Nantes, Edward King's 9th operation of his tour

Nantes, Edward King's 9th operation of his tour

Four items,Edward's description of the operation to the Chateau Bougon aerodrome, his navigation plot, the expected H2S return of the target, a newspaper cutting referring to Bomber Command bombing by moonlight.

1944-05-07

Handwritten document, navigation plot, H2S plot, newspaper clipping

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SKingEJ182986v10042, SKingEJ182986v10043, SKingEJ182986v10044, SKingEJ182986v10045

[underlined] Nantes. [/underlined]

[underlined] Chateau Bougon Aerodrome [/underlined]

[underlined] 7/5/44 [/underlined].

Airborne 0015
[underlined] Landed 0605 [/underlined]

Full Moon – Quiet on way in to target.

Target – Flak very accurate. Good T.Is & Master of Ceremonies. Bomb Aimer saw runways with bombs bursting on it. Pall of black smoke up to 10,000’ with fires burning on ground.

Defences at Vannes quite concentrated light flak – had to go round them.

[page break]

[map]
[inserted][underlined] NANTES. [underlined][/inserted]

[page break]

[map]
NANTES
Aircraft Assembly Works (S.N.C.A. du SUO-OUEST)
Chateau Bougon Airfield

[page break]

6-POINT MOON BLITZ ON FRANCE

The R.A.F.s moonlight precision bombing experts – specially-trained “ace” squadrons – were switched in strength on to German bomber bases and ammunition dumps in France in the night, whites the [italics] Evening News [/italics] Air Correspondent.

Swift and concentrated bombing attacks were carried out on at least three heavy and medium bomber airfields in Western and Central France. The other targets in a six-point attack on France included two ammunition dumps.

Leverkusen, the big chemical centre north of Cologne, was also attacked, and the regular mining of enemy waters was continued. Nine aircraft are missing.

The airfields, at which there are also aircraft repair depots, were; Rennes, inland from St. Malo; Nantes, inland from St. Nazaire; and Tours, Central France.

Following up recent British and American daylight attacks, these latest blows were in the nature of “pot-boiling” raids of a tactical type, designed to smash runways, grounded aircraft, hangars, and depots, and put important Luftwaffe installations out of action for days or perhaps weeks.