Incidentally my father was there that night too.
23rd May 1943. DORTMUND. (GERMANY)
Take off time 2314 from Bourn.
Lancaster ED 862 P. Crew, F/O Fletcher, Sgt. Nelson, F/Sgt. Robertson, Sgt. Beesley, F/Sgt. Layne, Sgt. White, Sgt. Page.
After a nine day break Bomber Command sent a mixed force of 826 aircraft against this target, the largest non 1,000 bomber raid of the war to date. The Pathfinder Force accurately marked the target and consequently considerable damage was done to Dortmund on a raid that was considered a great success. 38 of the attacking aircraft were lost, 4.6% of the force.
This crew were one of 12 Lancasters from 97 Squadron tasked with bombing Dortmund, 3 of these aircraft were acting as Pathfinders. Their bomb loads consisted of, 1 x 4,000 lb. bomb, 4 x 1,000 lb. bombs and 7 x 500 lb.
The crew’s bombs were dropped on Dortmund from 20,000 feet. It was very dark, the moon was rising but the target was obscured by smoke. Red and Green T.I.’s were in the sights when the bombs were dropped and a big red explosion was seen on the west side of the target. There was a tremendous amount of smoke up to 10,000 feet and on the return the glow of the fires could be seen at the Zuider Zee, (Holland).
The crew returned to base with a flight time of 4.05 hours.
