Mosquito: Menacing the Reich: Combat Action in the Twin-engine Wooden Wonder of World War II (30 page)

In February the FNSF flew 1,662 sorties. The 1/2 February attack on Berlin was the largest Mosquito bombing attack on the Reich capital since the formation of the LNSF. In total 122 aircraft were dispatched in two waves to bomb Berlin. No aircraft were lost. On the night of 2/3 February while two other forces bombed Wiesbaden and Wanne-Eickel 250 Lancasters and eleven Mosquitoes of 5 Group attempted to bomb Karlsruhe. Cloud cover over the target caused the raid to be a complete failure and the Mosquito marker aircraft that dived over the city failed to establish the position of the target. To make matters worse, fourteen Lancasters were lost on the raid. German cities were continually bombed early in the month and all were marked by Mosquitoes of 8 and 5 Groups. On 5/6 February sixty-three Mosquitoes attacked Berlin. By way of a change, on 7/8 February 177 Lancasters and eleven Mosquitoes of 5 Group attacked a section of the Dortmund-Ems canal near Ladbergen with delayed action bombs but all missed their target. Meanwhile, thirty-eight Mosquitoes attacked Magdeburg, sixteen bombed Mainz and forty-one others attacked five different targets. On 8/9 February Mosquitoes of 5 and 8 Groups marked Pölitz oil refineries for 472 Lancasters, twelve of which were lost. The first wave’s objective was marked by the 5 Group method. The Pathfinder Mosquitoes of 8 Group marked the second. The weather was clear and the bombing was extremely accurate and severe damage was caused. On 10/11 February eighty-two Mosquitoes bombed Hanover and another eleven raided Essen. The night following, 12/13 February, seventy-two Mosquitoes attacked Stuttgart and fifteen others hit Misburg and Würzburg.

At Woodhall Spa on 13 February Mancunian Flight Lieutenant William Worthington Topper
RAFVR
and his navigator Flying Officer Victor W. ‘Garth’ Davies went to the ops room to be told, ‘It’s Dresden tonight and Topper will lead’. A fair-haired giant of a man, Davies had teamed up with Topper in June 1944. Topper could see why he was called ‘Garth’. He was straight out of the cartoon strip in the
Daily Mirror
. He noticed too that under his navigator’s badge Davies wore the oak leaf of a ‘Mention’ [MiD, Mention in Despatches] and learned later from him that he was now on a second tour. In December 1943 while flying on 466 Squadron, Davies had been shot down over Belgium in a Halifax, picked up by the Resistance and had then walked back over the Pyrenees into Spain and back home via Gibraltar. He had never been far afield in his youth but he walked for miles and this and his mother’s strict upbringing, which included senna pod tea every Friday, stood him in good stead in the five days and nights walk through the Pyrenees in continuous rain. While Garth was the country lad, Topper was the ‘posh city gent’ who owned an open top 3-litre Bentley Red Label that his dog ‘Rostov’ rode in standing erect in all his glory as the two aircrew motored over the Pennines. (The story was that Topper had bought the Bentley from a lady in Bournemouth for about £20). Topper and Garth Davies had their differences, settled many times over pints of beer and they became, like many Mosquito crews in wartime, almost inseparable. In addition to Topper and Davies there were seven other crews in the marking team.
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Bill Topper remembers:

We went into briefing where we heard that the defences were not known (the city had received attention once before, early in the war, but by common consent it had been considered a ‘safe’ one, full of art treasures and architecturally superb). There would probably be light flak from trains in the marshalling yards as the Germans were sending supplies up to the front, about 70 miles East. The Russians had asked for the target because of this. There were a lot of refugees moving West. If we got into difficulty, that is where we should head, West, in no circumstances force-land to the East. The problem was going to be a weather front with 10/10 cloud over the target – unless it cleared as we got there.

