He flew with a Vickers Wellington (type X, serial HE469, code ZO-).
327 aircraft - 197 Lancasters and 130 Halifaxes dispatched to bomb the Skoda armaments factory at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia. 18 Lancasters and 18 Halifaxes lost, 11.0 per cent of the force. One Canadian squadron, No 408, lost 4 of its 12 Halifaxes dispatched. This raid, took place by the light of a full moon but was not a success. In a complicated plan, the Main Force was ordered to confirm the position of the Skoda factory visually; the Pathfinder markers were only intended as a general guide. In the event, a large asylum building 7 miles away was mistaken for the factory and only 6 crews brought back bombing photographs which were within 3 miles of the real target. The Skoda factory was not hit. One report says that 200 German soldiers were killed when their barracks near the asylum was bombed.
Mannheim was the target for 271 aircraft - 159 Wellingtons, 95 Stirlings, 17 Halifaxes. The Pathfinders marked this target accurately and an effective attack followed. 18 aircraft - 9 Wellingtons, 7 Stirlings, 2 Halifaxes - lost, 6.6 per cent of the force.
11 OTU aircraft dropped leaflets over France without loss.
Total effort for the night: 609 sorties, 54 aircraft (8.9 per cent) lost. The aircraft losses on this night were the highest so far in the war, exceeding the 50 lost on the 1,000-bomber-type raid on Bremen on 25/26 June 1942, but 14 of the aircraft lost from the Pilsen and Mannheim raids came down in the sea and a proportion of their crews were rescued.
37 Venturas bombed railway targets at Abbeville and Caen and a power-station at Zeebrugge. All targets were hit and no aircraft were lost.
Minelaying: 24 aircraft laid mines off the Biscay ports without loss.
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