6 Group Unavailable
602 aircraft - 316 Halifaxes, 258 Lancasters, 28 Mosquitoes - of I, 4, 6 and 8 Groups. I I aircraft - 6 Lancasters, 4 Halifaxes, I Mosquito - lost. This raid was split into 2 parts, with a 3-hour interval. The first force - of 226 airoraft -was directed against the important railway yards at Kornwestheim, a town lo the north of Stuttgart, and the second was against the north-western Stuttgart suburb of Zuffenhausen, where the target is believed to have been the Hirth aero-engine factory. The target area was mostly cloud-covered for both raids and the bombing, on sky-markers, was scattered.
There are soma interesting local reports. Bombs fell In many parts of Stuttgart's northern and western suburbs. The important Dosch works, in the suburb of' Feuerbach, was hit. The attack on Kornwesthcim was the worst suffered by tthat town during the war; the Kornwestheim local report shows that the local people felt they had been bombed by mistake and that the main target was in Stuttgart. 14 high explosive bombs fell in the industrial area of the town and in the railway yards, Fires burned for up to 12 hours. 123 people were killed in Stuttgart and 41 in Kornwestheim. A large number of bombs fell outside Stuttgart, particularly in the east around a decoy fire site which was also firing dummy target-indicator rockets into the air, The village of Weilimdorf, situated not far away, complained bitterly about its damage and casualties!.
Our local expert, Heinz Bardua, also tells the story of the newly promoted Flak Leutnant at his battery position at Vaihingen, situated just south of the decoy fire site. With bombs falling all around his position, the Leutnant thought that the raid was directed against the Flak positions. He ignored regulations about conservation of ammunition and shot his entire stock at the radar echoes of the attacking bombers, 2 Lancasters and a Halifax crashed in the immediate vicinity, much to the relief of the officer, who had feared a court martial because of his prodigious use of ammunition.
This was the last large R.A.F. raid on Stuttgart. Herr Bardua says that the city had endured 53 major raids, most of them by the R.A.F., during which 32,549 blocks of flats or houses were destroyed (67.8 per cent of the total). After the war, 4.9 million cubic metres of rubble had to be cleared. 4,562 people died in the air raids, among them 770 prisoners of war or foreign workers. Stuttgart's experience was not as severe as other German cities. Its location, spread out in a series of deep valleys, had consistently frustrated the Pathfinders and the shelters dug into the sides of the surrounding hills had saved many lives.. source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
Lancaster Mk.X KB770 took off from Middleton St George at 16:38 in Lancaster Mk X (Sqn code: NA-D Bomber Command) on a bombing operation to Stuttgart Germany.
Shot down by a night fighter, and crashed at Waldenbuch, Germany.
A survivor, Flying Officer Stapelford, stated that the aircraft seemed to be hit by hundreds of large shells and the four motors caught fire immediately. The aircraft went down quickly, Flying Officer Stapleford and FS Ossington were sucked out of a window, which had been smashed by the cannon shells, descended by parachute and were taken Prisoners of War. Cenotaph at Schomberg Union Friends Cemetery, Schomberg, York Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada
Killed: Flying Officer John Wilfred Blades RCAF J/35935 KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Collective grave 1. K. 19-21. Germany. Sergeant Reginald William Gullick RAF KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Coll. grave 1. K. 19-21. Pilot Officer Fernand Leo Jolicoeur RCAF J/95345 KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Coll. grave 1. K. 19-21. Squadron Leader Harry Leslie Kay RCAF C/888 pilot KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Coll. grave 1. K. 19-21. Flying Officer Gerald Joseph Liney RCAF J/40040 KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Coll. grave 1. K. 19-21.
POWs including Osslington: Flying Officer Robert Laird Stapleford RCAF J/38170 POW camp not listed.
