Aircraft | Handley Page Halifax II |
Serial Number | JB839 |
Markings | KN-K |
Burial/Memorial Country | Germany |
Burial/Memorial Place | Durnbach War Cemetery |
Grave Reference | 6. D. 18.. |
Epitaph | ALL YOU HAD HOPED FOR, ALL YOU HAD, YOU GAVE TO SAVE MANKIND |
Phase | 2 |
Panel Number | 121 |
Service Number | 1576379 |
Service | Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve |
Group | 4 |
Squadron | 77 |
Trade | Flight Engineer |
Country of origin if different | United Kingdom |
French E G O (Sgt) |
Goldsbrough W (F/S) |
Gough R (Sgt) |
Mathers F E (P/O) |
Muffett G A (Sgt) |
Simpson W R (F/O) |
Speedie W F (F/S) |
Start Date | 05-09-1943 |
End Date | 06-09-1943 |
Takeoff Station | Elvington |
Day/Night raid | Night |
Operation | Mannheim/ Ludwigshafen. 605 aircraft, 34 losses (5.6%). Clear conditions- PFF marking plan worked perfectly. The main force approached from the west so that they could bomb Mannheim first and then move on to Ludwigshafen. Little creepback took place and much damage was caused to both targets. The normally detailed report from Mannheim was much less so, suggesting that the raid was so severe that the normal information gathering procedures has broken down amidst the destruction. Ludwigshafen described the raid simply as 'a catastrophe'. In the latter, 1080 dwellings, 6 military buildings and 4 industrial buildings were destroyed. The death toll was relatively low for such a large raid- 127- perhaps indicating that much of the city's population had been evacuated in the wake of the firestorm incident in Hamburg. |
Reason for Loss | Shot down by a Bf 110 night-fighter flown by Hptm. August Geiger of 7./NJG 1, and crashed near Oberhausen-Rheinhausen, 20km south of the target. |