This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

[Njaco]

WESTERN FRONT: The United States Coast Guard Cutter 'ESCANABA' (PG-77), was sunk by a German submarine torpedo, off Ivigtut, Greenland.

MEDITERRANEAN: In Sicily, US and Royal Air Force (RAF) heavy bombers attacked Catania and Gerbini Airfields, causing severe damage to aircraft, runways, hangars, and other installations. The heavy bombers claimed 5 fighters but 2 B-24s were shot down at sea.
....The Italian island of Linosa in the Sicilian Channel surrendered to the British.

ENGLAND: German raiders dropped "butterfly" anti-personnel bombs for the first time, killing 74 people and injuring 130.
....At about 11.30, a Typhoon operating from Milfield airfield, near Wooler, crashed in a field at Kimmerston Farm, Milfield. The plane was heard to come down in a power dive at a speed estimated at 600 mph, it did not pull out of it in time. The pilot was killed.
....Night fighter ace Wing Commander John Cunningham, brought down his 16th victim over southern England.

GERMANY: US VIII Bomber Command Mission Number 63: 151 B-17s were dispatched against the Bremen, Germany U-boat yards and a smaller force of 76 B-17s were dispatched against the Kiel, Germany U-boat yards. Both forces were unescorted and short-range P-47s were used on 2 diversionary sweeps off the coast during the morning and afternoon. The Thunderbolts from the US 56th FG met with the Fw 190s of III./JG 26 off the Belgian coast in the morning sweep. 2 Fw 190s were claimed by Col. Hub Zemke although only Ogfr. Heinrich Zenker was shot down and killed and Oblt. Karl-Heinz Bocher was wounded.
....The second sweep in the afternoon found 44 P-47s from the US 78th FG clashing with the Fw 190s of II./JG 26. 2 P-47s were shot down without loss to the Gruppe. 3 P-47s were claimed by pilots of JG 26, claimants including Ofw, Heinz Gomann and Lt. Friedrich Lange - both from 5./JG 26 - and Fw. Hans Mayer of 6./JG 26.
....Meanwhile the B-17s continued on to their targets, hoping that the two-pronged attack would split the defending fighters. The Bremen formation was attacked by 6./JG 11 and 32 Bf 109s and Fw 190s of III./JG 26 led by Gruppenkommandeur Hptm. Kurt Ruppert. A massive diving frontal attack raked the lead B-17 with cannon fire and it fell out and spiraled down. On board was Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest III of HQ 402d PCBW, riding in the co-pilots seat. All 13 crewmen bailed out but only one, the group navigator survived. General Forrest was the first American General to be lost in combat in Europe. The body of General Forrest was found near the seaplane base at Bug on Rügen and was laid to rest in Wiek cemetery on 28 September 1943. In 1947 his body was moved to Arlington cemetery, USA. (B 17F 42-30164 crashed Kiel Bay 13/6-1943)
....A second massive sweep through the formations from the rear immediately destroyed 4 more B-17s from the US 95th BG. On this pass, Hptm. Ruppert was hit by return fire and forced to bail out. He tried to open his parachute too quickly and it ripped his hemp harness and he fell to his death. 5 more B-17s were shot down bringing a total of 10 lost by the 95th BG in a few minutes of combat.
....In what the USAAF says was one on the heaviest fighter attacks to date, 26 B-17s were lost. A B-17F belonging to the 95 BG, 336 BS which was christened “Rat Killer”, was one of those shot down, crashing in the sea south of the island of Langeland. 3 more B-17s crashed in Kiel Bay. 31 B-17s were claimed by pilots from JG 1, JG 11, JG 26, JG 54 and NJG 3.
....Lt. Bock of III./JG 54 emergency landed his Bf 109 near Hesselbjerg 15 kilometres south of Rudkøbing on the island of Langeland at 10:00 hours due to lack of fuel after the combat. The Bf 109 was apparently less than 10% damaged and the pilot was unharmed. The aircraft was taken apart by the Luftwaffe and loaded on a railway wagon at Nordenbro railway station from where it was sent to Ofenerdiek near Oldenburg. When it arrived it was clear that the canopy had been forced open during the transport and the Luftwaffe complained to the Danish government demanding that those involved should be found and punished. An investigation was launched and it was found that the damage had been done by members of the Wehrmacht as it was common for guards to climb the wagons and get into damaged aircraft when the trains were parked in railway stations.

