The 97 Sqdn left from Bourn at 1943-09-04 at 20:35. Loc or duty Berlin
He flew with a Avro Lancaster (type III, serial JA966, code OF-S).
Campaign report of the USAAF:
(Eighth Air Force):: VIII Air Support Command Mission 47: 144 B-26's are dispatched to 4 marshalling yards in France (36 B-26's to each target); 33 hit Courtrai marshalling yard at 1756 hours; 33 hit the Lille/Deliverance marshalling yard at 1756 hours; 34 hit the Hazebrouck marshalling yard at 1831 hours; and 23 hit the St Pol marshalling yard at 1833 hours; 22 B-26's are damaged; casualties are 3 WIA.
Campaign report of the RAF:
3/4 September 1943
316 Lancasters and 4 Mosquitos despatched to Berlin. Because of the high casualty rates among Halifaxes and Stirlings in recent Berlin raids the heavy force was composed only of Lancasters. 22 Lancasters were lost, nearly 7.0 per cent of the force. The Mosquitos were used to drop 'spoof' flares well away from the bombers' route to attract German night fighters. The raid approached Berlin from the north-east but the marking and bombing were, once again, mostly short of the target. That part of the bombing which did reach Berlin's built-up area fell in residential parts of Charlottenburg and Moabit and in the industrial area called Siemensstadt. Several factories were hit and suffered serious loss of production and among 'utilities' put out of action were major water and electricity works and one of Berlin's largest breweries.
32 OTU Wellingtons, 6 Mosquitos and 6 Halifaxes to an ammunition dump in the Forêt de Raismes, near Valenciennes; 44 Stirlings and 12 Halifaxes minelaying off Denmark, in the Frisians and off the Biscay coast; 4 Mosquitos to Düsseldorf and 7 OTU Whitleys on leaflet raids. 1 Wellington, 1 Stirling and 1 Whitley were lost.
4/5 September 1943
8 Mosquitos to Cologne and Duisburg, 25 Wellingtons and 13 Stirlings minelaying in the Frisians, in the River Gironde and off Lorient and St Nazaire. No aircraft lost.
With thanks to the RAF and USAAF.net!
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