On the night of 29th September 1943 my father Wally Smith flew as Engineer on a operation to Berlin. This was not with his normal crew but was with Wing Commander D M H Craven as pilot. I have the ORBs for his other 30 ops' but have no information on this one. Wally's log book shows the Lanc' that night to be ED 630 but that is shown as only having been with 61 squadron! Any information on this raid/Lanc' would be greatly appreciated By completing this Operation my father had done 30 ops whilst they had completed 29,so he went on to do 31 for his first tour! (see Home - raf-bombercommand)
Hi mate, this won't help much at all. You'll no doubt get some more info from members but I'll have a further look tomorrow to see if I can dig up finer detail/experiences from the night. RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary EDIT: Andy, just came across this "letter to the editor" from the daughter/son of W/C Craven. Have you been in touch with her/him? Might he/she have his logbook? Letters to the Telegraph - Telegraph Many other nice letters on the topic at the link.
Andy I have seen Blaise Cravens letter and tried to get a post code but to no avail. I will probably just post a letter to the basic address and hope the post man has a small round! Thanx for being there.
ED630 is not listed as 12 Squadron aircraft, and 12 Squadron did not bomb Berlin that day. Their mission was Bochum on that date, and the diaries do not any Berlin missions for a few days either side of that date.
It is a mystery the log book clearly states Berlin and includes bomb load and altitude and a flight time of 7hrs 55 mins.This was my fathers 28th operational entry in his log book which is immaculately written so there is no miss reading on my part.
Both 156 and 9 Squadrons (as well as others) took part in this mission. Neither the ORB for 156, nor the history of 9 Squadron make any mention of any possible last minute changes to the target. I've had a look at your site, and as you say, the entry is very clearly marked. Very strange.
