6 Group Unavailable
Took off from East Kirkby at 22:23 in Lancaster Mk III (Sqn code: DX-J Bomber Command).
Crashed Dorkwerd, Groningen
225 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitoes of 1 and 5 Groups. 13 Lancasters lost, 5·5 per cent of the force.
This raid was a failure. The weather forecast had predicted a clear target but the marker aircraft found a complete covering of cloud. There was also interference on the Master Bomber's radio communications. The 5 Group method could not cope with these conditions and most of the bombing fell in the country areas around Brunswick. The city records show only a few bombs and there were no casualties. A reconnaissance aircraft flying through this area an hour later found it completely free of cloud.source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
This bomber team was downed by a Luftwaffe night-fighter in the night of Monday 22nd / Tuesday 23rd of May 1944, at 00.16 hrs. local time, during an RAF air raid on Braunschweig (Brunswick), in Central North Germany; it was hit by gunfire, given by Uffz. Herbert Meyer + aircrew (of unit 8. / NJG. 1 - started from "˜Fliegerhorst' Leeuwarden), and caught fire immediately and fell down, out of control. Then it exploded soon in mid air - because the crew couldn't drop their bomb load ! - and the remains of the craft and the killed crew came down nearby Dorkwerd village, situated NW of Groningen city, in the Province of Groningen, in the NE part of the Netherlands; only two men survived, of which one fell in a local water, without using his parachute ! (he was badly wounded, had many burns)
This aircraft, equipped with H2S radar (in a "˜bulge' under its fuselage) etc., was in fact brand new (!), was delivered to No. 57 Sqdn. on Tuesday the 16th of May 1944, thus circa 1 week earlier; it had flown only about 7 hours ! The Luftwaffe "˜Flugzeugführer' (= pilot), Uffz. Herbert Meyer, who claimed this "˜victory', was only 20 years old; born on 14 Aug. 1923, at Marienwerder, in today's Kwidzyn town, in Pommeren / Poland. This was his first "˜confirmed kill', and wireless supported by the "˜Jäger Leit Offizier' (JLO) of the coastal radar and air control station "˜Schlei' on Schiermonnik-oog Island, in occupied Holland; this Luftwaffe station "˜shadowed' constandly the RAF bomber with her Würzburg radar, after it was detected first with her long distance Wassermann M radar (range about 300 km.)source: Reearched / collected / compiled by Willem de Jong, Menaam village, Friesland / Netherlands.
