He flew with a Avro Lancaster (type III, serial ED479, code WS-Z).
Essen. 348 aircraft - 225 Lancasters, 113 Halifaxes, 10 Mosquitos; this was the first raid in which more than 200 Lancasters had taken part. 12 Halifaxes and 9 Lancasters lost - 6.0 per cent of the force - and 2 further Halifaxes crashed in England. The weather forecast was not entirely favourable for this raid and the Pathfinders prepared a plan both for skymarking and ground-marking the target and the Main Force crews were somewhat confused to find two kinds of marking taking place. The resultant bombing, however, was accurate and a higher proportion of aircraft produced good bombing photographs than on any of the earlier successful raids on Essen. Local reports showed that there was widespread damage in the centre and in the western half of Essen.
16 Wellingtons minelaying off Brittany ports, 9 OTU sorties. 1 minelaying aircraft lost.
60 Venturas attacked an airfield near Caen (24 aircraft), a shipyard at Rotterdam (24 aircraft) and a railway target as St Brieuc (12 aircraft). All targets were successfully bombed but 2 aircraft from the Rotterdam raid were lost.
577 aircraft - 203 Lancasters, 168 Wellingtons, 116 Halifaxes, 90 Stirlings - on the largest raid so far to Kiel, more than twice as many aircraft as on any previous raid taking part. This was also the largest 'non-1,000' bombing force of the war so far. 12 aircraft - 5 Lancasters, 4 Halifaxes, 2 Stirlings, 1 Wellington - lost, 2.1 per cent of the force. The Pathfinders encountered thick cloud and strong winds over the target so that accurate marking became very difficult. It was reported that decoy fire sites may also have drawn off some of the bombing.
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