6 August 1944, ND840

Hello everyone,

My father was shot down 6 Aug 44 on the Bois de Cassan raid. Sadly, he was the only crew member to bail out.

Mr. Chorley's Bomber Command Losses states the a/c was hit by flak.

I know there were two other aircraft lost on the same raid to fighters.

Are there any experts out there who could tell me if there was a claim for ND840.

My father's E&E report just says that the petrol tanks exploded.

thank-you for your help,
Chris

 

ah Chris my birthday .............

6.08.44 and this depends on the time if we get into the early hours of the 7th.

I have one kill by a Ju 88G-1 pilot Oberleutnant Jung of II./NJG 2 which claimed a P-61 NNW of Alencon...........I believe his ID is incorrect. this is the only claim I see for the night of 6./7. 8. 44

for the night of the 7-8th is another story with some 15 claims made by NJG 2 - 9 of them 2 by II./NJG 4 and 4 by III./NJG 6 flyiong Bf 110G-4's claiming 2 Wellingtons and 2 B-24's but these last claims of NJG 6 are way way to the south of the area you are interested in.

 

Thanks for the info Erich. Cheers to your birthday.

This was a daylight raid. My father's E&E report says he bailed out at 1220 hrs.

For some reason, I thought at least two out of the three a/c lost on this raid were to fighters.

Chris

 

ah now your talking a different scenario I will have to put the NF claims listing away and dig out the day fighter listing, that may take a little bit of time

 

4 Halifaxes and 4 Lancasters were claimed by pilots of JG 1 and JG 26, sadly most of the areas are not precise enough to give further details

 

Thank-you for your time Erich.

I guess I should find out how many aircraft went missing on this date on daylight raids.

Cheers,
Chris

 

that could help quite a bit, and if you can find a plot map for the squadron and bomb group as well ` as we then can possibly chart the engagements by using the Luftwaffe grid system

 

The days' action is described in Caldwell, 'JG26 War Diary Vol. II' ( Grub Street, 1998 ), but details of the Lancasters are not given.

FWIW, every Luftwaffe fighter unit in the Paris area was scrambled just before noon to intercept 222 Lancasters & Halifaxes which were targeting two large V1 storage depots. II/JG1 were first one the scene but were driven off by a squadron of Spitfires. However, III/JG.26 and III/JG.54 then arrived and had almost a 'free run' at the bomber formations.

JG.26 pilots Lancaster claims were as follows : -

Gefr. Deshombes at 12:16, N. of Paris ( UE5 )
Uffz. Gehrke at 12:23, Le Bourget/Paris ( UE8/9 ) - known to be a 207 Squadron aircraft
Uffz. Scholz at 12:15, N. of Paris ( UE7 )

The aerial battle sounds very confused - there was much overclaiming which Caldwell notes ' can be attributed to excitement at finding so many unescorted bombers, and inexperience in attacking them ; after two months on the Invasionfront, there were few experienced RLV pilots left....' ( p.314 ).

 

Since we are talking about a day operation we can consider that the Flak scenario is accurate. I can't imagine JG26 attacking the Stream while being shot at by their own Flak. This is probalby why 3/JG26 and 3/JG54 joined the fight later: they waited to leave the Flak zone. Flak always made sure the fighers were not around before releasing hell. The Lancaster crew must have seen the smoke caused by the shells, or at least been shaken and heard the typical noise of shell explosions. From what I read the bomb bay was hit, or a fuel supply wings) . However this does not mean the JG26 claims are not correct. It is reasonable to imagine a Lnacaster having difficulties being finished off by a fighter.

 

Thank-you, Martin and Skipper 67

That does make sense. Mr Chorley says the a/c was hit by flak putting the pilot out of comission. This information must have come from my father from a document I don't have. ( as he was the only survivor ). My father just mentions the fact that the petrol tanks exploded in his E&E report.
The a/c came down at the intersection of the villages called Eaubonne, Ermont & St.Prix just north of Paris.

regards,
Chris
Squadron Leader R.A.V. James RAF, DFC, PFF

Edit: I just found this bit of info stating there were three lancasters lost on this raid. Could this tie into Martins three claims ??
RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary

Chris

 

hi,
a bit of info for you re the other two lancaster lost on this mission , my grand uncle P/O Murdo Macdonald DFC was killed on this raid onboard ND930 , no survivors , all crew are buried in Pontoise cemetery , he was 22 , incidently the oldest was 23 ! The other lancaster was PB140, Info i have re this plane suggests that it was engaged in a running battle with a FW190 whose repeated attacks inflicted serious damage to the engines,control surfaces and rear turret wounding P/O DUGGIN and starting a fire. In the confusion some of the crew baled out , i read that a W/O LESTER was killed and i believe that Duggin died later as a result of his injuries. Incredibly the plane made it back to Ford Airfield in Sussex , crash landing at 1415 hrs.
Im led to believe that the mission was indeed against v bomb site at Bois de cassan and they took of at around 9am , 0906 i believe , so the reports of an attack on them around 1215 ish would tie in on the timeline.
If i can help with any further details please feel free to ask , im constantly uncovering more daily . Any help out there also greatfully received thank you.
regards Tom

 

Hi,

I have not had the time to look into the Bois de Cassan raids yet but I have a few bits about the V1 dump on my Website:

Untitled Document

I plan to add all the info I can get over the next few months. Follow the link to supply dumps and Bois de Cassan.

I would love to hear from you, and if you have any info you would like to share for the site please I would be very grateful

Best regards
Graham