COMMUNICATIONS
671 aircraft - 348 Halifaxes, 285 Lancasters, 38 Mosquitoes - of 4, 5, 6 and 8 Groups to attack communications, mostly railways, at Amiens/St-Roch, Amiens/Longueau, Arras, Caen, Cambrai and Poitiers. (It is interesting to note that, with the exception of Caen, all of these targets were the sites of well-known battles of earlier wars and Caen was soon to be the scene of fierce fighting.)
Bomber Command's records state that the Poitiers attack, by 5 Group, was the most accurate of the night and that the 2 raids at Amiens and the raid at Arras were of reasonable accuracy. The target at Cambrai was hit but many bombs also fell in the town. The most scattered attack (also by 5 Group) was at Caen.
23 aircraft - 17 Halifaxes and 6 Lancasters - were lost from these raids; all of these losses were from 4 and 6 Groups. A Canadian airman, Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski from Winnipeg, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery on the Cambrai raid. His Lancaster, of 419 Squadron, was attacked by a night fighter and set on fire and the crew were ordered to abandon the aircraft. Mynarski was about to jump when he saw that the tail gunner was trapped in his turret and he went through fierce flames to help. The rear turret was so badly jammed that it could not be freed and the trapped gunner eventually waved Mynarski away. By the time he left the aircraft, Mynarski's clothing and parachute were on fire and he died while being cared for by French civilians soon after he landed. The tail gunner was fortunate to survive the crash and his report on Mynarski's courage led to the award of the Victoria Cross. Pilot Officer Mynarski is buried in the small village cemetery at Meharicourt, east of Amiens.
GELSENKIRCHEN
303 aircraft - 286 Lancasters and 17 Mosquitoes of 1, 3 and 8 Groups - carried out the first raid of the new oil campaign; the target was the Nordstern synthetic-oil plant (the Germans called the plant Gelsenberg A.G.). 17 Lancasters were lost, 6.1 percent of the Lancaster force.
The attack opened with exceptional accuracy owing to good work by the Pathfinders and to improved versions of Oboe sets now available. Later phases of the bombing were spoiled by the clouds of smoke from the burning target and by a rogue target indicator which fell 10 miles short of the target and was bombed by 35 aircraft. A German industrial report shows that all production at the oil plant ceased, with a loss of 1,000 tons of aviation fuel a day for several weeks, as well as the loss of other fuels. Gelsenkirchen's civil records also pay tribute to the accuracy of the attack; 1,500 bombs fell inside the oil-plant area. The civil records also describe the extensive damage in the nearby working-class district of Horst. A total of 270 people were killed, including 24 workers in the oil plant at the time of the attack, 23 foreign workers who were killed when their wooden barracks near by were hit, and 6 schoolboy 'Flakhilfers'.
Minor Operations: 27 Mosquitoes to Cologne, 3 R.C.M. sorties, 39 Serrate and 13 Intruder patrols, 9 Halifaxes and 5 Stirlings minelaying off Brest and St-Nazaire, 13 aircraft on Resistance operations. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,083 sorties, 40 aircraft (3.7 percent) lost.
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MINOR OPERATIONS
8 Mosquitoes to Mnchengladbach and 3 to Dren, 15 Serrate patrols, 8 Stirlings and 4 Lancasters minelaying off Brest and St-Nazaire, 2 Halifaxes on Resistance operations. No aircraft lost.
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420 (SNOWY OWL) SQUADRON
SERVICE
Formed in 5 Group on
