21/12/44 ATTACK AGAINST TRIER – Railway Yards

Crew
F/S Vernon John Zinzan. Pilot
P/O James Sydney George Coote. Navigator
F/O J. Clements RAAF. Air Bomber
Sgt. Miles Parr. Wireless Operator
Sgt. A. Ackroyd. Flight Engineer
Sgt. H. Hutchinson. Mid Upper Gunner
Sgt. Herbert Steele. Rear Gunner

Aircraft
Lancaster Mk.I LM733
“R” for Roger

Remarks
Bomb Load 1 x 4,000 H.C., 13 x 500 G.P 2 x 500 M.C. 1 Munro.
Primary target Dortmund Oil Refinery
Stream very spread out.

Flight
Up 12.40 3rd January
Down 17.50 3rd January
Total Flight Time 5 hours 10 minutes

75 (NZ) Sqn RAF Operations Record Book (ORB)3/1/45Operations.  Fourteen aircraft were detailed to attack the above target in daylight. Crews bombed by instruments in ten tenths cloud. Results were unobserved. NZ42397 F/L I. Hannan landed at Mendlesham on return, but reached Base later the same evening.

Page 13, 1945. Form 540/ 541 AIR27/ 647  75(NZ) Squadron RAF, Mepal. National Archives.

Bomber Command War Diary
3 January 1945
99 Lancasters of No 3 Group made G-H attacks through cloud on the Benzol plants at Dortmund and Castrop-Rauxel. Bombing appeared to be accurate at both targets. 1 Lancaster lost from the Dortmund raid.

Page 646, The Bomber Command War Diaries. 2011. Everitt Middlebrook. Midland publishing.