[Hugh Spencer]

14th June 1943
197 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitoes attacked Oberhausen, 17 Lancasters lost.
This target was cloud covered but once again the Oboe sky-marking was accurate. The report from Oberhausen said that the Germans noted the markers right over the top of the Altstadt. 267 buildings were destroyed and 584 severely damaged. 85 people were killed and 258 were injured.
2 Mosquitoes went to Cologne and 29 aircraft went minelaying off Brittany and in the River Gironde. 1 Stirling minelayer was lost.

[Njaco]

ENGLAND: The 349th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived at Thorpe Abbots, England from the US with B-17s. The squadron would fly it's first mission on 25 Jun.
....The creation of the Allied Tactical Air Force in the UK was announced. Following an assessment of 'Exercise Spartan', Tactical Air Forces (TAFs) were created as replacements for RAF Army Co-operation Command. The exercise tested the efficiency of Army co-operation squadrons under mobile conditions, and was effectively a rehearsal for the invasion and liberation of Northwest Europe.
....A Hurricane crashed at 12.25 on Milfield Hill Farm, Northumberland, it crashed almost on take-off. The pilot, seriously injured, was taken to the airfield hospital, were he died later that day. The aircraft was damaged.

MEDITERRANEAN: During the night Northwest African Strategic Air Force(NASAF) Wellingtons bombed Messina, Italy.
....The Italian island of Lampedusa surrendered to the British.

WESTERN FRONT: RAF Coastal Command began daily patrols over the Bay of Biscay by aircraft equipped with new detection devices to locate and destroy German U-boats leaving and entering their bases on the French coast. 'U-564' (Type VIIC) was sunk at 1730hrs northwest of Cape Ortegal, Spain by depth charges from a British Whitley aircraft (10 OTU/G).
....When an RAF No. 547 Sqn Wellington attacked 'U-155' in the Bay of Biscay, one man died. [Bootsmaat Heinz Wilke]. Four RAF No. 307 Polish Sqn Mosquitos then attacked wounding 5 men. 'U-155' shot down one of the Mosquitos. A Mosquito attacked 'U-68' killing 1 and wounding 3 more. 'U-68' later was given the doctor onboard of 'U-155' for some medical treatment.
.... 'U-334' (Type VIIC) was sunk in the North Atlantic southwest of Iceland by depth charges from the British frigate HMS 'Jed' and the sloop 'Pelican'.

EASTERN FRONT: A German report showed that 100,000 cases of typhus were reported on the Russian front during 1942, with a fatality rate of 15%.

[Hugh Spencer]

15th June 1943
6 Mosquitoes carried out a nuisance raid on Berlin without loss.

[Njaco]

ENGLAND: Additional modifications of YB-40 escort bombers were completed in the United Kingdom. It was now hoped that these B-17s converted to heavily armored aircraft with great firepower would solve the problem of long-range escort for bombers.
....The 565th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 389th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived at Hethel, England from the US with B-24s.
....RAF Squadron 101, Radio Counter Measures (RCM), was based at Ludford Magna, near Louth in Lincolnshire, as part of No. 1 Group, Bomber Command. At Ludford a dangerous task was assigned the squadron. Many Allied bombers were falling victim to German night-fighters guided by ground controllers scrutinizing radar screens. An Allied counter-measure named ‘Window’ partially upset this, but the Luftwaffe responded by coordinating the commentaries of several controllers at different locations, and delegating overall command to a single master controller who guided the night-fighters towards the Allied aircraft. The British Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at Malvern developed a response to this that was tested by 101 Squadron. It was called ‘Airborne Cigar’, or ABC, a battlefield version of ‘Ground Cigar’, and its original code name was ‘Jostle’. Using a receiver and three 50-watt T.3160-type transmitters, the German VHF frequency – and language - was identified and then jammed. The jamming caused a loud and constantly varying note running up and down the scale of the relevant speech channel.
....For this purpose, a German-speaking eighth crew member was included in the crew of especially fitted Lancaster bombers. He was known as the Special Duty Operator, ‘Spec. Op.’, or SO. All were volunteers from various aircrew trades. Since the enemy often gave phoney instructions to divert the jammers, it was essential that they know German reasonably well. In addition, if the Germans changed frequencies the SO would have to be skillful enough to do likewise. The SO had to recognize German codewords – such as Kapelle, for ‘target altitude’ - and log any German transmissions for passing on to Intelligence at the post-flight debriefing. Jewish veteran Flight Sergeant Leslie Temple recalls the Germans trying to distract the SOs by using screaming female voices or martial music. Some sources allege that the SOs were trained in ‘verbal jamming’, that is giving false information in German, but this was very little used. see: Jewish RAF Special Operators in Radio Counter Measures with 101 Squadron

