6 Bomber Group June 10/11, 1944
100 Halifaxes from 420, 424, 425, 427, 429, 431,432, 433, and 434 squadrons were joined by 10 Lancasters from 419 squadron on an attack of the rail yards at Versailles. The crews were over the target from between 6,000 and 8,000 feet releasing 788,000 lbs of high explosives.The rail yards were well hit.
While the crews were attacking Versailles, 12 Halifaxes from 428 squadron were ordered on a mining operation to Brest Saint-Nazaire, and Lorient. The crews were over the garden at between 8,000 and 9,000 feet sowing 48@1500 lb mines. Richard Koval (6bombergroup.ca)
405 Vancouver Squadron (Ducimus) Pathfinder Force, RAF Gransden Lodge. Lancaster III aircraft ND 352 LQ-T successfully completed a post D-Day operational flight to bomb railway marshalling yards at Versailles, France. On the return flight the Lancaster was attacked from below in the bomb bay by night-fighter pilot Oberfeldwebel Herber Altner of 8/NJG5 resulting in the centre fuselage immediately catching fire. Despite a valent effort by the pilot to give crew members time to bailout, with only the pilot and the mid-upper gunner escaping the aircraft before it crashed near Auneau, Eure-et-Loir, south-west of Paris, France
Flying Officer Alexander Thomas Armstrong (RCAF), Pilot Officer Joseph Jaques Guy Dagenais (RCAF), Flying Officer John Lionel Emery (RCAF) and Flight Sergeant Martin Arthur Thornhill (RAFVR) were all killed in action. These four crew members are buried in the communal cemetery some 21 km ENE of Chartres, Departement d'Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France
Pilot Officer Ross Joseph Phillips (RCAF) and Sergeant Jack Wilson Sharples (RAFVR) were missing, presumed killed in action. These two crew members are unaccounted for and have no known grave. They are both commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial
Pilot, Flight Lieutenant Melvin Pryor Stronach DSO (RCAF), badly burned and Mid-Upper Air Gunner, Flight Sergeant Paul Henri Gingras (RCAF) both survived to become Evaders and avoided capture
Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1944 Part 3 12 May - 23 June by Theo Boiten, page 50
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Aircraft accidents in Yorkshire
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