Last Flight to Stuttgart by Lisa Jean Russ

Author:Lisa Jean Russ
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heritage House
Published: 2018-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

15

Operation 1: Leipzig

In Yorkshire, the morning of February 19, 1944, dawned bleak but dry with a chill wind.1 The “stomach turning words, ‘You’re on, tonight,’”2 gripped the crews. Everyone got down to work. Preparations, by now automatic after so many calls to ops, left time for their minds to wander. Is tonight the night? Will it be like what I’ve been told? Will I be here tomorrow morning?

The commanding officers, intelligence officers, and meteorologists (Met men) in various squadrons across England organized themselves to brief the crews for the raid. A last-minute phone call from Bomber Command changed a prebrief scheduled for 1100 hours at 78 RAF Squadron to 1700, with the main brief planned for 2130.3 The same change likely happened at all the bomber squadron bases across England. Everyone went about their business as ordered, but the questions remained in the back of their minds: Why the change in briefing? What’s going on?

It was not uncommon for nerves to get the better of those destined to fly, and last-minute changes to routine unsettled even the most seasoned of crews. By the time the main brief occurred, tension had worked its way to the surface like infection in a wound, escalating over the hours until the men were sky-bound. Early signs ranged from a poor taste in jokes, twitching, and uncontrollable shaking, growing in pitch and tempo as day turned into night.4

On February 19, more orders came down the pipeline than usual. Although at this point crews didn’t know where they would be heading, they had a good idea it was a distant target. All unnecessary weight was stripped from the plane, including the external armour plating and a certain amount of ammunition,5 so they could fly farther on the same amount of fuel. The longer they spent in the air, the greater the chance they’d encounter a night fighter, and now they’d have less ammunition and armour plating with which to defend themselves. Anxiety increased, but the men carried out their duties in preparation for the long night ahead.

The main brief finally came. The commanding officer (CO) began by noting the target on a wall map. Tonight the bombers would pay a call on the city of Leipzig, about 193 kilometres southwest of Berlin. A thick red ribbon marked the long path of the bombers from the base to the target.6 An elongated route was planned to avoid heavily guarded areas as well as to confuse the enemy as to the final destination. The flight would take them “east over Holland and the Zuider Zee [sic], south of Bremen, north of Hanover, and between Berlin and Magdeburg, then south to Leipzig.”7 The crews were to attack the industrial city’s fighter-plane production works, such as the Erla Maschinewerk aircraft factory that produced Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters at three plants (Heiterblick, Abtnaundorf, and Mockau).8 Bomb loads for 408 Squadron planes consisted of fifty 4-pound “X”-type, sixteen 30-pound, and 550 four-pound incendiaries, and one 4,000-pound cookie.9 The CO continued, discussing gas loads and route-specific special tactics.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.