11 April 1943

Lancaster Mk II - DS604 KO-B

T/O East Wretham 0050 - Target Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Shot down and crashed 0229 at Soisons, near Rethel, Ardennes, France.

*DS604 with a total of only 49 hours service, had been claimed to have been shot down by
Oblt. Kurt Fladrich 1./NJG1 - 1 km North of Le Thour, Ardennes, France at 02.28hrs.
Kurt Fladrich became an ace with 15 kills and survived the war.

Source: 115 Squadron Roll of Honour by D. Bruce, W. R. Chorley, J. G. J. de Haan. - * more info Aircrew remembered

502 aircraft - 144 Wellingtons, 136 Lancasters, 124 Halifaxes, 98 Stirlings - raided Frankfurt.

Complete cloud cover in the target area again led to a failure.
The bombing photographs of every aircraft showed nothing but cloud and Bomber Command
had no idea where bombs had fallen.
Frankfurt reports only a few in the suburbs of the city south of the River Main.

21 aircraft - 8 Wellingtons, 5 Lancasters, 5 Stirlings, 3 Halifaxes - lost, 4.2 per cent of the force.

Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk - Bomber Command - Campaign Diary April 1943.

ORB. 11th April, 1943.
8 aircraft took off between 00.40 hours & 00.50 hours, to attack target FRANKFURT.
1 aircraft failed to return from Operations.
The remainder located the target some by means of red target indicator markers & others by the glow trough the clouds,
and dropped their bombs from heights ranging between 16,000 & 19,000 feet, without observing any definite results due to cloud.
One aircraft saw a large fire on leaving the target area. Photographs were attempted.

06.20. 7 aircraft had returned safely to Base after Operations.