Wimpy: A Detailed History of the Vickers Wellington in service, 1938-1953 by Steve Bond

Author:Steve Bond [Bond, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
ISBN: 9781910690994
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
Published: 2014-11-19T05:00:00+00:00

Flt Lt Harry Hacker, bomb aimer with 40 Squadron at Foggia Main. (Harry Hacker)

MINING THE DANUBE

As the Mediterranean Strategic Bomber Force continued its assault on the vital Hungarian and Romanian railway systems, the Germans began making increased use of the River Danube flowing 1,500 miles through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria, and capable of carrying 10,000 tons of essential supplies daily. Disrupting this traffic would have a major effect on Germany’s capacity to continue the war in south-east Europe. Consequently 205 Group commenced mining operations in April 1944 and over the next few months large numbers of mines were dropped, culminating in no fewer than 192 on the night of 1/2 July, dropped by a force of sixteen Liberators and fifteen Wellingtons. Harry Hacker summed up the difficulties surrounding these operations:

“Barges carrying supplies were numerous on the river and all were targets for our group. They were also used as flak barges so the enemy defences were strong along the river, and some sections, where the banks were high and where the river passed through gorges, meant these sections’ defences actually fired down on us going very low in order to drop the mines. Casualties were high because if you were hit at these low levels it made recovery more difficult and of course parachute escape was out of the question.”

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