Postgram from 5 Group Headquarters to Officer Commanding 617 Squadron

MCheshireGL72021-181210-020002.jpg

Title

Postgram from 5 Group Headquarters to Officer Commanding 617 Squadron

Description

Message is a copy of Headquarters Bomber Command signal congratulating crews that their attacks on Le Havre and Boulogne succeeded in virtually destroying German naval assets in those harbours.

Creator

Date

1944-06-20

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

One-page typewritten document

Rights

This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre.

Identifier

MCheshireGL72021-181210-020002

Transcription

[underlined] POSTAGRAM [/underlined]
R.A.F. Form 1924
Originator’s Reference Number:- SY.574
Date:- 20th June, 1944.

To: Base Commander, Coningsby, Station Commander Woodhall, O.C. No. 617 Squadron
From: H.Q. No. 5 Group

Herewith copy of H.Q.B.C’S A.313 dated 18th June, 1944 from A.O.C. in C. HQ. Bomber Command.

[underlined] TOP SECRET. [/underlined]
Following for crews not for publication or to be repeated outside crew circle of addresses.
Begins:-
The attacks on Le Havre and Boulogne succeeded in virtually destroying the entire German Naval Forces in these harbours. Nearly one hundred Naval and Naval Auxiliary Craft were sunk or damaged. The proportion [inserted] sunk [/inserted] at least sixty being remarkably high. For security reasons not too much was made of this greatest of Air-Sea victories but crews can be satisfied that their efforts have altered the entire aspect of the Naval war in the Channel.
NOT TO BE QUOTED.
ENDS.

Originator’s Signature [initials indecipherable] Beale S/O
Time of Origin 201100B

Collection

Citation

5 Group, “Postgram from 5 Group Headquarters to Officer Commanding 617 Squadron,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/16526.

Item Relations

This Item dcterms:relation Item: Royal Air Force file cover - Le Havre 14/15 June 1944