MEDITERRANEAN: During the night Northwest African Strategic Air Force(NASAF) Wellingtons bombed the airfields at Milo, Sciacca, Castelvetrano, and Boccadifalco, Sicily. B-17s, B-25s, B-26s, and P-38s followed during the morning hours with raids on the same targets and hit the airfield at Bo Rizzo and radio stations near Marsala, Sicily. The US 448th BS took off with 36 planes to bomb the landing ground at Sciacca, Sicily. Hits were made on some planes on ground N of the field and others among barracks S of field. 12 Bf 109s and 6 MA-202s came up from the deck and were attacked by the escorts. The escorts shot down 1 Bf 109. 2 planes were hit by flak and 1 crash landed at Mateur.
....A detachment of the 12th Reconnaissance Squadron (Fighter), 67th Reconnaissance Group began operating from Malta with F-5s.
....Submarine HMS 'Umbra' torpedoed and sank the Italian heavy cruiser 'Trento'. 'Trento' was already damaged by a torpedo from an RAF No. 217 Sqn Beaufort from Malta. Submarine HMS 'Ultor' sankthe Italian auxiliary minesweeper 'Tullio'/No.92.
.... A Ju 88D-1 belonging to 2(F)./122 failed to return from a recce to Malta. Suspected engine failure was the cause and Oblt. Heinrich Fennel (observer), Lt Josef Träger and Fw Michael Feiersinger all MIA.
....At 14:30, the 'Athelmonarch', escorted by the Greek destroyer 'Aetos', was torpedoed and sunk by 'U-97' NW of Jaffa, Palestine. Four crewmembers were lost. The master, 35 crewmembers and eleven gunners were picked up by the destroyer and landed at Beirut.
....A meeting was held this evening by the 447th BS and the officers and enlisted men asked to vote on whether they would like to contribute more money each month in order to continue to get fresh vegetables and meat. The enlisted men voted to contribute five dollars each for the month of June and the officers voted to contribute ten dollars each.

EASTERN FRONT: SS Colonel Paul Blobel began work on the mass graves outside Lvov, Poland. Himmler, seeing that Hitler’s hold on power was waning decided to eradicate the evidence of the mass murders to be destroyed. Blobel was ordered to dig up the graves and burn the bodies. Concentration camp laborers were forced to dig up the decaying bodies, extract gold teeth from the corpses and burn the remains before reburying.
.... MS "T-411" of the Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla was sunk by a U-boat in the Sukhumi area. At 14:19, 'U-24' fired a spread of two torpedoes at the BTShCh-411 'Zashchitnik' (No 26), which had been spotted at 13:54 and observed one hit in the stern after 1 minute 30 seconds. The vessel broke in two and sank about 20 miles west of Suchumi. The survivors were picked up by the Soviet patrol craft SKA-0101 and SKA-0138.
....German General Heinz Guderian told Adolf Hitler that the new Panther tanks were not ready for battle.
....The rising experte of 9./JG 54, Lt. Walter Nowotny, scored his 100th victory. But the ace this day was Ofw. Herbert Strassl of III./JG 51 who destroyed 15 Russian aircraft during 4 sorties throughout the day.
....Theo Weissenberger was appointed Staffelkapitaen of 7./JG 5.

WESTERN FRONT: German U-boats hit a convoy in the Atlantic but failed to cause major damage after a running battle of 5-days.
....President Roosevelt approved a ceiling of 31,447 useful aircraft for the USN.
....3(F)./122's official 2000th Feindflug took place on this day - the crew involved were Ofw. Von Zabiensky, Obfw. Tonne, Fw. Knortz and Oblt. Salecker.

