8th September 1944. Weather – Cloudy with some thundery rain. Non-operational flying – Practice bombing, special navigation exercises and air tests were carried out. Operational flying – Bombing – LE HAVRE. 14 aircraft were detailed, 14 took off, 5 aircraft attacked primary, 1 aircraft returned early and the others abandoned mission on instructions of Master Bomber. 1 aircraft, ‘H’ (F/L Prager) was hit by flak in the target area, much flame and smoke. Fire extinguished by Navigator (F/L Trick) and MU Gunner (Sgt. Watt). 10/10ths cloud down to 3000 feet. Master Bomber gave varying instructions for bombing TIs, then abandon mission. Attack was scattered - much smoke and one fire in area. Some fires in North part of town. Red explosion at 0806 hours. Slight to moderate flak. No fighters seen. Five Lancasters seen shot down. 1 aircraft returned early with starboard outer engine u/s. 1 aircraft (LL677 JI-E2) was hit by flak and crash-landed at Tangmere, the pilot (F/O D Beaton) and engineer (Sgt J Sherry) being seriously injured and the navigator (P/O Nye) slightly injured. 12 aircraft landed safely at base on completion of their mission.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 18:20:30 +0000
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