The 138 Sqdn left from Tempsford at 1943-06-19 at 10:20

On Saturday 19 June 1943, a member of the 138 Sqdn, Warrant Officer S Klosowski, took off from Tempsford in the United Kingdom. His mission is mentioned elsewhere on WW2 History Europe. You can find the other details of this mission by searching here. Training and cargo flights are not separately mentioned as a mission. The plane left at 10:20.

He flew with a Handley Page Halifax (type II, serial W1229, code NF-A).

Campaign report of the USAAF:

19 June 1943 (Eighth Air Force): During the month of June, the 40th Bombardment Wing arrives at Brampton Grange, England from the US.

Campaign report of the RAF:

19/20 June 1943

290 aircraft - 181 Halifaxes, 107 Stirlings, 2 Lancasters - to bomb the Schneider armaments factory and the Breuil steelworks at Le Creusot. The tactics for this raid were that the Pathfinders would only drop flares and that each crew of the Main Force was to identify their part of the target by the light of these flares. The Main Force crews were then to make 2 runs over the target area, dropping a short stick of bombs on each run from altitudes between 5,000 and 10,000ft. By this stage of the war, however, Main Force crews were used to bombing target indicators and many had difficulty in making a visual identification of their target. Lingering smoke from the large number of flares was blamed for most of the difficulty. Bombing photographs showed that all crews bombed within 3 miles of the centre of the target but only about one fifth managed to hit the factories. Many bombs fell on nearby residential property but no report could be obtained from France to give details of casualties. 2 Halifaxes lost.

26 of the H2S-equipped Pathfinders who had released flares at Le Creusot were intended to fly on to drop flares over the electrical-transformer station at Montchanin. By the light of these flares, a further 26 Lancaster bombers of No 8 Group were to attack this second target. Most of the attacking crews, however, mistook a small metal factory for the transformer station and bombed that target instead. A few aircraft did identify the correct target but their bombs scored no hits on it.

6 Mosquitos to Cologne, Duisburg and Düsseldorf, 12 Lancasters of No 3 Group minelaying in the River Gironde. 1 Lancaster was lost.

With thanks to the RAF and USAAF.net!

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