GERMANY: The Arado Ar-234, the world's first jet bomber aircraft, had its first test flight at Munster, piloted by Flugkapitän Selle. The Ar 234V-1 had no landing gear so it took off from a 3 wheeled trolley and landed on retractable skids. All went well with the flight but the five braking parachutes failed to open and the landing trolley was destroyed.
....The Ar 234 was originally concieved in early 1941 by an engineering team under Professor Walter Blume, director of the Arado aircraft company. The design project was code-named 'E-370" and was in response to a German requirement for a fast recon aircraft. Arado projected a speed of 780 kph, an operating altitude of almost 11,000 meters and a maximum range of 2,000 meters. The range was alittle less than the Air Ministry wanted but they liked the design anyway and ordered 2 prototypes.
....The 2 prototypes, designated Ar 234V-1 and Ar 234V-2 were largely complete before the end of 1941. However the Jumo 004 engines weren't ready and wouldn't be ready for over a year. In February 1943, Arado finally got a pair of Jumo 004As. However, these engines were only cleared for static and taxi tests. At the time, Messerschmitt had priority for engine deliveries for their Me 262 fighter and Arado had to accept what they could. Flight qualified engines were finally delivered that spring and the Ar 234V-1 was flown.
.... An Fw 190A-5 of 1./JG 2 was damaged in a forced landing at Bernay airfield after combat and the pilot Uffz. Karl-Heinz Kurth was wounded.

[Hugh Spencer]

16th June 1943
202 Lancasters and 10 Halifaxes attacked Cologne, 14 Lancasters lost.
The marking for this raid was not by Oboe but by 16 heavy bombers of the Pathfinders fitted with H2S. The target was cloud-covered but some of the Patfinder aircraft had trouble with their H2S sets. The sky-marking was late and sparse and the bombingb of the all-Lancaster Main Force was thus scattered. The local report believed that several hundred planes approached Cologne but, because of bad weather, only the first hundred bombed, the remainder turning back. Most of the damage in Cologne was to housing areas; 401 houses were destroyed and nearly 13,000 suffered varying degrees of damage. 16 industrial premises were hit including the Kalk Chemical Works which, according to RAF photographic reconnaissance, was burnt out. Other buildings destroyed or damaged included 9 railway stations, 2 railway stores, 1 telephone exchange, 2 district town halls (at Ehrenfeld and Spanischer Bau), 5 churches, 5 hospitals, 3 cinemas and 2 schools. 147 people were killed and 213 were injured.
5 Mosquitoes went to Berlin.

[Njaco]

ENGLAND: The 566th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 389th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived at Hethel, England from the US with B-24s.
....British military intelligence received its first report from an agent about a "bomb with wings" (V-1) being developed in Germany.

WESTERN FRONT: Britain invoked the treaty of Windsor (established in 1386, binding Britain and Portugal to mutual assistance), and requested of Portugal that Britain be allowed to use airfields on the Azores islands.
....British Bomber Command aircraft began dropping sea mines from 6000 feet, instead of 2000-3000 feet.
....Corvette HMCS Arvida arrived Iceland for repair of depth charge damage.
....An aircraft from RAF No. 547 Sqn attacked 'U-600', killing one crewman. The aircraft was shot down.
.....A Ju 88C-6 belonging to 11./NJG 3 experienced an engine failure on the left engine during a calibration flight and tried to make it back to Fliegerhorst Grove. At 00:15 Hours the Ju 88 crashed near what is today known as Stadionvej road 93 near Karup. The tail of the JU 88 ended up 20 metres from the house, but luckily no fire started. In the morning personnel from Fliegerhorst Grove arrived and retrieved the crew from the wreckage. Pilot Uffz. Franz Henneke, Wop Uffz. Günther Thiele and Engineer Gefr. Josef Deppish had all died and were placed underneath a parachute about 20 metres from the wreck. The Luftwaffe personnel worked all day to remove the wreckage and not until late afternoon were the bodies removed.
....While flying target on a calibration flight for a radar station a Ju 88C-6 belonging to 10./NJG 3 was apparently flying with its position lights on. Mosquito UP-R of RAF No. 605 Squadron piloted by F/O R. R. Smart and navigated by F/O J. K. Sutcliffe were orbiting Aalborg at 100 feet when they sighted the Ju 88 and climbed to 2000 feet for a stern attack. Smart opened fire at 00:45 hours with a 2-3 seconds burst. Strikes were seen on starboard engine and fuselage and the port engine caught fire. The Ju 88 fell to the ground with fire spreading to the fuselage and crashed just south of Sønderøkse about 7 miles west of Fliegerhorst Aalborg West. It blew up on impact. All were killed. One of the crewmen had managed to bail out, but at too low an altitude and he was found dead with a broken skull near Nørre Skovhus not far from the wreckage.

