAF), took off for a mission to Stuttgart in Germany from a station (airfield) in or near Mildenhall.
One of the crew members was Flight Lieutenant W Blott. He departed for his mission at 19:15.
He flew with a Avro Lancaster (type I, with serial W4355 and code LS-A). His mission and of the other crew members was planned for Thursday, 16 March 1944.

https://raf.durham-light-infantry.ch/index.php/history/airplanes-in-switzerland?id=60 and more!

F/Lt Walter Blott's Lancaster, who, together with another 16 Lancasters, had started around 1915 in Mildenhall, between Cambridge and Thetford in the county of Suffolk, needed a little more than 2 hours to reach the three white ground marks near Vesoul, department of Haute-Saone, which were set by scouts to indicate the turning point to the east. At the meeting around 1630, the navigators had been given the instruction not to fly beyond the points in order to cross the Rhine between Strasbourg and Basel and penetrate into Germany and thus not fly into Switzerland.

The crew of Lancaster Mk.I, W.4355 belonged to a bomber unit of 617 Lancaster bombers and 230 Halifax bombers, which include among others. Stuttgart should bomb.

CREW Lancaster Mk.I, W.4355, code LS°A, XV Squadron

1  F/L     Walter Blott                       Pilot                         born 1921
2  SGT   G. R. Mattock                  Flight engineer  born 1922
3  C/O   Cedric Nabarro               Navigator             born 1923
4  W/O  Robert Syrell Millard    Bomb-Aimer      born 1922
5  SGT   Gordon Gill                        Wir. operator      born 1920 
6  SGT   William Forster                Mid-Gunner       born 1924
7  SGT   Dennis Murphy               Rear-Gunner     born 1926

Please visit the website when you are related to one of these crewmembers.


Information about aircraft who did not return from this mission can be found here. Information about the other crew members on this flight can be found at this website (Aircrew Remembered). This website also provides the flight information for this record.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 in investigating 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!!!

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