Sam Saunders 692 Squadron

BThickettPSaundersEJv10015.jpg

Title

Sam Saunders 692 Squadron

Description

Details of Sam's operations with 692 squadron, mainly against German cities.
There is a photograph of the squadron arranged in front of two Mosquitoes.

Creator

Date

2013-10

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

One printed sheet and one b/w photograph

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘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. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

BThickettPSaundersEJv10015

Transcription

During January 1944 he was based in North Weald, Hendon and Boxted flying War Operations 48 to 53 and bombing across Germany; Hamburg, Duisberg, Magdeburg, Berlin, dropping 500lb bombs.

In February he moved to 692 Squadron and stayed there until the end of August 1944. This Squadron was specifically involved in bombing into Germany and Berlin, Daddy carried out one of the first drops of a 1x 400lb bomb. Then there was the bombing of Frankfurt, Berlin and Augsberg.

“In February 1944, an entirely Mosquito raid was successfully carried out against Düsseldorf. It was formed of the usual marker aircraft from 105 Squadron, 692 Squadron Mosquitos each carrying a single 4,000 lb 'cookie' and backup aircraft with 500 lb delayed action bombs.”

692 Squadron was formed at Graveley, Huntingdonshire on 1st January 1944. It was equipped with Mosquito light bombers and became part of the force of fast, high-flying night raiders, the Light Night Striking Force of No 8 (PFF) Group. They made a name for themselves with regular journeys to Berlin, hitting the German capital again and again with up to 4 x 500 lb bombs.

Total Flying Hours to date 793.40 by day and 533.50 by night.

Through March and April 1944, with a few flights with 571 Squadron, the 400lb 'cookie' bombs were being dropped regularly, firstly and famously over Düsseldorf as well as Hannover, Hamburg and Dortmund.

The Drops continued into August, attacking Cologne, Berlin, Bremmen, Metz, Saarbruchen, Hannover, Gelsenkirchen, Osnabruck and Stuttgart. The bombing was relentless and by the end of August he had flown more than 10 times to Berlin, dropping bombs.

By Operation 97 there are details of accuracy of the bombing, errors being 260 to 99 yards at 20,000 feet and some flights are specifically 'dummy' ones, either in the UK or across other regions of Germany, practising for the major bomb drops.

[page break]

[black and white photograph]

692 Squadron.

Citation

Penny Thickett, “Sam Saunders 692 Squadron,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/25335.

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