Crew
F/S Vernon John Zinzan. Pilot
W/O James Sydney George Coote. Navigator
F/O Robert Douglas Sommerville. Air Bomber
Sgt. Miles Parr. Wireless Operator
Sgt. A. Ackroyd. Flight Engineer
Sgt. H. Hutchinson. Mid Upper Gunner
W/O Robert John Torbitt. Rear Gunner
Aircraft
Lancaster Mk.I RF127
“W” for William
Remarks
Bomb Load 1 x 4,000 H.C. 13 x 500 ANM.,
Primary Target – Dortmund
Tracking error of .02 large on GH H2S on at 16.50 on run up to target.
Flight
Up 13.01 12th March
Down 18.16 12th March
Total Flight Time 5 hours 15 minutes
75 (NZ) Sqn RAF Operations Record Book (ORB)
12/3/45
Operations.
Dortmund was the target for twenty one aircraft. Flak was slight to moderate, cloud 10/10ths with tops 5/6000ft. Aircraft report good results Smoke was already pushing through cloud when aircraft left. Bombing was well concentrated.
Page 142, 1945. Form 540/ 541 AIR27/ 647 75(NZ) Squadron RAF, Mepal. National Archives.
Bomber Command War Diary
12 March 1945
1,108 aircraft – 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 Mosquitos attacked Dortmund. This was another new record to a single target, a record which would stand to the end of the war. 2 Lancasters lost. Another record tonnage of bombs – 4,851 – was dropped through cloud on to this unfortunate city. The only details available from Dortmund state that the attack fell mainly in the centre and south of the city. A British team which investigated the effects of bombing in Dortmund after the war says that, ‘The final raid … stopped production so effectively that it would have been many months before any substantial recovery could have occurred’.
75(nz)squadron 