The Kembs Raid October 7,1944 from RAF Account

The Raid

Target       :                 Kembs Barrage Germany also refered as a dum

Weather     :               6 Octs at 3000 feet clear patch over target

Max Effort Sqd 617 :  13 Lancasters equipped with "Tollboys "

   

Max Effort  Fighter Escort 133 Wng 2nd Tac AF :  34 P-51 IIIs

( Sqd 129 Esc High Force, Sqd 315  Low Force , Sqd 306  AA Silence )

RECON:  627 Sqd  Musquito IV

617  SQD   RAF Woodhall Spa

            Low Force                                             High  Force

EE  146  "D"   Wng Cdr J.B.Tait (Ldr )                   DV 393 " T"  F/O A.W.Joplin

LM 492 " W"  Sq /Ldr  J.V.Cockshott                   LM 485  "N"  F/O F.H.A.Watts

DV391  " O"    F/O P.H.Martin                               EE  923 " M"  Sq /Ldr  G.E.Fawke 

PB 415 " S "   Sq/Ldr  D.R.Wyness                       LM 489 " A" F/O  J.Gingles

LM 482  "K"    FL/Lt  C.J.G.Howard                       DV  402 " X" F/O  J.L.Sayers

ME 562  "K"    F/O  J.A.Sanders                            ME 554 "F"    FL/Lt T.C.Iveson

                                                                                ?      ?         FL/Lt  Castagnola                                                                              

315 SQD  (Polish) Mustang IIIs  RAF Brenzett (Esc Low Force)

Leader W/Cdr Zumbach were: F/O Kirste, W/O Seredyn, F/Lt Wiza, W/O Czerwinski, F/Lt Stembrowicz, F/Lt Blok, F/O Swistun, F/O Nowosielski, F/O Haczkiewicz, F/O Bibrowicz, 

F/Sgt Richter

306 SQD  (Polish) Mustang IIIs RAF Andrews Field ( Esc Silence AA)

Crews unknown  

  

129 SQD Mustang IIIs  RAF Brenzett  (Esc High Force)

Crews unknown 

 627 SQD  Mosquito Mark IV (Recon) RAF Woodhall Spa

                                KB 215 "H"    FL/Lt  J.Hanlon    &   FL/Lt. K.J.Tice (PR/ OBS)

  Mission Account  " A "  (not precise)

On October 7, 1944, the Weil Am Rhein Kembs Märkt Barrage & Power Station  was attacked by 13 RAF Lancasters bombers of the famous 617th Bomber Squadron "Dambuster", with the aim of preventing simultaneous maneuver of the 5 gates by the German army, causing a wave of bottom by the brutal breaking of the entire water reservoir, which would have caused devastating floods in the Rhine plains and thwarted downstream river crossing during Allied Belfort operations. 

The damage caused by the bombing was limited to the destruction of a single gate by a "Tallboy", causing "delayed" flow of your restraint. One of the "Lancasters" LM482  hit by the DCA, crashed near the nearby village of Märkt near Efringen Kirchen . The eight men between the ages of 21 and 28 died in the crash hit by German AA battery 37/VII Luftwaffe Helfer .

A second "Lancaster" Mark NG180 KC-S,was aslo hit by Luftwaffe Helfer AA units Batteries 35/VII 
(Alasace ) and 37/VII  Loerrach / Weil Am Rhein manned by college boys aged 16-18 on its port engines and plunged into the Rhine river near Rhineweiler,Germany in between the German French border , all crew managed to board their emergency life raft however two jumpped out swimming to the French side a 3rd crew member when noticed German soldiers preparing a boat jumpped too into the Rhine and swam to the French side, all three reached the French shore and as of today are missing in action possibly murdered by Gestapo Loerrach agent, Erich Meissner . 

Sqn.Leader Wyness and the other three crew members were captured by German Pioniere Batallion near Rheinweller. The 4 airmen were interrogated by Gestapo agent Erich Meissner and the Kreisleiter Hugo Grüner (District / Thann) of Lörrach who later on brought them back to the Rhine shore and brutally executed one by one with through neck shots and then have their bodies thrown into the Rhine.

Two Sqd Ldr Wyness aged 24 and Wireless  Operator/Air Gunner Bruce James Hosie RNZAF aged 21, bodies were later on discovered at Chalampe ,France by French troops and burried post WWII at Choloy Cemetery France .The Navigator - Flight Lt. Ronald Henry Williams, aged: 22 and Herbert Walter Honig, aged: 22  spotted later on along the German side of the Rhine river were buried at  the Dürnbach Cemetery, Germany. 

The AA defenses were heavier are expected and in his call for Mustangs of u 306 Sqn have plunged the sun to the flak . P uring a time Tait was thought that anti-aircraft guns had not seen until tra çanctes white hes from the shore is just wobble the turn of his " Lancaster " . During the explosion the bomb, Tait felt his plane jumped , and accelerated all in entandant his rear gunner firing at the dam.



Tait in fact commented the following  :

" The time was cloudy , but the target itself was clear, the altitude and visibility was good. The are other " Lancasters " already bombed the target before I have reached the goal, and all traces of ' explosions were gone before I'm able to assess the bombing and have appeared not see any damage on the target . All the valves have been closed. My bomb went into a correct position 10 meters before the target and did not bounce back. "

Lack of coordination, many" Tallboys "were randomly dropped, two of them crashed about 550 meters west of the dam, and two more crashed at 30-40 Luck bomb hit the left side of the dam, and Watts dropped his bomb 50 meters after the dam, just like Martin did on his second pass, and Sayer on his second pass. could result in an electrical problem dropping his bomb, which fell prematurely. Cockshott struck the wake of Tait, is that caused the fall of the "Tallboys". Sander , Joplin exceeded 50 meter target, which caused the fall of their bomb in the Rhine.

Due to a late and hasty exit, the Gingles bomb crashed on a railway line. Iveson's "Tallboys" hit the shore, about 400 meters from the dam, while Castagnola's one crashed between the first and second pillars of the dam. Fawke did not drop her bomb (manually) until her third pass, but she was unhooked only five seconds later and crashed on the west bank of the Rhine.

Two planes were hit, almost inevitably, by low altitude flak fire.Wyness was hit several times, but managed to drop his bomb before crashing into the Rhine, near the French-German border town of Chalampe.

Hanging bomb made .Howard chose to make a last pass at low altitude because it was detached and was not dropped. It was then that flak shots destroyed one of his wings, and a few minutes later, he crashed into the village of Efringen-Kirchen, Germany. There was no survivor of either crew. A Mustang of 306 Sqn was hit, but his pilot managed to keep the plane and get back with the others. 

Hanging bomb made .Howard chose to make a last pass at low altitude because it was detached and was not dropped. It was then that flak shots destroyed one of his wings, and a few minutes later, he crashed into the village of Efringen-Kirchen, Germany. There was no survivor of either crew. A Mustang of 306 Sqn was hit, but his pilot managed to keep the plane and get back with the others. 

                 306  SQD 

Three "Lancasters" came home damaged, including Tait, who had been hit at the wing and landing gear. No less dangerous, was the task of the Mosquito crew, the 627. Flight lieutenants Hanlon and Tice who flew over the target, twice, at 1740 and 3000 feet, then at 6,000 feet eleven minutes later. At the first pass, they saw a bomb explosion about two hundred meters south of the dam, soon followed by a second explosion that destroyed the west gate. 

       306  SQD

Water began to flow through the valve and caused eddy upstream. This operation was not a success but not a failure as such, because the "Tallboys" had destroyed the first and second pillars of the dam on the west side. Thus causing a dramatic waterfall upstream.