6 Bomber Group July 3/4 1943
42 Halifaxes from 408, 419, 427, and 428 Squadrons were joined by 34 Wellingtons 429, 431, and 432 Squadrons on an attack at Cologne. The crews were over the target at between 16,000 and 21,000 feet, releasing 205,000 lbs of incendiaries and 104,000 lbs of high explosives. According to reports, bombing was accurate and serious damage was caused. Richard Koval (6bombergroup.ca)
653 aircraft - 293 Lancasters, 182 Halifaxes, 89 Wellingtons, 76 Stirlings, 13 Mos¬quitoes. 30 aircraft - 9.Halifaxes, 8 Lancasters, 8 Wellingtons, 5 Stirlings - lost, 4·6 per cent of the force
.The aiming point for this raid was that part of Cologne situated on the east bank of the Rhine. Much industry was .located there. Pathfinder ground marking was accurately maintained by both the Mosquito Oboe aircraft and the backers-up, allowing the Main Force to carry out another heavy attack on Cologne. 20 industrial premises and 2,200 houses were completely destroyed, 588 people were killed, approximately 11000 were injured and 721000 bombed out,
This night saw the first operations of a new German unit, Jagdgeschwader 300 equipped with single-engined fighters using the Wilde Sau (Wild Boar) technique. In this, a German pilot used any form of illumination available over a city being bomber - searchlights, target indicators, the glow of fires on the ground - to pick out : bomber for attack. Liaison with the local Flak defences was supposed to ensure that the Flak was limited to a certain height above which the Wild Boar fighter was free to operate. R.A.F. crews were not used to meeting German fighters over a target city: and it was some time before the presence of the new danger was realized. The report on this night from 4 bombers that they had been fired on over the target by other bombers were almost certainly the result of Wild Boar attacks. The new German unit claimed 12 bombers shot down over Cologne but had to share the 12 available aircraft found to have crashed with the local Flak, who also claimed 12 successes.
source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
419 Moose Squadron (Moosa Aswayita). Target - Cologne, Germany. Halifax II aircraft JD 159 VR-Y was enroute to the target and had just crossed the enemy coastline when it was attacked several times by two German ME-109 fighter aircraft. it was shot down by night fighter pilot Unteroffizier Rudolf Frank of the 2/NJG 3 (detached to 2/NJG 1), flying Bf 110 G-4 D5+BH from Gilze-Rijen airfield, the Netherlands. The Halifax was extensively damaged with the starboard outer fuel tank on fire and the aircraft had to be abandoned It crashed at Miuzen, a suburb of Mechelen, Belgium. Pilot Officer Bell stayed in the aircraft and tried to make a landing because he had two wounded on board and they could not bail out, all three perished. This was Pilot Officer Bell's twenty-ninth operation. Killed: Flight Sergeant John Albert Anderson RCAF R/99890 Pilot Schoonselhof Cemetery IVa. A. 5., Belgium. Pilot Officer Angus Hugh Bell RCAF J/17340 Pilot Schoonselhof Cemetery IVa. A. 2. Pilot Officer William Bryce Taylor RCAF C/18110 Schoonselhof Cemetery POWs: Flight Sergeant George Edward Aitken RCAF R/85492 Stalag Luft L6 Heydekrug Warrant Officer Class 1 Joseph Douglas Henry Arseneau RCAF R/73263 Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria Sergeant Arthur Owen Simpson RAF 1335324 Stalag 357 Kopernikus Flight Sergeant Robert Omer Williston RCAF R/76596 Stalag 4B Muhlberg (Elbe).
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