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AVRO LANCASTERS|VALOUR IN THE AIR VALOUR IN THE AIR|AVRO LANCASTERS
RIGHT
Jock Milne with
his crew.BELOW
No.582 Squadron
in November 1944.problems, hence the need for a reserve
Mosquito ready to take over in case of
failure.
Taking off from the two airfields in
thick fog, the first aircraft was away
by 10.27am and the last 15 minutes
later. As the bombers climbed to their
first rendezvous point, tragedy struck
when two Lancs from 35 Squadron
collided with one another in the cloud,
killing all on board. The pilots, Plt Off
Richard Clarke and Flg Off George
Lawson, were good pals; now they
were united in death.It was an ominous sign. And it got
worse. Rather than the thick cloud
they had been promised over the
target, the three formations arrived to
find a brilliant clear blue sky. Someone
had blundered.
With the change in conditions, there
was confusion among the crews as to
whether to break formation and bomb
individually or carry on and bomb on
their leader as they had been briefed.
Bob Palmer, the Oboe pilot in the lead
aircraft, took his seat for the bomb
run while navigator George Russelllistened to the Oboe signal for the
release point.PREDICTED FLAK
Heavy flak began to pepper the sky
and the German defences were having
a field day. Watching the aircraft flying
straight and level at a constant height
and speed, they had ten minutes to
loose off as many shells as they could.
It was ten minutes of target practice
where they almost couldn’t miss. And
they didn’t. Not a single aircraft in the
first formation escaped, prompting
one 35 Squadron flight engineer,
Tom Williamson DFM, to remark
afterwards: “The Germans had plenty
of practice by the time we arrived.”
The navigator in one of the reserve
Mosquitos, Gordon Musgrove DFC,
was similarly matter-of-fact: “Such an
opportunity [for the gunners] comes
only once in a lifetime and I doubt if
they ever worked so feverishly to fire
as many shells in the shortest space
of time.”
Just when they thought things
couldn’t get any worse, a squadron
of German fighters appeared on the
scene, led by one of the Luftwaffe’s
greatest ‘Experten’, Anton Hackl.
‘Toni’ Hackl had well over 150 ‘kills’“THERE WAS CONFUSION AMONGST THE CREWS AS TO WHETHER
TO BREAK FORMATION AND BOMB INDIVIDUALLY OR CARRY ON
AND BOMB ON THEIR LEADER AS THEY HAD BEEN BRIEFED”