115 Squadron

27 April 1943

Lancaster Mk II - DS609 KO-M

T/O East Wretham 0108 - Target Duisburg, Germany.
Crashed at Oberhausen.

Source: 115 Squadron Roll of Honour by D. Bruce, W. R. Chorley, J. G. J. de Haan.

561 aircraft - 215 Lancasters, 135 Wellingtons, 119 Halifaxes, 78 Stirlings, 14 Mosquitos.

This heavy raid was a partial failure.
The Pathfinders claimed to have marked the target accurately but daylight reconnaissance showed that most of the
bombing had fallen to the north-east of Duisburg; the Main Force may have bombed too early or they may have
been lured by early fires short of the target.
However, Duisburg had more than 300 buildings destroyed and a death roll of between 130 and 207 (reports vary).
4 of the Mosquitos taking part in this raid were from No 2 Group; they bombed Duisburg 3 hours after the main raid,
then dived hard and flew back to England at low level. Bombs hit 6 other towns in the Ruhr.

17 aircraft - 7 Halifaxes, 5 Wellingtons, 3 Lancasters, 2 Stirlings - lost, 3.0 per cent of the force.

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

ORB. 27th April, 1943.
11 aircraft took off between 00.55 hours and 01.35 hours to attack target DUISBERG.
One failed to return from Operations.
The remainder located the target by means of red & green target indicator markers on which they dropped their bombs
from heights ranging between 15,000 an 20,000 feed.
Good concentrated fires were seen in built up area and many scattered ones over a wide area.
Leaflets were dropped and photographs attempted.
1 Captain reported that an unidentified aircraft fired off colours of day 27 miles off DUTCH COAST.

05.05. 10 aircraft had returned safely to Base after Operations.