6 Bomber Group August 17/18, 1943
54 Halifaxes from 419, 427, 428, and 434 squadron were joined by 9 Lancasters from 426 squadron, on an attack of the experimental rocket site at Peenemunde. The crews were over the target at between 7,000 and 9,000 feet, releasing 335,000 lbs of high explosives and 3,600 lbs of incendiaries. The target was successfully hit, and the V-2 rocket program was set back. The first 2 waves of bombing did not suffer many losses but the 3rd wave, which included the 6 group, were attacked fiercely by Night fighters. This was also the first night of the master bomber technique, and of the slanted cannon by the German airforce, that would take down so many bombers in the months to come. This was also the first operation by 426 squadron since converting to the Lancaster II. Richard Koval (6bombergroup.ca)
596 aircraft - 324 Lancasters, 218 Halifaxes, 54 Stirlings. This was the first raid in which 6 (Canadian) Group operated Lancaster aircraft. 426 Squadron dispatched 9 Mark II Lancasters, losing 2 aircraft including that of the squadron commander, Wing Commander L. Crooks, D.S.O., D.F.C., an Englishman, who was killed
This was a special raid which Bomber Command was ordered to carry out against the German research establishment on the Baltic coast where V-2 rockets were being built and tested. The raid was carried out in moonlight to increase the chances of success. There were several novel features. It was the only occasion in the second half of the war when the whole of Bomber Command attempted a precision raid by night on such a small target. For the first time, there was a Master Bomber controlling a full-scale Bomber Command raid; Group Captain J, I·I. Searby, of 83 Squadron, 8 Group, carried out this task. There were three aiming points ~, the scientists and workers living quarters, the rocket factory and the experimental station and the Pathfinders employed a special plan with crews designated as 'shifters', who attempted to move the marking from one part of the target to another as the raid progressed. Crews of 5 Group, bombing in the last wave of the attack, had progressed the 'time and distance' bombing method as an alternative for their part of the raid.
The Pathfinders found Peenumunde without difficulty in the moonlight and the Master Bomber controlled the raid successfully throughout. A Mosquito diversion to Berlin drew off most of the German night-fighters for the first 2 of the raid's 3 phases. Unfortunately, the initial marking and bombing fell on a labour camp for forced workers which was situated rt miles south of the first aiming point, but the Master Bomber and the Pathfinders quickly brought the bombing back to the main targets, which were all bombed successfully. 560 aircraft dropped nearly ,800 tons of bombs; 85 per cent of this tonnage was high-explosive. The estimate has appeared in many sources that this raid set back the V-2 experimental programme by at least 2 months and reduced the scale of the eventual rocket attack. Approximately 180 Germans were killed at Peenemiinde, nearly all in the workers' housing estate, and 500,600 foreigners, mostly Polish, were killed in the workers' camp, where there were only flimsy wooden barracks and no proper air-raid shelters..
Bomber Command's losses were 40 aircraft- 23 Lancasters, 15 Halifaxes and 2 Stirlings. This represents 6·7 per cent of the force dispatched but was judged an acceptable cost for the successful attack on this important target on a moonlit night. Most of the casualties were suffered by the aircraft of the last wave when the German night fighters arrived in force; the groups involved in this were 5 Group, which lost 17 of its 109 aircraft on the raid (14·5 per cent) and the Canadian 6 Group which lost 12 out of 57 aircraft (19·7 per cent). This was the first night on which the Germans used their new schrage Musik weapons; these were twin upward-firing cannons fitted in the cockpit of Me 110s. Two schrage Musik aircraft found the bomber stream flying home from Peenemtinde and are believed to have shot down 6 of the bombers lost on the raid
source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
419 Moose Squadron (Moosa Aswayita) RAF Middleton St George. The crew of Halifax BII aircraft JD 163 VR-N were returning from a raid against Peenemunde, Germany when they were forced to ditch in the North Sea twenty-four miles off the coast from Happisburgh, Norfolk, England. A full scale air/sea search found no trace of crew or aircraft
Bomber Command Museum Monthly ORB
