ww2 RAF Bomber Command quandry - H2S or ventral gun?

First of all - congratulations and many thanks to the Boy Genius for a job very well done in completely redesigning the website. There'll be plenty of new pages to view in the coming months.

As most of my research has been concentrated on RAF Bomber Command's 1 Group I have largely neglected the Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber. I know that aircrew who operated the Halifax were as loyal to their type as those who flew the Avro Lancaster were to theirs. News came to me this week from Canada where my good friend Ron had been in conversation with a veteran of the RCAF who had remarked that Halifaxes had the advantage of being able to shoot down night-fighters below them. I was aware that the Lancaster had the potential to have a ventral turret, but examples were apparently rare. A quick search revealed that a trial was carried out in late February 1944 to arm the Halifax bomber with a belly gun. 

 

By that time boffins had already come up with a powered gun-mounting, operated remotely by a gunner sighting through a wide-angle downward-viewing periscope which gave him only a split-second to aim and fire. A more simple modification was sought – the 'Preston Green under defence mounting Mk.II'.

At first glance Halifax III, LW650, taking off from Boscombe Down on 29th February 1944, looked like any other Halifax with an H2S radar blister beneath its fuselage. However, the scanner housing had a 0.5in. Browning machine-gun set on a USAAF style mounting ring, an aft-facing seat with a tilting back-rest was mounted in the scanner blister for the gunner. The blister had a viewing aperture allowing the gunner to search and the machine-gun mounting could be readily swung clear to give him a clear field of view, but was easily locked back into its firing position.

At that time H2S sets were deemed to be an essential bombing aid - ND360 had been fitted with a set in mid-January 1944 - but the supply of radar sets could not keep up with the demand for retro-fitting in existing aircraft as well as for the steady stream of new bombers coming out of the factories. New Halifax B Mk IIIs would, for a while at least, be fitted with the Preston Green mountings.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hphalifax/guns.htm

outlines details of the Preston Green Mk.II as follows:-

        Aircraft        Halifax B Mk.III
        Position        Mid-under       
        Motive power    Hand controlled
        Gun mounting    Bell adapter (US)               
        Armament        0.5in. Browning Mk.II           
        Ammunition      200 rounds in box and 50 rounds in duct
        Field of fire   Rotation 30° to each beam.
                        Elevation between 45°-90°               
        Gunsight        Free gun reflector sight Mk.III
        Dia. of bowl    49in.

Fire control Manual or electrical.

The trialling of ventral guns at this time suggests a continued awareness of the vulnerability of heavy bombers to attack from below, but whether this was also an acknowledgement that night-fighters were armed with upward firing cannon is unclear.

Once the production of H2S sets caught-up, the ventral gun modification was superseded in favour of fitting radar scanners - a decision made in favour of technology and the need to place bombs as accurately as possible. Unfortunately German night-fighters' FuG 350 'Naxos' sets homed in on H2S emissions. Would the idea of having an extra pair of eyes and a 0.5in Browning have been more appealing to bomber crews than an air to ground radar set?

Carefree times in RAF Bomber Command - USA 1942 - Arnold Scheme 42G

I was very touched by Danny's comments received this week (re:- previous blog 'many thanks anonymous emailer')

As I said in reply to Danny just now -  We ought to know what happened to all these young men. They deserve it that we know what they looked like and that they were real people.

This is the photograph which, for me, best describes them. They are acting their ages. I can name three of them, each of whom died flying operations with the RAF in 1944. Cousin Jim Ives is far right, next-but-one to him is Robbie Jones and behind him, (also in uniform) is, I believe, John Thould.

Had Jim and John just come off duty and joined other members of their training flight? Whereabouts in the south-east of the USA were they? Is it a lido or the beach?  Florida (possibly), Georgia (more probably) or Alabama (probably not)?

Does anybody recognise any of them, please? 

I wonder which of them survived the war?

"Bombing - Fiction and Facts".

First of all, apologies to anyone who was offended last time. It was interesting though how tensions surfaced which both reflect wartime niggles and contemporary perceptions.

Following on from last time, and spinning the clock forward six months from December 1943, another paper and print publication touched on the theme of US and British rivalries.

'The Aeroplane – incorporating Aeronautical Engineering', issue 1726 (23^rd June 1944) leads with an editorial article entitled 'Bombing - Fiction and Facts'.

'Our United States contemporary, “Aero Digest,” in a recent number, belittles the the Allied bombing of German industry and communications, and incidentally speculates on the difficulties of an invasion of Europe by land forces. We can excuse any false conception of the initial dangers of invasion, but lack of appreciation of the pre-invasion bombing shows a misinterpretation of facts not excused by ignorance.