For most of the participating aircrew the Dresden raid would just be another bombing attack.
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Dresden would be bombed in two RAF assaults 3 hours apart, the first by 244 Lancasters of 5 Group and the second by 529 Lancasters of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups. No. 5 Group was to attack at 22.15 hours, using its own pathfinder technique to mark the target. This was a combination of two Lancaster Squadrons; 83 and 97, to illuminate the target with Primary Blind Markers and parachute flares to light up the target and 627 Squadron whose Mosquitoes carried ten Red TIs, two yellow and eight
Wanganuis
, to mark visually the aiming point from low level. The first Mosquito marker had to identify and mark with Red TI to be assessed if accurate to be backed up by other Markers. If the Red TIs were more than 50 yards from the aiming point the Marker Leader would call for the ‘Yellows’ to be dropped alongside the inaccurate Reds and then the target would have to be marked by the other members of the team. The bomber crews knew that if they saw reds and yellows together they had to ignore them and concentrate on the Red TIs burning alone. If the marking point could not be marked the primary Greens were to be backed up with Reds. If the Greens were inaccurate, the aiming point was to be marked with Reds. At Dresden the aiming-point was to be a sports stadium in the centre of the city situated near the lines of railway and river, which would serve as a pointer to the Stadium for the Marker Force, especially since it was anticipated that visibility might not be too good. There were six such stadiums in the area so particular care had to be exercised. At 22.13 hours 244 Lancasters, controlled throughout by the Master Bomber, would begin their attack. A second raid was timed for 01.30 hours on the 14th by another 529 aircraft of Bomber Command.
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Calculations were that a delay of 3 hours would allow the fires to get a grip on the sector (provided the first attack was successful) and fire brigades from other cities would concentrate fighting the fires. In this second attack target marking was to be carried out by 8 Pathfinder Group.

Bill Topper continues:

We were operating at the limit of our fuel, which didn’t allow a very good dog-leg to disguise the target.
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We went towards Chemnitz and at the last minute altered course a few degrees and went down fairly rapidly from 30,000ft to 5,000ft at which point I called the Controller, who was Maurice Smith of 54 Base, to say I was clear of cloud cover. Garth said we would be there in one minute, packed all his navigational gear away, put the bag on his knees, his usual habit, with the Target map on top. This had concentric circles 100 yards apart surrounding the marking point, which was the centre of the middle stadium of a line of three across the city. In the event the bad weather front cleared as we got there and 5 Group Lancasters had no trouble in seeing the TIs. And then, as if by magic, the green flares were coming down from the two Lancaster Pathfinder Squadrons of 5 Group, which were flying at about 12,000ft. Down below was the city, as though in bright moonlight, with the river winding through it and there were the three sports stadiums. By now we were down to 3,000ft and Garth had selected the switches on the bomb panel. I called out, “Tally Ho!” and down we went, Garth calling out each 100ft as the altimeter unwound itself. At 700ft I pressed the button and away went a 1,000lb Red. Immediately there came a brilliant flash under the aircraft; the first photograph had been taken. We continued down to about 400ft where we levelled out, counting the flashes: six. Up with the nose and full power to regain height quickly, but there was no need: there was no flak; the city was undefended. (The opposition started the next day, at home, at Westminster).
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The Controller and one of the markers assessed the TI as 100 yards east and backing up was called for. One by one they called up, went in, cleared and climbed away while the red splash in the stadium widened and intensified.

Flight Lieutenant ‘Mad Jock’ Walker and his observer, Warrant Officer (later Flying Officer) Ken Oatley were Marker 2. Oatley recalls:

We had just about completed our turn when to my relief the illuminating flares started to fall about 5 miles away. Down we went like the clappers to 2,000ft and under the flares into the target area in no time at all. Jock immediately picked up the aiming point in the sports drome. With great excitement at the thought of being first man in for a change, he was just turning into his dive and about to press his R/T button for a ‘Number 2 Tally Ho’. When up came Bill Topper, I might say as usual and stole his thunder for the umpteenth time. However, we held off and followed him in, marked and as we pulled away, went between the spires of the cathedral. Levelling out we then proceeded to do a low-level run around the city. It was quite eerie. The streets were deserted. It was like daylight down there. You could see quite clearly the beautiful old buildings. There was not a sign of life anywhere, nor was there any gunfire, but now the bombs had begun to fall. Jock asked me for a course for home, which I gave him from my pre-flight plan. Being true to his name and much to my horror, he flew straight over the target area with 4,000 pounders crumping underneath and goodness knows what else coming down around us, he set course as if we were on a cross-country.