MEDITERRANEAN: Wave after wave of Allied bombers flew unmolested over Sicily today, dropping thousands of tons of high explosive on ports, airfields and other military targets. The island was being "softened up" for an invasion - although Rome radio was still talking of Sardinia as a possible target. An announcer described the country's present situation as "the gravest in the whole of her modern history."
....Four British battleships were on station in Gibraltar, and intensive training was under way both in North Africa and in Scotland, where a beach near Troon was being used for commando "rehearsals", although few knew the actual destination. Two more Italian islands have surrendered. White flags fluttered over tiny Linosa on 13 June as soon as the British destroyer HMS 'Nubian' appeared. Closer to Africa, Lampedusa was pounded heavily from the sea and air before surrendering on 12 June. A British fighter pilot, Sergeant Jack Cohen, force-landed on the island with engine trouble in the middle of the bombardment. Italians came running up to his aircraft waving white flags and shouting: "Can't you stop this?"
....Cohen was forced to shelter from Allied bombs and shells for two hours. Italian engineers helped him to men his aircraft, and he flew off to tell the navy that Lampedusa was surrendering. The capture of Pantelleria and the other islands has virtually closed the Sicilian narrows to German and Italian shipping.
....'U-97' (Type VIIC) was sunk in Mediterranean, west of Haifa by depth charges from an Australian Hudson aircraft (Sqdn 459/T). 27 men died when 'U-97' was lost and 21 men survived.

UNITED STATES: The first convoys for the Invasion of Sicily, Operation 'Husky', sail from the US.

[Hugh Spencer]

17th June 1943
7 Mosquitoes, 4 to Berlin and 3 to Cologne and the Ruhr. No losses.

[Njaco]

MEDITERRANEAN: United States naval vessels LST 6 and LST 326, were damaged by collision in the North African area.
....B-24s attacked airfields at Biscariy and Comiso, Sicily. During the night Wellingtons bombed docks and a marshalling yard at Naples, Italy.
....Preparations for the Allied invasion of Sicily continued as the British battleships 'Valiant' and 'Warspit' were transferred from the Scapa Flow in the North Sea to North Africa.

EASTERN FRONT: A Ju 88D-1 from 4(F)./122 failed to return from a mission to the Krymskaya-Armavir-Tikhoretsk-Krasnodar area.

WESTERN FRONT: RAF No. 186 Squadron flying the Hawker Hurricane MK IID made the first rocket attacks against targets at Flushing in the Netherlands.
....The BBC warned civilians in occupied Europe to evacuate the vicinity of all factories working for the German war effort.
....HMT 'Yoma' sunk by 'U-81'. On 13 Nov, 1941 the boat, under the command of Guggenberger, sank the famous British aircraft carrier HMS 'Ark Royal' in the Mediterranean.
....An RAF 206 Sqn Fortress damaged 'U-338', killing one and wounding three. The 'U-338' was nicknamed the 'Wild Onager' in reference to an incident that occurred when it was first launched. Apparently, the U-boat broke its moorings on the day of launch and sank a small tug boat.

[Njaco]

MEDITERRANEAN: The Allies "soften" Sicily with a pre-invasion bombing campaign. B-17s struck the Messina, Italy ferry slip and railroad yards while P-38s bombed the airfield at Milo, Sicily. B-26s and B-25s, with P-38escort, hit docks and shipping at Olbia, Sardinia and shipping at Golfo Aranci, Italy. Northwest African Tactical Air Force (NATAF) and Northwest African Coastal Air Force (NACAF) airplanes maintained patrol and reconnaissance flights. Northwest African Air Force (NAAF) aircraft claimed over 40 aircraft destroyed.

