He flew with a de Havilland Mosquito (type IV, serial DK318, code HS-B).
455 aircraft - 173 Wellingtons, 157 Lancasters, 114 Halifaxes, 9 Mosquitos, 2 Stirlings - to Duisburg. 6 aircraft - 3 Wellingtons, 1 Halifax, 1 Lancaster, 1 Mosquito - lost, 1.3 per cent of the force. The Mosquito lost was the first Oboe Mosquito casualty. A message was received from the pilot, Flight Lieutenant LJ Ackland, that he was having to ditch in the North Sea. His body was never found but his navigator, Warrant Officer FS Sprouts, is believed to have survived. This raid was one of the few failures of this series of attacks on Ruhr targets. It was a cloudy night and, for once, accurate Oboe sky-marking was lacking because 5 Oboe Mosquitos were forced to return early with technical difficulties and a sixth was lost. The result was a widely scattered raid.
5 OTU aircraft carried leaflets to France without loss.
5 Mosquitos reached and bombed an engineering factory at Hengelo but 7 other Mosquitos did not reach their targets. No aircraft lost.
Berlin
Failed raid on Berlin by 396 aircraft - 191 Lancasters, 124 Halifaxes, 81 Stirlings. The bombing force approached the target from the south-west and the Pathfinders established two separate marking areas, but both well short of the city. No bombing photographs were plotted within 5 miles of the aiming point in the centre of Berlin and most of the bombing fell from 7 to 17 miles short of the aiming point. A most interesting story concerns a secret Luftwaffe stores depot in the woods at Teltow, 11 miles south-west of the centre of Berlin. By chance, this was in the middle of the main concentration of bombs and a large quantity of valuable radio, radar and other technical stores was destroyed. The Luftwaffe decided that this depot was the true target for the RAF raid on this night and were full of admiration for the special unit which had found and bombed it so accurately. The Gestapo investigated houses near by because someone reported that light signals had been flashed to the bombers. 9 aircraft - 4 Halifaxes, 3 Lancasters, 2 Stirlings - lost, 2.3 per cent of the force.
24 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians and off Texel, 4 OTU sorties. No losses.
Total effort for the night: 424 sorties, 9 aircraft (2.1 per cent) lost.
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