Page from Log book - account of Dortmund Operation

Page from Log book - account of Dortmund Operation

Witten on page of log book a description of daylight operation to Dortmund marshalling yard on 12 March 1945. Was the largest daylight raid ever carried out by the RAF with over 1000 bombers escorted by squadrons of P-51 and Spitfires. Give some details.

1945-03-12

One printed page with handwritten entry

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.

LRosserLV745193v3

Year – MONTH/DATE; Aircraft – Type/No.; Pilot, or 1ST Pilot; 2nd Pilot, Pupil or Passenger; DUTY (Including Results and Remarks)

TARGET; [underlined] DORTMUND [/underlined]; (GERMANY DAYLIGHT)
TYPE; MARSHALLING YARD
DATE; 12.3.45
BOMB LOAD. 1 – 4000lbs 14 – 500lbs TOTAL 11,500
AIRCRAFT "H"

Took of [sic] at 13.00 hrs. This was a real big effort, the largest daylight raid ever carried out by the R.A.F. Over a thousand Lancasters and Halifaxes took part, escorted by eight Squadrons of Mustangs and Seven Squadrons of Spitfires. The Stream of bombers was over 125 miles long, and the attack was very concentrated.

The Flak was fairly heavy and accurate, some of it a little too close.

Bombing was done from 19000 with special equipment. Germans put up dummy sky markers to no avail. Newspaper reporters interviewed two of our crews on return to base.

Young Gordon Todd our own navigator flew with us today. A very good and effetive trip.

Landed Base 18-00 hrs.

DURATION 6 HOURS.

2 aircraft missing

GRAND TOTAL [Cols. (1) to (10)] . . . Hrs . . . Mins. – Totals Carried Forward