Minor Operations
14 Wellingtons and 6 Halifaxes of 4 Group minelaying in the Frisians, 2 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Halifax and 1 Wellington of the minelaying force lost.
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16 Mosquitoes to railway centres at Tergnier and Aulnoye in France and at Lingen in Germany. All targets were bombed; 1 Mosquito lost.
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NUREMBERG
335 aircraft - 170 Lancasters, 103 Halifaxes, 62 Stirlings. 8 aircraft - 4 Stirlings, 2 Halifaxes, 2 Lancasters - lost, 2.4 percent of the force.
This distant raid had to be marked by a combination of H2S and visual means. The Pathfinders had no moon to help them and, although there was no cloud, they found that haze prevented accurate visual identification of the target area. The result was that both marking and bombing spread over more than 10 miles along the line of the attack, with more than half of the bombs falling outside the city boundaries. This result would be typical of raids carried out beyond the range of Oboe during this period. Nuremberg reports that more than 600 buildings were destroyed and nearly 1,400 were damaged, including the M.A.N. and Siemens factories. Railway installations were also hit. Figures given for the dead vary from 284 to 343.
Sergeant D. R. Spanton, a mid-upper gunner in a 7 Squadron Stirling, had a fortunate escape on this night. After his aircraft crossed the English coast on the return flight, Spanton realized that he was the only man still in the plane. The remainder of the crew, a new crew in this Pathfinder squadron, had baled out earlier, possibly because of suspected fuel shortage, and the pilot left the plane flying on automatic pilot. Spanton had not heard the order. He parachuted safely over Kent and the empty Stirling later crashed into the Thames estuary. The remainder of the crew, presumably thinking they were parachuting over France, had actually come down in the sea and were all drowned. Sergeant Spanton went on to fly a further 12 operations but his plane was lost on the