ENGLAND: Dr. R.V. Jones studied aerial reconnaissance photos of Peenemünde from June 12, and discovered what he concluded was a rocket, about 35 feet long, with five-foot diameter.
....The British "RDF" or "radiolocation" technology was renamed "radar".
....HMCS 'Athabaskan', a Tribal-class destroyer, Capt. George "Gus" Ralph Miles, OBE, RCN, CO, was damaged in a collision with boom defense vessel HMS 'Bargate' at Scapa Flow. This resulted in the destroyer being under repairs at Devonport for a month. 'Athabaskan' was dubbed "The Unlucky Lady" as the result of her many unfortunate escapades. In Apr 43, she was heavily damaged by weather and had to undergo major repairs. After her collision in June, she was hit by a German radio-controlled glider bomb on 27 Aug 43, which also required a lengthy period in a repair yard. 'Athabaskan' was sunk in action on 29 Apr 44 with heavy loss of life.

EASTERN FRONT: Oblt. Mietusch of 7./JG 26 had a 5-in-one day near Leningrad. In the morning, the staffel took off from Siverskaya airfield to patrol the Leningrad front. Soon engaging Russian fighters, he downed a Soviet LaGG-3 near Kinderovo and 7 minutes later another LaGG-3 near Podborvye. Obfw. Heinz Kemethmueller destroyed a Yak-1 in the same engagement. In the afternoon Oblt. Mietusch destroyed 2 more Russian LaGG-3s in 3 minutes. He ended the day with the destruction of a Soviet Yak-7 over Lake Ladoga bringing his score to 42 kills. But 7./JG 26 lost a promising pilot. Engaging lend-lease P-40s, Fw. Erich Jauer shot down 2 of the American-built fighters but was then caught by the Russians and shot down behind enemy lines. Captured, he spent the rest of thewar as a POW having destroyed 13 enemy aircraft during his short combat career.

NORWAY: While attacking shipping targets off Cap Pogan, 2 Fw 190A-3s of 14(Jabo)./JG 5 were lost. Flying "Black 9", Fw Hunlein struck the mast of the vessel he was attacking and crashed to his death. Uffz. Pohl was hit by AA fire in "Black 8" and died when he crashed west of Cap Pogan.

[pbfoot]

Originally Posted by Njaco

.


....HMCS 'Athabaskan', a Tribal-class destroyer, Capt. George "Gus" Ralph Miles, OBE, RCN, CO, was damaged in a collision with boom defense vessel HMS 'Bargate' at Scapa Flow. This resulted in the destroyer being under repairs at Devonport for a month. 'Athabaskan' was dubbed "The Unlucky Lady" as the result of her many unfortunate escapades. In Apr 43, she was heavily damaged by weather and had to undergo major repairs. After her collision in June, she was hit by a German radio-controlled glider bomb on 27 Aug 43, which also required a lengthy period in a repair yard. 'Athabaskan' was sunk in action on 29 Apr 44 with heavy loss of life.

.

They found her in the English Channel a few years ago and determined she was sunk by friendly fire (torpedoed)from a RN MTB

[Njaco]

Great stuff, thankx Pb. I got that off a site that refrences, I believe, U-Boat.net.....

18 June 1943

[Hugh Spencer]

19th June 1943
181 Halifaxes, 107 Stirlings and 2 Lancasters went to bomb the Scneider armaments factory and the Breuil steelworks at Le Creusot, 2 Halifaxes lost.
The tactics for this raid were that the Pathfinders would only drop flares and that each crew of the Main Fore was to identify their part of the target by the light of these flares. The Main Force crews were then to make two runs over the target area, dropping a short stick of bombs on each run from altitudes between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. By this stage of the war, however, Main Force crews were used to bombing target indicators and many had difficulty in making a visual identification of their target. Lingering smoke from the large number of flares was blamed for most of the difficulty. Bombing photographs showed that all crews bombed within 3 miles of the centre of the target but only about one-fifth managed to hit the factories. Many bombs fell on nearby residential property but no report could be obtained from France to give details of casualties.
26 of the H2S equipped Pathfinders who had released flares at Le Creusot were intended to fly on to drop flares over the electrical transformer station at Montchanin. By the light of these flares a further 26 Lancasters of 8 Group were to attack this second target. Most of the attacking crews, however, mistook a small metal factory for the transformer station and bombed that target instead. A few aircraft did identify the correct target but their bombs scored no hits on it.
6 Mosquitoes went to Cologne, Duisburg and Dusseldorf. 12 Lancasters of 3 Group laid mines in the River Gironde, 1 Lancaster was lost.

