DAYLIGHT DISASTER
http://www.britainatwar.com^43VALOUR IN THE AIR|AVRO LANCASTERS
DAYLIGHT DISASTERDAYLIGHT DISASTER
RIGHT
Sqn Ldr Bob
Palmer VC.
(ALL IMAGES
VIA AUTHOR UNLESS
NOTED)Arguably the most experienced of
all was Sqn Ldr Bob Palmer DFC and
Bar, a pilot with 109 Squadron, also
at Little Staughton, who’d flown his
first sortie way back in September
1940 and now had an impressive 109
operations under his belt. The attack
on Gremberg, which he was to lead
(though not in his usual aircraft),
would be his 110th.
The raid was to involve only a small
number of aircraft in three formations,
each led by a Lancaster equipped with
a blind bombing device known as
‘Oboe’. Each section was accompanied
by an Oboe-equipped Mosquito (from
109 and 105 Squadrons) to be held in
reserve in case the equipment should
fail in the lead aircraft. ‘Oboe’ enabled
the bombers to attack enemy targets
even when they were completely
obscured by cloud. In a ‘Heavy Oboe’
strike, the device was installed in
a four-engined bomber and theequipment came with an additional
crew of a specialist Oboe pilot and
navigator who swapped seats with the
regular Lancaster team/officers for the
bombing run.
For the attack on Cologne/
Gremberg, Oboe experts Bob Palmer
and his navigator Flt Lt George Russell
were to ride shotgun with the crew
of Flt Lt Owen Milne; the reserve
Mosquito in the lead formation was to
be flown by Flt Lt Eric Carpenter.STRAIGHT AND LEVEL
Oboe had few vices as long as the
bombers remained hidden. The
principal drawback was that it required
the lead pilot to fly straight and level
for ten minutes in order to maintain
the necessary signal for when to
release the bombs, and on whose lead
the rest of the formation would also
attack in salvo. It was also prone to
technical