Operations

On the night of 30/31 March 1944, RAF Bomber Command suffered its heaviest losses during a single raid. Targeting the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, a total of 545 British and Commonwealth airmen were killed from ninety-five aircraft lost, some 12% of the aircraft flying the operation. A further 157 airmen became POWs.

Map showing the outward and return route to Nuremberg.

 Nuremberg was an important economic and infrastructural hub for the German war effort. The MAN Works produced armaments of all kinds and, after the large Siemens factory in Berlin had been bombed, that company had stepped up production in Nuremberg of electric motors, searchlights & firing devices for mines.

Nuremberg was also symbolically important to the Nazi regime. However, its location in Southern Germany had put it outside effective operational radius for the RAF in the early years of war.

In 1944 Bomber Command was being called upon to support the invasion of Europe but Sir Arthur Harris was anxious to strike at one last major target before his resources were directed to prepared for Operation Overlord.

The raid fell within the date of the normal moon stand-down period, however an early weather forecast suggested that there would be protective high cloud on the outward route, when the moon would be up, and the target area would be clear. Ominously however, a later Meteorological Flight Mosquito reconnaissance carried out before the raid reported that the expected protective cloud was unlikely to be present on the route, although the target might be covered.

572 Lancasters, 214 Halifax and nine Mosquitos flew into cloudless conditions with bright moonlight that very much favoured the German night-fighters. Adding to this, the planned deception tactics failed to confuse the Luftwaffe night fighter control network as to the identity of the target. Consequently, the attackers were faced with intense night fighter opposition.

German aircraft began to intercept the bombers before they even reached the Belgian border, and a fierce running battle ensued in the moonlight for the next hour. 82 RAF bombers were shot down on the outbound route and near the target, almost all by night-fighters.

F/L Neville Sparks was Captain of a Pathfinder Lancaster of 83 Squadron: “We were flying at 19,000 ft., overtaking the Main Force 3000 to 4000 ft. above. Contrary to the forecasts, there was no layer cloud in which they could hide from enemy fighters. They were clearly visible, glinting in the moonlight.

It was on the long leg between Charleroi and Fulda when the heaviest slaughter began “We saw sparkles of cannon fire, some distant & some almost directly above us, followed by explosions, fires, plunging planes and a scattering of fires on the ground as far as the eye could see. 

“My Navigator, ‘Doc’ Watson, marked no less than 57 ticks in his Log on the way to the target. Each tick was a four-engined bomber we’d seen shot down by German fighters. It looked like an ambush from where we were watching. It was the most terrible thing I have ever seen.” 

Thankfully, the enemy attacks were much reduced on the return leg – most of the German fighters had to land to refuel and re-arm. Nonetheless, a further ten aircraft were written off with battle damage or crashed on return.

On top of the losses, the raid itself was a failure. Around 120 of the bombers incorrectly attacked Schweinfurt, fifty miles north-west of Nuremburg, due to forecast winds not eventuating. Of those that did reach the correct target, they inflicted relatively light damage on the city. Nuremberg suffered 74 casualties and 122 injured; with 130 destroyed and 879 moderately damaged buildings.

General view of the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. In the distance, the Frauen Church; Behind the destroyed buildings the Hauptmarkt.
(Credit: US Federal Government, public domain)

 New Zealanders on the Nuremberg Raid

Ten New Zealanders were killed that fateful night of 30/31 March 1944, with two more captured having parachuted from their damaged aircraft.

Max Lambert’s ‘Night After Night’ notes that the planned route was controversial – New Zealand pilot Phil Lamason was critical of the route to Nuremberg the moment he learned about it at a pre-raid briefing. A squadron leader and flight commander (no, 15 Sq.), with a DFC and two mentions in dispatches to his name, he tackled fellow New Zealander Andrew ‘Square’ McKee, then Air Commodore and Base Commander, Mildenhall.

Lamason protested about the outward route – over Belgium, then a long straight leg right across Germany to a point north-northwest of Schweinfurt, followed by a 75-mile southerly run to target (see below) – forecasting heavy losses and said the force should fly more or less the homebound route, thus avoiding the worst belts of searchlights, flak and fighter-bases.

McKee phoned Bomber Command chief Arthur Harris there and then and was told that the command was aware the route to Nuremberg had shortcomings but that the pathfinders wanted it because there were features on it that they could pick up on their H2S radar sets. It would therefore stand.

Lamason later said that he saw between forty and fifty aircraft shot down. He recalled that when he got back that McKee asked him “Was it as bad as you thought?” I said, “Yes, maybe worse; we’ve taken one hell of a hiding.”

Sqn Ldr. Phillip (Phil) J. Lamason DFC and Bar, RNZAF.
The image is not dated at its source but is believed to have been taken between January 1944 when the subject was promoted to Squadron Leader, and June 1944 when he was shot down.
(Credit: Unknown)

Vic Viggars, a wireless operator on 101 Sq. called the night a ‘proper cockup, a shambles.’ He recalled that “the winds given to us were wrong and we must have got off track. It was cloudy over the target and then we saw the sky lit up and we actually bombed Schweinfurt.”

Albert Lander was the pilot of another 101 Sq. aircraft. He was on just his second mission. His bomber, like many others, was attacked well before the target. They were hit southeast of Dusseldorf.

“After I told the crew to abandon the aircraft, I tried to keep the plane straight and level as long as I could until the flames entered the cockpit. I covered my face with my left arm but lost control of the aircraft which went into a spin throwing me out of my seat into a position with my back against the cockpit window.”

Somehow, with his clothes now burning, he managed to push himself out through the window and over the wing. His parachute opened just seconds before he landed in a small river. Only Lander and his wireless operator survived. Captured they became POWs for the remainder of the war.

Three of the Lander crew lost that night were fellow New Zealanders, navigator Mervyn Hutchinson, bomb aimer Ray Cato and rear gunner Cyril Parkinson.

For more on the Nuremberg raid, Martin Middlebrook’s the Nuremberg Raid is essential reading.