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The 21 Sqdn left from an unknown RAF station at 1941-10-12 at an unknown time. Loc or duty Training

1941-10-12 · Unknown location · United Kingdom

The story

On Sunday 12 October 1941, a member of the 21 Sqdn, Sergeant F Cocking, took off from an unknown RAF station in the United Kingdom. His mission is mentioned elsewhere on WW2 History Europe. You can find the other details of this mission by searching here. Training and cargo flights are not separately mentioned as a mission. The plane left at an unknown time .

He flew with a Bristol Blenheim (type IV, serial Z9737, code YH-).

Campaign report of the USAAF:


No report

Campaign report of the RAF:


October

The month did not start promisingly with only small-scale operations possible by day or night and then, between the 5th and 10th, no operations at all because of poor weather. It wasn't until the night of the 12/13th that any real activity was recorded. That night, 373 aircraft (a new highest total) were involved in operations - 152 to Nuremberg, 99 to Bremen, 90 to Hüls with 32 on minor operations such as minelaying. The Nuremberg raid highlights the problems of navigating by dead reckoning with a changeable wind as bombs were reported from Stuttgart, 95 miles west of the target and Lauingen 65 miles away. The crews sent to the other main targets were only marginally more successful. Two nights later, 80 aircraft returned to Nuremberg but again encountered very bad weather and only 14 aircraft claimed to have hit the intended target. The weather continued to interfere with Bomber Command's activities and it wasn't until the night of the 20th/21st, when 284 aircraft were in action, that any sizeable number of missions was flown. On that night, Bremen was raided by 153 aircraft, Wilhelmshaven by 47 aircraft, Emden by 36 and Antwerp by 35 (none of which attacked because of complete cloud cover). The remaining sorties were Gardening and Nickelling. The daylight Channel Stop operations involving the Blenheims were becoming less productive and losses were increasing and these missions finally ended in early November. The operations, it was believed, had accounted for 101 ships sunk or seriously damaged (it was, in fact, only 29) with 139 aircraft lost.


With thanks to the RAF and USAAF.net!

This record can also be found on the maps of WW2 History Europe with Google coordinates. You can find the maps by clicking on this link on this location.

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