9/2/45 ATTACK AGAINST HOHENBUDBERG (Krefeld)– Railway Yards

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
P/O Chalrles Frederick Green. Mid Under Gunner*

Aircraft
Lancaster Mk.I HK562
“L” for Love

Remarks
Bomb Load 1 x 8,000 H.C., 6 x 500 ANM.,
Primary target Hohenbudberg.
If markers accurate a good concentration should be shown.

Flight
Up 03.46 9th February
Down 08.40 9th February
Total Flight Time 4 hours 54 minutes

*HK562 was one of a number of Lancasters that flew with the Squadron that was fitted with a ‘Ventral’ gun. This gun turret was fitted under the aircraft fuselage behind the rear of the bomb bay doors. It would appear that the Mk.I Lancaster had a ventral turret as part of the original design. Operational experience seems to suggest that this fourth gun position provided negligible additional advantage, despite the continuing threat from ‘Schräge Musik’ equipped night fighters, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 110.
75(NZ) appears to have operated the following Lancaster aircraft with the ventral turret, though it would appear that they were not used on every raid and would sometimes be removed altogether.
HK562 JN-Y/L
HK563 JN-W
HK576 JN-G
HK597 JN-P/N
HK600 JN-D/K
HK601 JN-D

75 (NZ) Sqn RAF Operations Record Book (ORB)
9/2/45
Operations.
Twenty one aircraft were detailed to attack Lutskendorf, but the target was changed during the afternoon to Hohenbudberg. This operation was carried out in 8/10th cloud with tops about 10,000. Flak was slight to moderate and S/L effective. A scattered raid was reported.

Page 62, 1945. Form 540/ 541 AIR27/ 647  75(NZ) Squadron RAF, Mepal. National Archives.

Bomber Command War Diary
9 February 1945
Politz: 475 Lancasters and 7 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 5 and 8 Groups. 12 Lancasters lost, l of them coming down in Sweden. The attack took place in 2 waves, the first being marked and carried out entirely by the No 5 Group method and the second being marked by the Pathfinders of No 8 Group. The weather conditions were clear and the bombing of both waves was extremely accurate. Severe damage was caused to this important synthetic-oil plant. It produced no further oil during the war. Speer mentioned this raid, in his post-war interrogations, as being another big setback to Germany’s war effort.
Wanne-Eickel: 228 aircraft – 200 Halifaxes, 20 Mosquitos, 8 Lancasters – of Nos 4, 6 and 8 Groups. 2 Halifaxes crashed in France. This raid was not a success. The local report says that the bombing was scattered, with only light damage to the oil refinery.
Krefeld: 151 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked the Hohenbudberg railway yards but photographic reconnaissance was unable to detect any new damage. 2 Lancasters lost.
47 Mosquitos to Berlin, 9 to Neubrandenburg (a ‘spoof’ for the Politz raid) and 4 to Nuremberg, 47 RCM sorties, 42 Mosquito patrols, 10 Lancasters of No 5 Group minelaying off Swinemünde. 1 RCM Halifax lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,020 sorties, 17 aircraft (1.7 per cent) lost.

Page 662, The Bomber Command War Diaries. 2011. Everitt Middlebrook. Midland publishing.