After admitting that Allied air supremacy will be the deciding factor in the success of the invasion our contemporary adds, “nor is this any less true in view of the mediocre results of the RAF's early scheme of bombing Germany completely out of the War from the air.” We agree that senior RAF officers are believed to hold strong views on the ability of their Service to smash Germany without any except final resort to land invasion, but in the general strategy of War the RAF is a tactical weapon subservient to the broader strategical plans of higher Allied Command. Few German industrialists, or even the procrastinating henchmen of Dr Göbbels, would class the dropping of 275,000 tons of bombs by Bomber command of the Royal Air Force alone on Germany's War industry as “mediocre”.

The article goes on to outline the US view that the Allied city bombing campaign was ineffective because repairs were soon made to industrial buildings and communications and that weapons were still being produced - making the bombing a 'dismal' failure. A criticism which seemed (and still does) somewhat churlish as the USAAF had been invited to the Berlin 'party' by Sir Arthur Harris but were unable to 'be in on it' until time had virtually been called on the winter's campaign.

The effectiveness of the bombing campaign would surely be impossible to quantify until the end of the war. Had “Aero Digest's” reported opinion been coloured by the Eighth Air Force's own heavy losses and difficulties in bombing accurately in cloudy European skies? Or was it perhaps a comment on the RAF's night area bombing strategy?

The Editorial's concluding paragraph reports (note – that the date of the article is 23^rd June 1944):- 'Finally, “Aero Digest” turns to the bombing of the German capital. “Obliteration of Berlin seems inevitable as the AAF closes in for the kill,” it writes. “The RAF, of course, has already softened up the area with more than 130 night raids. Fifteen of these delivered 24,500 tons of bombs.”

We feel this remarkable statement needs no comment from us. We are content to leave the judgement of its accuracy in the capable hands of our good friends in the United States AAF.'


 

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Propaganda for the war effort? Night RAF Out Again.

A way to gauge what was happening at any stage in the war is to refer to contemporary records. Being the resourceful young chap that he is web-man 'the boy genius' came up with an issue of the Daily Mail dated 28^th December 1943 (a real paper and print edition), four pages in its entirety, which makes interesting reading. F/Sgt Jim Ives would have had the chance to read these same pages in the Sgt's Mess at RAF Waltham.

The main headline covered the sinking of the German Battleship 'Scharnhorst' two days previously:

'SCHARNHORST FELL INTO TRAP – Victim of Need for Hitler's Victory.

Convoy Safe: Only 2 Ships Damaged'.

Other reports included:

'Russians Drive 20 Miles in a Day – Southward Thrust in the”Bulge” -

Two more great successes were reported from the Eastern Front by Moscow to-night. They are:-

A 20-mile advance on the south of the Kiev “Bulge” which has now widened the “break-through front” by more than 60 miles, and

the cutting of the Vitebsk-Polotsk railway, the fortress's last direct escape route to the west.'

'Tedder Chosen as Our Invasion Chief Number 2 -

General Eisenhower's deputy in the Supreme Command for the Second Front is to be Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Chief of the Mediterranean Air Command, it is announced today.'

Tedder was attributed with having invented the tactic of 'carpet bombing' – nothing to do with Harris's city bombing campaign but explained in the piece as a feature of RAF co-operation with the Army in the Mediterranean and North Africa - 'a closely patterned carpet of bombs at points in the front line which needed softening'.

'Victory in 1944 – Eisenhower -

Allied HQ, North Africa, Monday.

General Eisenhower, newly appointed Supreme Commander for the “Second Front” told correspondents here today “The only thing needed for us to win the European War in 1944 is for every man and woman from the front line to the remotest hamlet of our two countries to do his and her full duty.”

'Night RAF Out Again, Holiday Lull Ends.'

 

'Churchill to speak on New Chiefs -

The Prime Minister will give his views on the pattern of the newly-created Western Invasion Command under General Eisenhower in the near future, most probably in a broadcast to the nation or by a speech in Parliament.'

Just a few of the items covered. Interesting and slightly surprising that six months before the event the national press was broadcasting the seeds of the invasion. But this is the nature of propaganda - good for morale at home and bound to reach German eyes and ears too, taunting the enemy that the pride of the German Navy had been sunk, the Russians were now making progress in the East, the Second Front was coming and the Allies would win the War, and that the bombing campaign against the German capital was continuing and effective, given significant credence by publishing a photograph.

The bombing of Berlin warrants a mention on three of the four pages of the edition – in addition to the 'Night RAF' piece the most recent raid on 23^rd/24^th December was being cited as the most effective attack to date.

