6 Blenheims to bomb shipping in Fjords near Bergen. 5 bombed, 1 lost. 1 Do 18 shot down.
1 reconnaissance Blenheim abandoned its flight to Aalborg.
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STAVANGER, OSLO, MINELAYING
18 aircraft - 12 Wellingtons, 6 Whitleys - to attack shipping, airfields and oil-storage tanks at Stavanger and Oslo. 8 aircraft bombed without losses.
2 Whitleys made reconnaissance flights to Aalborg airfield; 1 aircraft was lost.28 Hampdens were dispatched on minelaying tasks but bad weather prevented any mines being laid; 3 Hampdens were lost. One of the missing Hampdens was shot down near Sylt by Oberfeldwebel Hermann Frster of IV/JG 2, flying an Me 109. The Hampden involved is believed to have been the 49 Squadron aircraft of Pilot Officer A. H. Benson and was probably the first Bomber Command aircraft to be shot down at night by a German fighter. Pilot Officer Benson and his crew - Pilot Officer A. P. B. Hordem, Sergeant R. I. L. McKenzie and Leading Aircraftman J. D. Openshaw - were all killed. Sergeant McKenzie's body came ashore and is now buried in the Kiel War Cemetery but the bodies of the other crew members were never found. Oberfeldwebel Frster's unit was scattered along the German coast in small detachments to act as night fighters and later became the regular night-fighting unit III/NJG 1. Frster gained a further 6 night victories before being sent back to a day-fighter unit; he died in North Africa in December 1941 on his 287th operational flight.