Marker 8, Flying Officer Ronald Wingate Olsen and Flying Officer Frank Leslie ‘Chipps’ Chipperfleld, were last to mark, in Y-Yankee.
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They had been together on Lancasters on 619 Squadron and had been awarded the DFC. Olsen was 24 years old and it seemed to him that Chipps was very old, though he was about 10 years older. Chipperfield was very musical and he often played the grand piano in the Mess at Woodhall Spa, but only when few members were about in case he got himself recruited for ENSA. They were in their bombing dive when the Master Bomber called, “Markers to clear the target area” followed by, “Main Force come in and bomb”. Olsen recalls:

Having released my markers and while pulling out of my dive, two things caused consternation: first there, right in front of me were the spires and turrets of Dresden Cathedral; secondly, some of the Lancasters were a bit quick to drop their ‘Cookies’, much to my discomfort. The aircraft was rocked and buffeted just like a rowboat in a heavy sea. It was on this occasion that I learned why the safety height to fly when 4,000lb bombs were exploding was a minimum of 4,000ft. This was the only occasion when I pushed the throttles through the gate to get extra power from the engines to get out of the area as quickly as possible. The return journey was uneventful after we had been given, “Markers go home”, by the Marker Leader. On landing Chipps and I were tired. Debriefing, followed by a meal and back to the billet to get some much-needed sleep. Later we realised that this operation was the longest time we had been airborne in a Mosquito: 5 hours 40 minutes, close to the maximum fuel endurance.
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Topper concludes:

Controller asked for the area to be cleared; a few moments later the bombs started to erupt in patches over the still, to us, silent city. I asked permission to send the marking team home, got it and passed it over. One by one the markers acknowledged. Garth and I continued to fly round the city at about 1,500ft. It had attractive bridges across the river and many black and white buildings. The bombing intensified and we climbed higher and away. There was a brilliant blue flash, probably a power station, and I commented on this to the Controller. A little later he said I could go; I acknowledged. Garth gave me the course to steer. As we climbed up, the glow on the ground spread as we went into thin cloud, then disappeared as the cloud thickened. At 30,000ft there were stars overhead and three hours of flying to be done. We were airborne for 6 hours. No.5 Group’s raid was at 21.00 hours and four groups of Bomber Command arrived at midnight to add to the flames already growing. The Americans followed up at 08.00 hours the next day to add to the destruction, which PRU photographs, taken later that day, showed to be very extensive. As an operation it was markedly successful. Nothing went wrong the marking went smoothly, the bombing was accurate and there were very few casualties in the bomber force. The Mosquitoes were aided by the newly installed LORAN sets, which enabled reliance on radar to be greatly extended as they went further east and out of Gee range. Navigation was excellent, spot on by all navigators, and the backing-up by all markers first rate. Little did we all think as we climbed down from our aircraft that the following days were going to see an outcry, which was to continue for months and years.
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So great were the conflagrations caused by the firestorms created in the great heat generated in the first attack that crews in the second attack reported the glow was visible 200 miles from the target. In a firestorm similar to that created in Hamburg on 27/28 July 1943, an estimated 50,000 Germans died in Dresden.

During February-March 1945 several major raids were carried out on the Dortmund-Ems canal and naval mines code-named Young Yams were dropped in the Kiel Canal. On 7 February 177 Lancasters and ten Mosquito markers of 627 Squadron attacked the Dortmund-Ems canal section near Ladbergen with delayed action bombs but the raid was unsuccessful. The bombs fell in nearby fields and three Lancasters were lost. Mosquitoes of 627 Squadron and 154 Lancasters of 5 Group returned to the Gravenhorst area again on the night of 20/21 February when 514 Lancasters and fourteen Mosquitoes of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups set out for Dortmund. Another 173 bombers raided Düsseldorf and 128 aircraft attacked Monheim. Wing Commander Brian R.W. ‘Darkie’ Hallows
DFC
, the new CO of 627 Squadron, led ten Mosquito markers to Gravenhorst.
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One of his Mosquito crews was Flying Officer Sam Fletcher and 20-year old Sergeant William W. ‘Bill’ Burke of 627 Squadron. Bill Burke had ended his first tour of operations with 207 Squadron as a non-commissioned navigator on Lancaster Main Force bombers of 5 Group at Spilsby in January and in no way did he want to join 627 Squadron. He had been flying on operations continually since August 1944 and as he admits, ‘was a shade flak happy. His hands had the typical ‘Bomber Command Twitch’ which sometimes called for an effort to light a cigarette. Even so, he liked life on an operational squadron and he wanted to stay there. Burke states: