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MATHERS FE
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MATHERS, Francis

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Handley Page Halifax II
Serial Number JB839
Markings KN-K
Memorial information
Burial/Memorial Country Germany
Burial/Memorial Place Durnbach War Cemetery
Grave Reference 6. D. 21..
Epitaph ONLY PAST ALL SORROW WHILE WE REMEMBER YOU, YOU HAVE NOT DIED
IBCC Memorial Information
Phase 2
Panel Number 206
Enlistment information
Service Number 413221
Service Royal Australian Air Force
Group 4
Squadron 77
Trade Pilot
Country of origin if different Australia
Last Operation information
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.