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Something Special by Sid Finn
On night of 30/31 May 1942, RAF Bomber Command attacked the city of Cologne with 1,046 planes. The attack was concentrated into a hour and a half and the anti-aircraft and civil defences were swamped by the weight of the attack. In his message to the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Air Marshal 'Butch' Harris, Churchill said, `This proof of the growing power of the British Bomber Force is also the herald of what Germany will receive city by city from now on.' Two nights later, the RAF attacked Essen in the Ruhr, this time with 956 aircraft. The offensive of the Royal Air Force in its new form had begun; so stated a leaflet dropped in thousands on Germany in the weeks following the raid on Cologne. The first 1,000 bomber raid was an idea long germinating in the mind of 'Butch' Harris. Given a large enough bomber force, he foresaw a situation in which shortage of essential war supplies would sap the energy, effectiveness and morale of the enemy's armed forces. Of the four heavy bomber groups, two had most of their bases in Lincolnshire. No 1 Group, with headquarters at Bawtry, occupied the northern part of the county, and No 5 Group. with headquarters at Grantham occupied the southern part. Lincolnshire was particularly suitable for airfields, not least, its remoteness, a fact which especially in winter was brought home to ground and aircrews alike. No 1 Group bases in the county were at Binbrook. Hemswell, Scampton, Ingham, Skellingthorpe • Waddington, Waltham and Elsham Wolds. Elsham Wolds was constructed near to the former site of a World War 1 airfield. Six miles from the Humber and four miles from Brigg, it was sited on top of the chalk escarpment of the Wolds. The aerodrome was not quite complete when the first Wellington of 103 Squadron flew in from Newton. in Nottinghamshire, on 11 July 1941. But the personnel soon settled in and would remain there until the end of the war. The first station commander was Group Captain H. Constantine and he really got the base under way. The inhabitants of the nearby villages soon grew accustomed to the roar of heavily laden bombers passing overhead.
The Luftwaffe too had discovered the new airfield and in July 1941 intruder aircraft followed the Wellingtons back to Elsham and attacked the airfield with bombs and machine gun fire. Little damage was done and 103's aircraft were ordered to disperse elsewhere by the controller, leaving the way clear for the ground defences to engage the enemy aircraft. In a matter of minutes however, the JU 88 was attacked by a night fighter and, trailing smoke, it crashed near Bonby, narrowly missing houses. The aircraft was badly damaged, the crew dead. The winter of 1941/42 was a severe one on the Wolds, indeed over the whole county, and this restricted operations from Elsham for some time. But the cold spell passed and, aided by the better weather, the Squadron increased its operations against Germany. Still flying the Wellington at this time, the ground staff on the dispersals sometimes observed Halifaxes from some of the Yorkshire bases cruising overhead and wondered when the squadron would be equipped with similar aircraft. In the latter part of May 1942 a rumour began to circulate through the flights. There was talk of 'Maximinum effort' and 'something special'. The rumour persisted and left behind a sense of expectancy, soon to develop into reality. Work on aircraft in the hangars was speeded up. Normally only major programmes were carried out in the hangars, the remainder out on the flights (sometimes a very cold job). Fitters, riggers and all class of tradesmen were put on to shifts to speed up the work. 103 had a fair share of Commonwealth personnel among its aircrew and along with the others they, clad in overalls (borrowed), worked alongside the ground staff in hangars and workshops.
