He flew with a Handley Page Hampden (type I, serial P4299, code EA-).
February
Crews found that many targets were obscured by cloud and as a result, what little accuracy there was, suffered tremendously. Diary entries in records of German cities report little or no damage on nights when Bomber Command crews had supposedly visited. Given this situation, it is therefore hard to believe that the Command was told to concentrate its efforts on enemy oil production. A list of 17 targets was drawn up from which it was believed that the destruction of 9 would result in a reduction of 80% of Germany's ability to produce oil. Air Chief Marshal Pierse, the Command's AOCinC, decided that one large attack against an industrial city would be made with the oil attacks taking up the remaining operations. On 10th/11th February, 222 aircraft, the largest despatched to a single target, attacked Hannover. Four aircraft were lost. On the nights that followed, oil facilities were bombed by anything between 1 and 73 aircraft - all with little success. As an example, the night of the 14th/15th saw 44 Wellingtons despatched to Nordstern, near Gelsenkirchen but only 9 claimed to have hit the target. Interestingly, when No 57 Squadron returned to its base at Feltwell, a German aircraft is believed to have been amongst them! After landed, the aircraft quickly took-off again. The ill-fated Manchester was also used on operations for the first time this month. Six aircraft from No 207 Squadron took part in a raid on Brest. One Manchester crashed.
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