Crew
F/S Vernon John Zinzan. Pilot
P/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
Sgt. Herbert Steele. Rear Gunner
Aircraft
Lancaster Mk.I HK562
“L” for Love
Remarks
Bomb Load 1 x 8,000 H.C., 6 x 500 ANM.,
Primary taret Wiesbaden
Numerous bomb flashes from a fairly concentrated area.
Flight
Up 21.00 2nd February
Down 02.54 3rd February
Total Flight Time 5 hours 54 minutes
75 (NZ) Sqn RAF Operations Record Book (ORB)
2/2/45
Operations.
Eighteen aircraft were detailed to attack the above target but two failed to take off. Crews bombed on navigational aids in ten tenths cloud with tops up to 21,000 ft. A scattered raid was the report of most crews generally. Slight H/F was the only opposition. JN/Y F/Lt. L.W. Hannan landed at Woodbridge owing to damage received over the target.
Page 56, 1945. Form 540/ 541 AIR27/ 647 75(NZ) Squadron RAF, Mepal. National Archives.
Bomber Command War Diary
2 February 1945
495 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups to Wiesbaden. 3 Lancasters crashed in France. This was Bomber Command’s one and only large raid on Wiesbaden. There was complete cloud cover but most of the bombing hit the town. 5 important war industries along the banks of the Rhine were untouched but the railway station was damaged.
Wanne-Eickel: 323 aircraft – 277 Halifaxes, 27 Lancasters, 19 Mosquitos – of Nos 4, 6 and 8 Groups. 4 Halifaxes lost. This target was also cloud-covered and the attack, intended for the oil refinery, was not accurate. Local people assumed that the target was a local coal mine – Shamrock 3/4; most of the bombing fell in the open ground around the mine.
Karlsruhe: 250 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitos of No 5 Group. 14 Lancasters lost. No 189 Squadron, from Fulbeck, lost 4 of its 19 aircraft on the raid. Cloud cover over the target caused this raid to be a complete failure. Karlsruhe reports no casualties and only a few bombs. The report mentions ‘dive bombers’, presumably the Mosquito marker aircraft trying to establish their position. This was a lucky escape for Karlsruhe in its last major RAF raid of the war.
43 Mosquitos to Magdeburg and 20 to Mannheim, 54 RCM sorties, 44 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,252 sorties, 21 aircraft (1.7 per cent) lost.
75(nz)squadron 