An idiots guide to an idiot: Bomber. 5th March 1945.

Seventy two years ago tonight at 17.35hrs my Dad, then a 19 year old Sergeant in the Royal Air Force took off in Lancaster LM211 (code Z-Zebra) of 106 Squadron to attack the synthetic oil plant at Bohlen near Leipzig.
It was his third sortie, his job was Mid Upper Gunner. I remember him telling me that this was very near the Russian front at that time, in case they had to bail out they were given a silk Union Jack to wear round their necks, hopefully this would stop the Russians shooting them!
106 Squadron sent 14 Lancasters to join the other 235 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitoes from 5 Group Bomber Command to flatten these factories.
The National Archive at Kew holds the detailed reports from individual aircraft, squadron and group on these & other actions all still marked 'secret' at the top of the page. I can tell you that Lancaster LM211 bombed at a height of 12900 feet at 21.56hrs carrying 1x 4000lb bomb ( known as a 'cookie') and 9x 500lb bombs. The pilots comments state they were bombing on complete cloud cover so the target was marked by the Path Finder Force with 'Wanganui' sky marking flares, flak was described as 'moderate.' After bombs were dropped the pilot had to keep the aircraft steady for another 30 seconds (I think) for a photo flash to go off detailing where their bombs were dropped. At the National Archive there are many such photos including one taken from my Dad's Lancaster on tonights attack though as they bombed on cloud cover, that's all it is, a photo looking down on clouds! But the important thing is these records will be there for generations to come to see what their ancestors did.
They returned to base, Metheringham in Lincolnshire landing at 03.05hrs having been airborne for nine and a half hours, my Dad's longest trip. All from 106 Squadron returned but four other Lancasters did not. I don't know the fate of those four but with seven to a crew it's a potential 28 to include with the 56000 Bomber Command aircrew killed during the war. Their life expectancy was as short as an officer in the trenches of the previous war.
So there you are,a moment in history seventy two years ago tonight.