On the morning of the raid eleven Wellingtons from O.T.U.s (Operation Training Units) began arriving at the airfield and were parked on spare dispersals around the perimeter. These aircraft were normally used to train up bomber crews for the squadrons, but on this occasion they were to be part of the largest bomber force ever to hit Germany. All that day, in intermittent thunderstorms, fitters, riggers, armourers, electricians and signal mechanics toiled away in the stuffy aircraft. Out on the dispersals, the bowsers filled wing and nacelle tanks with the green octane fuel. Armourers in the bomb dump loaded bomb trailers for dispatch to the parked Wellingtons-4,000, 2,000, 1,000, 500 and 250 lb bombs, with their yellow shapes bright in the sunlight. Incendiaries too, in 4 lb and 30 lb sizes, stacked in containers, were loaded into the bomb bays in their hundreds. Eventually the thunderstorms died away, leaving a clear sky as the tractors towed the last aircraft into position beside the long runway. It was a beautiful May evening with the thoughts of war washed away. All was quiet—the calm before the storm. A hare emerged from a hawthorn hedge and streaked along the runway; the larks too were enjoying the lovely evening and sang gaily as they soared aloft. Soon the crew coaches and lorries began to make their way around the perimeter track, stopping at the dispersals to let the heavily clothed aircrew alight. There was much laughing and joking between ground and aircrew as they climbed into the dark interiors of the bombers. With a whine, accompanied by the slow turning of the metal blades, the first engine was started. Blue. smoke, swirling from the exhausts was quickly dispersed as the pilot increased the revs. The windmilling airscrew was replaced by a blurred shean of metal as the engine speeded up, causing the aircraft to shudder and surge against the wooden chocks. All over the airfield engines burst into life, the tremendous cacophony drowning all other sounds. Then it eased into a powerful throbbing beat radiating out from the airfield. The residents of Wootton, Elsham, Bonby, Barnetby, Melton Ross and Brigg would know that the bombers were going out that night. And there were similar scenes at the other bases as Bomber Command prepared for its 'Maximinum Effort'.
As the light faded, the flare path lights began to twinkle in the afterglow. The Wellingtons moved out of the dispersals and taxied into position at the end of the runway, the red and green navigation lights shining from black wingtips. Then the O.T.U. aircraft began to form a queue as they taxied out to join the others. A flash of green from the control van at the end of the runway and the leading bomber opened up to full power, and with glowing exhausts lumbered along the tarmac. It gradually gathered speed with the tail up until it lifted off and roared into the air over Elsham village, its wheels retracting as it circled for height above the airfield. It was soon followed by another all were airborne. The sky above the airfield was crowded, and cruising above the local aircraft were scores of other bombers, their silhouettes dark in the pink of the evening sky as they flew towards the Wash. Lincolnshire people gazed skywards and watched this huge armada droning overhead, the menacing throb of engines echoing around the houses and farm-buildings. Never before had they seen so many bombers fly towards the coast.
Silence descended on the airfield as the sound of engines died away. Tired ground crews, their labour done for the present, headed for the NAAFI for a beer, or back to the billet to catch a few hours sleep before the boys came back. Ground mist covered Elsham Wolds the following morning. Many strange aircraft were dispersed on the perimeter track. One huge Stirling, its nose shrouded in the mist, towered above a long-nosed Blenheim nearby—still with ground warning lights burning. A P.R.U. Spitfire was seen near the control tower as the mist cleared later. It was all evidence of a hasty let down after the big raid and approaching mist. We heard the target on the radio—security on the base forbad knowledge of such details. The ground crews were soon busy refuelling the visiting aircraft, and servicing and repairing damage. Several of the squadron aircraft had landed at other bases and returned to Elsham later in the day.
103 had lost two aircraft in the raid, one over Germany, the other taking off from Kirmington the following morning. A total of 1,046 aircraft took off for the raid, code-named `Operation Millenium'. Of these, 898 attacked the target area and 40 failed to return. The third and last '1,000-bomber' raid was on Bremen on the 25/26 June when 1,006 aircraft saturated the target. From that raid 44 Bomber Command and five Coastal Command aircraft failed to return. After years in the wilderness, the Command was at last silencing its critics. In the devastation around Cologne, Essen and Bremen lay a foretaste of what was to come.
Item written by the late Sid Finn and this appeared in the May 1984 issue of the Lincolnshire Life magazine. Sid also produced the fine artwork
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