Veteran remembers 'worst RAF disaster'

Kyt · Apr 5, 2009

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/sid...y=newssmh&itemid=DEED02 Apr 2009 11:53:40:830

A SIDMOUTH World War Two veteran who survived the "worst disaster in the RAF's history" reflected on the event on its 65th anniversary this week.

Summerfield resident Fred Danckwardt, 84, was a 19-year-old Lancaster rear gunner on the night of March 30, 1944, when more than 795 aircraft were sent to bomb German city Nuremberg- only for the mission to end in failure, tragedy and catastrophic airforce losses.

Fred, who was on his 14th air-raid mission 65 years ago on Monday., remembers seeing 50 bombers shot down in flames around him.

He said: "(German) fighters appeared before we reached the Belgian border and there was a fierce battle for the next hour until we passed through the target area.

"We were attacked several times, but each time I saw the fighter in sufficient time to tell Freddie (pilot) to corkscrew and we avoided being hit."

"The Lancaster had a serious blind spot underneath the aircraft and when over enemy territory I did not sit in my seat; I half crouched over the guns to look below as much as possible."

""Bomber Command lost 64 Lancasters and 31 Halifaxes over Germany, 11.9 per cent of the force- nine aircraft crashed on their return. More than 700 men were lost and very little damage was done to Nuremberg.

"This was the greatest German victory over the RAF during the war, and to my mind it was caused by someone failing to stand up and say 'the conditions are not right and the raid should be cancelled'.

Fred was commissioned by the RAF in 1944 after taking part in 45 raids and has noted all of his experiences in detailed memoirs.

He said: "It was pretty hazardous- temperatures could go down to minus 40 degrees up there and the rear gunner was always a target as without it a Lancaster would be hamstrung- its not an easy life.
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From the Bomber Command Diaries

30/31 March 1944

This would normally have been the moon stand-down period for the Main Force, but a raid to the distant target of Nuremberg was planned on the basis of an early forecast that there would be protective high cloud on the outward route, when the moon would be up, but that the target area would be clear for ground-marked bombing. A Meteorological Flight Mosquito carried out a reconnaissance and reported that the protective cloud was unlikely to be present and that there could be cloud over the target, but the raid was not cancelled.

795 aircraft were dispatched - 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos. The German controller ignored all the diversions and assembled his fighters at 2 radio beacons which happened to be astride the route to Nuremberg. The first fighters appeared just before the bombers reached the Belgian border and a fierce battle in the moonlight lasted for the next hour. 82 bombers were lost on the outward route and near the target. The action was much reduced on the return flight, when most of the German fighters had to land, but 95 bombers were lost in all - 64 Lancasters and 31 Halifaxes, 11.9 per cent of the force dispatched. It was the biggest Bomber Command loss of the war.

Most of the returning crews reported that they had bombed Nuremberg but subsequent research showed that approximately 120 aircraft had bombed Schweinfurt, 50 miles north-west of Nuremberg. This mistake was a result of badly forecast winds causing navigational difficulties. 2 Pathfinder aircraft dropped markers at Schweinfurt. Much of the bombing in the Schweinfurt area fell outside the town and only 2 people were killed in that area. The main raid at Nuremberg was a failure. The city was covered by thick cloud and a fierce cross-wind which developed on the final approach to the target caused many of the Pathfinder aircraft to mark too far to the east. A 10-mile-long creepback also developed into the countryside north of Nuremberg. Both Pathfinders and Main Force aircraft were under heavy fighter attack throughout the raid. Little damage was caused in Nuremberg.

49 Halifaxes minelaying in the Heligoland area, 13 Mosquitos to night-fighter airfields, 34 Mosquitos on diversions to Aachen, Cologne and Kassel, 5 RCM sorties, 19 Serrate patrols. No aircraft lost.

3 Oboe Mosquitos to Oberhausen (where 23 Germans waiting to go into a public shelter were killed by a bomb) and 1 Mosquito to Dortmund, 6 Stirlings minelaying off Texel and Le Havre. 17 aircraft on Resistance operations, 8 OTU sorties. 1 Halifax shot down dropping Resistance agents over Belgium.

Total effort for the night: 950 sorties, 96 aircraft (10.1 per cent) lost.

Pilot Officer Cyril Barton, a Halifax pilot of No 578 Squadron, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for carrying on to the target in the Nuremberg operation after his bomber was badly damaged in a fighter attack and 3 members of his crew baled out through a communication misunderstanding. Although the navigator and wireless operator were among the men who had parachuted, Barton decided to attempt the return flight to England in spite of the fact that only 3 engines were running. An unexpected wind took the Halifax steadily up the North Sea and it was short of fuel when the English coast was reached near Sunderland. Barton had to make a hurried forced landing when his engines failed through lack of fuel and he died in the crash, but his 3 remaining crew members were only slightly hurt. Pilot Officer Barton's Victoria Cross was the only one awarded during the Battle of Berlin, which had now officially ended.
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