But - Night RAF Out Again?   An honest mistake I'm sure, but I can find no record of a major RAF bombing operation after Christmas until the Berlin raid on the night of 29^th December 1943. Nothing at all until the night of 28^th/29^th (tonight) when according to 'The Bomber Command War Diaries' 10 Mosquitoes went to Duisburg, 9 to Dusseldorf, 1 to Cologne and with 11 other sorties from OTUs. 

Inaccuracy? Fabrication?  Or just a subtle bit of propaganda?

Meanwhile away from the war – entertainments were being advertised - 'all this week in N and E London' “Crazy isn't the word for it – Hi Diddle Diddle” (United Artists) with Adolphe Menjou, Martha Scott and Pola Negri.

And, at the Regal Marble Arch and London Pavilion – now - Sam Goldwyn's 'North Star', starring Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Walter Brennan and Erich Von Stroheim in its 3^rd record breaking week of the greatest picture of these years! - “A sincere gesture to scorched Russia as 'Mrs Miniver' was to blitzed Britain “. 

 

At the Apollo Theatre (telephone Ger 2663) Terrence Rattigan's play 'Flare Path' was in its second year and elsewhere the pantomime season was in full swing 'with Miss Glynis Johns as a graceful, impish Peter Pan (though slightly undertoned)' at the Cambridge Theatre. At His Majesty's Theatre Miss Evelyn Laye was a 'most charming Prince Charming', Miss Carol Lynne 'the prettiest of Cinderellas, the cast included four real Shetland ponies, 'that first rate ballet dancer Miss Natasha Sokolova' as the good fairy and 'Miss Tessie O'Shea, working with robust energy and a North Country accent'.

All good for morale.

Mention of Terrence Rattigan and 'Flare Path' of course, brings me neatly back to the RAF Film theme as his play apparently formed the basis for the excellent, and still my favourite, film of that era 'The Way to the Stars' (1945).

New main force RAF Bomber Command Film?

'The Dam Busters' is undoubtedly a great film, except perhaps for the water plume special effects. I saw in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago that the proposed re-make of the film is no nearer completion – which is perhaps no bad thing.

I have the utmost respect for all those involved in Operation Chastise, and the 1955 movie, however, 55,573 Bomber Command aircrew lost their lives during the Second World War – surely it is time for a film depicting 'main force' RAF Bomber Command operations. A British answer to the movie 'Memphis Belle' is long overdue (I am aware that David Puttnam originally intended the tale to be a Royal Air Force story).

Forgive the pun, but a new Bomber Command film need not set out to be a blockbuster – what more potential for drama, tension or emotion could there be than in the exploits of the likes of Norman Lyford, Frank Law, Cy Barton, Frank Wadge and countless others - devotion to duty and acts of selfless courage were nightly occurrences.

Why hasn't this film been made? Something to do with the elephant in the room – the ethics of the aerial bombing of cities perhaps?

Those of you with a copy of 'Does Life Hold Any More in Store' will know my view of the proposition that bombing was not only wrong, but could be deemed a war crime. This may be the philosophical view, but in the context of the progression of the Second World War - in my humble opinion and as Jim Ives would probably have said - drivel! 

Having been on the receiving end of the 'Blitz', having trained-up air-crews, manufactured aircraft and ordnance and with no other practicable way of attacking Germany and its war industries the RAF's aerial bombing of cities was – a 'no brainer'.

The Second World War became 'Total War', where civilians became engaged in the 'war effort'. I do not accept that the aim of bombing was to kill people. I believe that the intention was to destroy industries, to de-house workers, to divert resources away from battle-fronts, to disrupt the lives of the German working population – to damage the enemy in any way possible.

Lord Cherwell asserted early in 1942 - 'Investigation seems to show that having one’s house demolished is most damaging to morale. People seem to mind it more than having their friends or even relatives killed’.

There were certain to be civilian deaths - collateral casualties, as were suffered in Britain.

Germany had a comprehensive radar-based air-raid warning network, night-fighters, searchlights, flak batteries, air-raid shelters and the same opportunity as Britain had exercised to evacuate vulnerable civilians.

Surely, seventy years after the events it is possible to accept that the aerial bombing of cities and towns was an aspect of 'total war' – it was perpetrated by both sides.

So – how about this new film then? No doubt that it could be stimulating on visual, cerebral and emotional levels - not to celebrate the bombing of cities – but to acknowledge that aerial bombing was a feature of the Second World War, and to examine the courage of our bomber crews (and Germany's night-fighter pilots for that matter).

