01/01/2025
81 years ago, the 1944 strategic night bombing offensive started off with another raid on Berlin in the night of 1 January 1944.
28 out of the 421 Lancasters dispatched were lost. The spearhead of the bomber stream, was first detected by the German radar at 01.10 hrs. about 130 km west of the Dutch coast, and accurately plotted from that point onwards.
The take-off was planned for mid-evening but it was delayed due to doubts about the weather and it only began around midnight. This delay also caused a change in the outbound route, planned as a wide northerly approach over Denmark and the Baltic. The bombers were now ordered to fly the much used direct route across Holland.
The Lancaster JB280 LQ-K of the RCAF 405 squadron took off after this long delay as part of the second group of Pathfinders on 2 January 1944 at 00.23 Hrs. from Gransden Lodge, west of Cambridge England.
The German air defense controller was not deceived by a Mosquito ‘spoof’ raid on Hamburg, and German fighters were directed on to the bomber stream at an early stage and were particularly active en-route to Berlin.
From the night’s operation a total of 31 aircraft (3.16%), 31 Lancasters were struck off charge, including 8 of the 81 despatched Pathfinders, few losses were suffered over Berlin, only 2 bombers being shot down by fighters there, and the local Flak was probably restricted to the height at which it could fire and only shot down 2 bombers over Berlin. From these 31 aircraft there were a total of 217 casualties; 183 airmen died, 33 became Prisoners of War and 1 evaded.
On its route to their target Berlin the Canadian pilot Flying Officer Thomas Henry Donnelly and his crew, flying the Lancaster JB280 LQ-K were attacked by the German night fighter pilot Leutnant Friedrich Potthast flying a Bf 110 of the IV./NJG1 while the Lancaster JB280 LQ-K was bombed up with one 4000 lb. HC Cookie and four 1000 lb. MC bombs and with high octane fuel on board left for 7 hours of flying.
The Lancaster JB280 LQ-K and its crew crashed at 02.10 Hrs. close to Schoonebeek in the Netherlands after a violent midair explosion caused by the attack of the German night fighter killing the entire crew of 7 instantly and shredded the Lancaster.
Berlin was almost completely cloud-covered, and the Pathfinders experienced much difficulty in marking the target properly, both marking and bombing were carried out almost blindly. Bomber Command could make no assessment of the results; bombing was scattered and relatively ineffective mostly in the southern districts of Berlin.
The German Berlin damage report says that there was scattered bombing, mainly in the southern parts of the city. A large number of bombs fell in the Grunewald, an extensive wooded area in the south-west of Berlin. Only 21 houses and 1 industrial building were destroyed, with 79 people being killed, including 25 in a panic rush at the entrance of a public air shelter in the Neukölln district. A high-explosive bomb hit a lock on an important canal and stopped shipping at that area for several days.
Let’s keep the remembrance alive of what Flying Officer Thomas Henry Donnelly (DFM), Sergeant Leslie George Robert Miller, Flying Officer Alexander Jerry Salaba, Sergeant Brian Sidney James West, Flight Sergeant William Leonard John Clark, Sergeant Ronald Everest Watts and Sergeant Ronald Zimmer did for our freedom.
All the crew members of Lancaster JB280 LQ-K are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves section of the Municipal Cemetery at Schoonebeek in the Netherlands.
Rest in Peace.
Yannic and Rob Wethly
Do you want to get to know more about the crash of Lancaster JB280? Please visit our website: www.slodrenthe.nl/lancaster-mk-iii-jb280-lq-k
