The 101 Sqdn left from Ludford Magna at 1945-03-23 at 6:58. Loc or duty Bremen
He flew with a Avro Lancaster (type I, serial LL755, code SR-U).
Campaign report of the USAAF:
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS
(Eighth Air Force):: 3 missions are flown.
Mission 908: The Allied ground assault across the lower Rhine River begins; 1,276 bombers and 499 fighters visually attack rail targets in W and C Germany; they claim 1-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; 7 bombers are lost:
1. 319 B-24s are sent to hit the Rheine Bridge (79) and the Osnabruck (80) and Munster (142) marshalling yards; 2 others hit Hoya Airfield, a target of opportunity; 3 B-24s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 95 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 3 WIA and 35 MIA.
Escorting are 79 of 80 P-51s.
2. 519 B-17s are sent to hit marshalling yards Hengstey (113), Giesecke (91), Holzwickede (184) and the Unna yard at Dormund (38); secondary targets hit are Meschede (19) and marshalling yards at Siegen (93) and Marburg (10); targets of opportunity are Herdecke (10), Haliger (1) and Schwerte (10); 3 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 178 damaged; 6 airmen are KIA, 4 WIA and 27 MIA.
82 P-51s escort.
3. 438 B-17s are dispatched to hit marshalling yards at Coesfeld (145), Recklinghausen (120) and Gladbeck (141); targets of opportunity are Hechfeldt (12) and the marshalling yard at Westerholt (13); 1 B-17 is lost; 3 airmen are WIA and 10 MIA.
The escort is 71 of 79 P-51s.
4. 125 of 131 P-51s fly a fighter sweep of the Bremen-Kassel area; they claim 1-0-0 aircraft in the air and 0-0-1 on the ground.
5. 71 of 84 P-51s fly a sweep for the Ninth AF.
6. 16 P-51s escort 15 F-5s and 4 Spitfires on photo reconnaissance missions over Germany.
7. 25 of 27 P-51s fly weather reconnaissance missions.
Mission 909: 1 B-17, escorted by 4 P-51s, bombs Ettinghausen Airfield in a Micro-H Mk II radar test.
Mission 910: During the night, 9 of 10 B-24s drop leaflets in the Netherlands and Germany; and 19 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions to Denmark.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS
(Ninth Air Force): In Germany, around 800 A-20s, A-26s and B-26s strike 7 communications centers, a factory, and targets of opportunity (including several flak positions); attacks on communications centers are aimed at obstructing the movement of reinforcements to the front; fighters escort the bombers, fly patrols and armed reconnaissance, attack assigned ground targets, support the US III and VII Corps SE of Honnef and E of the Wied River and the XII and XX Corps astride and on the W bank of the Rhine River between Mainz and Worms.
The 107th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, moves from Gosselies, Belgium to Vogelsang, Germany with F-6s.
Campaign report of the RAF:
22/23 March 1944
56 Mosquitos to Berlin, 8 to Paderborn and 6 to Bochum, 39 RCM sorties, 30 Mosquito patrols, 21 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos minelaying in Oslo Fjord. 2 Intruder Mosquitos of No 100 Group lost.
23 March 1944
128 Lancasters of Nos 1 and 5 Groups attacked bridges at Bremen (117 aircraft) and Bad Oeynhausen (11 aircraft). Both bridges were hit. 2 Lancasters were lost from the Bremen raid.
80 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked Wesel, which was an important troop centre behind the Rhine front in an area about to be attacked by British troops. The raid was accurate and no aircraft were lost.
23/24 March 1944
195 Lancasters and 23 Mosquitos of Nos 5 and 8 Groups carried out the last raid on the unfortunate town of Wesel. No aircraft lost. Wesel claims to have been the most intensively bombed town, for its size, in Germany. 97 per cent of the buildings in the main town area were destroyed. The population, which had numbered nearly 25,000 on the outbreak of war, was only 1,900 in May 1945.
Support and 78 training aircraft on a sweep across France and as far as Mannheim, 65 Mosquitos to Berlin and 23 to Aschaffenburg, 41 RCM sorties, 39 Mosquito patrols. 2 Mosquitos lost from the Berlin raid.
With thanks to the RAF and USAAF.net!
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