An honest depiction of bombing operations would lead to a better understanding of what RAF Bomber Command crews were tasked to do, as 'Das Boot' did for German submariners –  portray wartime servicemen fighting the enemy, the enemy's defences, the elements, luck and fate.

No need for apologies nor penitence – just acknowledge and accept that it happened and it should not happen again. 

Lancaster at War 3, mystery crew page 62

I hope that neither the publishers, nor the authors Mike Garbett and Brian Goulding will object to me reproducing a photo from their wonderful collection 'Lancaster at War 3'. Page 62 has two photographs – one depicting Guy Gibson's most famous dog, the other – an unknown crew from RAF Kelstern with their puppy mascot.

I have it on very good authority that the 625 Squadron crew is that of W/O Ron Lake. Geoff Yates, B/A in Jim Ives's, and for the rest of his first tour, Donald Blackmore's crew shared a hut with them. Geoff struck up a rapport with Lake's B/A 'Harpo' Greene and flew in his stead on a couple of occasions.

Ex P/O Yates (then a F/Sgt) remembered Ron Lake as a steady, cool headed pilot. W/O Lake went on to complete his tour of operations at Kelstern and survived the war.

Unfortunately I never pinned down who was who in the photo and sadly Geoff is no longer with us to identify them.

Lake's regular crew form his early days on the squadron seems to have been:-

Sgt R C Lake

Sgt L V Huntingdon (f/e)

Sgt H Greene (b/a)

F/Sgt W H Maver (nav)

Sgt W W Mills (w/op, a/g)

Sgt J Ramsay (a/g)

Sgt A R Masters (a/g)

Presumably one of them was behind the camera. Is there a glimpse of a crown above the figure on the left's chevron's, if so, and taking into account his dress, could this be navigator F/Sgt Maver? W/O Lake is next to him.

A/W/O Ronald Charles Lake was elevated to P/O status wef 5^th March 1944, the award of his DFC was gazetted on 19^th September 1944.

 

Unfortunately nothing is known about the dog.

'The noblest gift a hero leaves his race, is to have been a hero'.

I alluded last time to the loss of 95 aircraft on the 30^th/31^st March Nuremberg operation. Among the casualties were Sgt William Allan RAAF and P/O Cyril Barton. 

Sgt Allan, as you will be aware, had been one of Jim Ives's crew at 625 Squadron and was posted to 166 Squadron when the crew was split up. William Allan died when 166 Squadron Lancaster ME624, piloted by F/Sgt Roy Fennell, was attacked by a night-fighter and exploded on Giessen Airfield. One member of the crew, F/Sgt W Kiegwin, was able to bale out of the stricken aircraft, his six crew-mates F/Sgt R Fennell, Sgt W Pettis, F/Sgt J Smyth, F/Sgt D Harvey RAAF, F/Sgt A Jones and Sgt W Allan RAAF died.

P/O Barton had crossed the Atlantic on HMT Pasteur as a pilot u/t of class 42G, the same course as Jimmy Ives. Barton was apparently held back during his US training due to sickness and graduated as a member of class 42J.

P/O Cy Barton was yet another example of a young pilot who stayed at his post to the very last. Having been shot-up by night-fighters while seventy or so miles short of Nuremberg, with the intercom system u/s, fuel tanks and one engine of Halifax LK797 damaged, rendering the turrets out of action, a misinterpreted order led the b/a, nav and w/op to bale out. Barton pressed on and delivered his bomb-load and made for home, navigating as best he could by a chart strapped to his leg.

Having negotiated strong headwinds on the return flight the young pilot was nearing exhaustion. The aircraft crossed the English coast 90 miles north of where it should have with its fuel tanks all but empty. 

 

Flying at low level the two port engines ran out of fuel and stopped, too low to parachute out the remaining crew members took up crash positions and Cy Barton, flying on one engine attempted to find a suitable piece of ground for a crash landing. P/O Barton put the aircraft down, narrowly missing a row of miners' cottages and the pit-head at Ryhope Colliery, Tyne and Wear, clipping one cottage and crashing into the hillside. Cyril Barton was still alive when he was pulled from the wreckage, but died shortly after arriving at nearby Cherry Knowle Hospital. His three remaining crew-mates f/eng Sgt M E Trousdale, and a/gs Sgts H C H D Wood and F Bryce were injured, but survived. Sadly, George Heads a miner on his way to work was killed when the Halifax's tail assembly struck him.

For his gallantry in pressing-on to bomb despite the damage incurred to his aircraft, returning to England, avoiding disastrous damage to Ryhope village and for saving the lives of his three crew-mates, P/O Cyril Joe Barton was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.