[Njaco]

ENGLAND: During the month of June, the 40th Bombardment Wing arrived at Brampton Grange, England from the US.

MEDITERRANEAN: During the night Northwest African Strategic Air Force(NASAF) Wellingtons bombed Syracuse, Sicily. An evacuation of civilians from Sicily and Naples was ordered by the Italian government.
.... A Ju 88D-1trop of 1(F)./122 was dispatched on a sortie to the Algerian Coast between Cap Bougaron and Oran. It failed to return and was believed to have been shot down by a fighter.
....In Italy, B-24s attacked ferry and railroad yards at Villa San Giovanni, ferries in the Straits of Messina, and the harbor of Reggio di Calabria.

NORTH AFRICA: The British sapper was the victim of a German booby trap. He was bleeding badly. The explosion had almost severed his leg. A razor-sharp piece of shrapnel had penetrated his skull. When medical orderlies reached him, his life was in the balance. Only a miracle or skilled surgery could save him.
....The miracle - and the surgery - came in the form of a Dakota aircraft, complete with a surgeon, nursing orderlies and an operating theatre. Within an hour of the explosion, the fight to save Sapper X was taking place in mid-air. The shattered leg was amputated, the head wound prepared for more complex surgery in a hospital ship in Algiers. In any previous war, the victim would have stood little chance. But now, the RAF's "flying ambulance" service was playing a vital life-saving role on the battlefield.
....Nearly 3,000 lives are known to have been saved by the service in the desert campaigns. Only one-tenth of head-wound cases failed to survive. Major-General Freyberg, the New Zealand VC, owed his life to a flying ambulance after being picked up from a desert airstrip with severe neck wounds. It was a risky business for the personnel, flying in unarmed planes, often over Axis territory. One orderly received two bullets in the legs, but continued working until the patient was safely down - then collapsed from lack of blood.

GERMANY: 9./KG 101 based at Lechfeld, became 13./KG 2. The remainder of III./KG 101 disbanded in August 1943.

[Hugh Spencer]

20th June 1943
60 Lancasters went to attack the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen without loss. This factory made Wurzburg radar sets which were an important part of the German fighter interception boxes through which Bomber Command had to fly every time they attacked a target in Germany.
This was a special raid with interesting and novel tactics. Like the recent Dams Raid, the attack was to be 'controlled' by the pilot of one of the Lancasters. This feature would be later known as the 'Master Bomber' technique. The plan was formulated by 5 Group which provided the Master Bomber - Group Captain L.C. Slee - and nearly all of the aircraft involved. The Pathfinders sent 4 Lancasters of 97 Squadron. Group Captain Slee's aircraft developed engine trouble and he handed over to his deputy, Wing Commander G.L. Gomm of 467 Squadron. The attack, like the recent raid on Le Creusot, was intended to be carried out from 5,000 to 10,000 feet in bright moonlight but the flak and the searchlight defences were very active and Wing Commander Gomm ordered the bombing force to climb a further 5,000 feet. Unfortunately the wind at the new height was stronger than anticipated and this caused difficulties.
The bombing was in 2 parts. The first bombs were aimed at target indicators dropped by one of the Pathfinder aircraft. The second phase was a 'time-and distance' bombing run from a point on the shores of the lake to the estimated position of the factory. This was a technique which 5 Group was developing. Photographic reconnaissance showed that nearly 10% of the bombs hit the small factory and that much damage was caused there. Nearby factories were also hit. 44 people are known to have been killed in Friedrichshafen.
The bomber force confused the German night fighters waiting for the return over France by flying on in the first shuttle raid to North Africa.
4 Mosquitoes went to Berlin and 1 to Dusseldorf. 15 aircraft went minelaying off La Pallice and in the River Gironde without loss.