He flew with a Handley Page Halifax (type II, serial JN923, code MH-).
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS
(Eighth Air Force): VIII Bomber Command Mission 159: the port area at Bremen, Germany is hit. 357 of 407 B-17's, 103 of 127 B-24's and 12 of 12 PFF aircraft hit the target at 1142-1214 hours; they claim 21-14-23 Luftwaffe aircraft; 21 B-17's and 6 B-24's are lost; 3 B-17's are damaged beyond repair; 213 B-17's and 34 B-24's are damaged; casualties are 9 KIA, 41 WIA and 270 MIA. Window-metal foil strips which, when dropped from an airplane, provide an echo which confuses radar locating equipment is used for the first time on an Eighth Air Force mission.
This mission is escorted by 26 P-38's, 418 P-47's and 47 Ninth Air Force P-51's; they claim 19-3-6 Luftwaffe aircraft; 2 P-47's and 4 P-51's are lost; 1 P-47 is damaged beyond repair and 5 P-47's are damaged; casualties are 1 WIA and 5 MIA. Twin-engine, rocket-firing Luftwaffe fighters attack under protection of single engine airplanes.
VIII Bomber Command Mission 160: 5 B-17's drop 1 million leaflets on Lille and Lens, France and Ghent and Brussels, Belgium at 2005-2015 hours; no losses.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS
(Ninth Air Force): 35 B-26's attack V-weapon sites in N France; 150+ others abort because of weather. The 381st Fighter Squadron, 363d Fighter Group, arrives at Keevil, England from the U.S. without aircraft.
6 OTU Wellingtons dropped leaflets over French towns without loss.
Frankfurt: 650 aircraft - 390 Lancasters, 257 Halifaxes, 3 Mosquitos. The German control rooms were able to plot the bomber force as soon as it left the English coast and were able to continue plotting it all the way to Frankfurt. There were many combats on the route to the target. The Mannheim diversion did not draw fighters away from the main attack until after the raid was over but the return flight was quieter. 41 aircraft - 27 Halifaxes, 14 Lancasters - lost, 6.3 per cent of the force. The bombing at Frankfurt did not go according to plan. The Pathfinders had prepared a ground-marking plan on the basis of a forecast giving clear weather but they found up to 8/10ths cloud. The Germans lit a decoy fire site 5 miles south-east of the city and also used dummy target indicators. Some of the bombing fell around the decoy but part of the creepback fell on Frankfurt causing more damage than Bomber Command realized at the time. Part of the bombing somehow fell on Mainz, 17 miles to the west, and many houses along the Rhine waterfront and in southern suburbs were hit.
44 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitos of 1 and No 8 Groups carried out a diversionary raid on Mannheim but most of the bombing fell outside the city. No aircraft lost.
8 Lancasters of 617 Squadron and 8 Pathfinder Mosquitos attempted to bomb an armaments factory near Liege but the Mosquito marking was not visible below the clouds and the Lancasters did not bomb; 1 Lancaster lost. 6 Mosquitos to Rheinhausen and 5 to Leverkusen, 8 RCM sorties, 2 Beaufighters on Serrate patrol, 23 Stirlings minelaying in the Frisians, 38 OTU sorties. 1 Stirling minelayer lost.
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