User:Gunbirddriver/RAF Daylight Raid

This is a work page

Other Daylight raids

Pickard: mentioned in despatches 17 March 1941.

James Pelly Fry

• Obituary https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/PellyFryJamesErnest.pdf
• Obituary at Model Aircraft http://www.antiquemodelaircraft.co.uk/pelly-fry-sam-35-obituary.html

Oberleutnant Walter Scheel, Adjutant of III Gruppe Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. His wiki page states he served as a radar operator on a Bf 110.

In the early days of the war it proved difficult to attack targets from the air with a conventional bomber due to a tremendous lack of accuracy. During the daytime such targets as railway junctions and cross roads could be located and attacked, but individual vehicles and other small targets could not be because bomber aircraft simply lacked the ability to deliver bombs with that kind of precision. It was much more difficult at night. Even attacking larger targets such as road junctions and troop concentrations was not effective. Flying in the dark of night each aircraft was in its own world. They were unaware of the position of other bombers around them, were unable to see them, and with the target itself shrouded in darkness it was very difficult for the squadron to deliver its bombs in a concentration upon the target.

Danzig raid

11 July 1942; Lancasters of No. 5 Group from 83, 97, 106 and 207 Squadrons attempted a daylight attack upon the U-boat production plant where it was reported U-boats were being constructed in sections on a production line basis in the Baltic port town of Danzig. The group were to form up at low altitude over the North Sea and then climbed independently into the cloud forecast for the Baltic Sea leg, arriving over the target at dusk and returning in darkness - a round trip of 1,500 miles. When the aircraft arrived over the target they had difficulty identifying the shipyards and bombed the town instead, while two of their number were shot down. The target survived unscathed. Danzig raid.

Further cloud cover daylight raids were made during the following week, With Stirlings to Lübeck, Lancasters to Essen and Wellingtons to Emden and Essen in an effort to disrupt work on a broad basis.

Operation Pandemonium

A daylight raid by 21 Stirlings on the Lubecker Flender werk AG at Herrenwyk U-Boat assembly works 4 1/2 miles northeast of Lübeck, using a cloud covered approach and attacking at dusk. The plan called for the Stirlings to take-off in late afternoon and approach at low level across the North Sea in formation till they reached their dispersal point, at which the aircraft separated. The aircraft made use of cloud cover in the fading light to reach Lübeck and carry out individual attacks on the target. The mission was flown on July 16th 1942. The force comprised 6 Stirlings from 15 Squadron, 3 from 7 Squadron, 3 from 149 Squadron, 3 from 214 Squadron and 6 from 218 Squadron. The aircraft reached the target area shortly after 9:00 pm. Two Stirlings were lost. One crashed into the estuary of the river Sneum. Only eight aircraft were able to release their bombs.

A Lancaster in flight

Another daylight raid was attempted against the Vulcan U-Boat yard, which was attacked in the late afternoon of xyz by 99 Halifaxes, Stirlings and Lancasters was even less successful.

Other raids

• Three others of note mentioned in Ashworth
• Lancaster attack on Danzig on the 11th of July.

• Page as a young officer, injured hand
• Groth and Jabs are awarded the Knights Cross

• Schwarm - an element of 4 aircraft, the base unit of the Luftwaffe
• Staffel - the size of a squadron, 3 Schwarms or 12 aircraft, but this was not the operative unit of the Luftwaffe, CO is a Staffelkommander (?)
• Gruppe - a unit of 2 to 3 staffels. The Gruppe was the operative unit of the Luftwaffe. The CO was called a Gruppenkommandeur
• Geschwader - analogous to an RAF wing or USAAF group, with about 90 to 120, CO is called the Geschwaderkommodore.

Designations: II/JG 26 - the second Gruppe of the Geschwader Jagdgeschwader 26

John Searby

• http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Searby.htm
• the first use of what was to become known as the 'Master Bomber' technique was carried out by Guy Gibson during the Dams Raid in May 1943, but it was
• taking over from Gibson as CO of No 106 Sqn

who was to develop the technique on a large scale. John Searby had been a Flight Commander on 106, under Gibson and when Gibson was posted to form 617, Searby took over the reins. However, within a couple of months he had been promoted to Group Captain and appointed CO of No 83 Sqn.

• It was the Peenemunde Raid of August 1943 that Searby first employed the 'Master Bomber' role when he flew over the German research station in the Baltic directing and redirecting the bombers of the Main Force in order to maintain an accurate aiming point.

• John Searby joined the RAF in 1929 as an Aircraft Apprentice in the 19th Entry at Halton.
• In 1935 he qualified as a pilot and was promoted to Sergeant.
• He was commissioned in 1939, and attended the Specialist Navigation. Following this he was assigned as an instructor at No ? OTU, flying Blenheims. (Where?)
• He spent time ferrying aircraft across the Atlantic.
• He was given a staff post (where?)
• He was promotion to Sqn Ldr as a Group Navigation Officer before undertaking his first full operational tour as a flight commander with No 106 Sqn at Coningsby and later Swinderby.
• For his work on the night of 17/18 August 1943 over Peenemunde he was awarded an immediate DSO and remained in command of 83 until November when he moved to RAF Upwood as OC. However, his replacement at 83 was shot down shortly after taking command and Searby returned to command the squadron for a further two weeks before resuming command of Upwood.
• His final posting before the end of the war was Command Navigation Officer at HQ Bomber Command.

Citation for the award of the Distinguished Service Order “Acting Group Captain John Henry SEARBY, D.F.C., Royal Air Force, No.83 Squadron.

One night in August, 1943, this officer participated in a bombing attack on an important target at Peenemunde. Enemy fighters. were extremely active over the target area, but in spite of this Group Captain Searby executed his difficult task with consummate skill. He displayed faultless leadership, great courage and resolution throughout.”

(London Gazette – 7 September 1943)

Other

• Group Captain Jack Goodman, RAF Pathfinder pilot Oral History, IWM
• dropped window at 45 degrees from the bomber stream
• Some German night fighter tactics:

• dropped flares over the top of the bomber stream and attacked.
• attacked the flanks of the bomber stream, or attacked an aircraft that had lost an engine.

Cheshire

"Cheshire was a legend in Bomber Command, a remarkable man with an almost mystical air about him, as if he somehow inhabited a different planet from those about him, but without affectation or pretension."

Sir Max Hastings

Dennis Conner sea trialed the boats against each other in the Kaiwi Channel of Hawaii, taking advantage of the steady 18 to 25 knot trade winds.