9 April 1945 617 Sqadron Hamburg KC-G

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello

I am looking for information about the RAF 617 squadron mission on 9 April. A Lancaster gunner claimed to have damaged a Me 262 jet. His name was Hagarty.

Do you have information about how many jets were shot down or claimed damaged by the Lancaster crews? What I found out so far is that some Lancaster were shot down but not of 617 Squadron.

Here's some more information about the mission:

57 Lancasters of No 5 Group attacked oil-storage tanks (40 aircraft) and U-boat shelters (17 aircraft of No 617 Squadron with Grand Slams and Tallboys). Both attacks were successful. 2 Lancasters were lost from the raid on the oil tanks.

Regards
Roger *

Regards,

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello,

does nobody have information about this particular mission? The code of the Lancaster in which the gunner Hagarty flew was KC-G.

Does anybody have combat reports of 617 Squadron of 9 April 1945? Or does anybody know where to find such information?

I am trying to find out if his not in the logbook "damaged a Me 262" was officially recorded. I guess that if they had combat with a Me 262 they would have had to write a report.

Thank you.

Roger

[Kutscha]

Roger, from the Vol 4 of the Smith/Creek 262 books.

Two gunners from 61 Sqd in QR-Y shot at a 262 and was seen in a vertical dive trailing black smoke. This 262 had just shot down the Lanc of F/O Greenfield.

The book goes on to say that one 1 262 is known to be lost that day (Uffz. Kohler, 3./JG7). A Lt. JT Sloan, 361FG, made a claim of a 262 around 10:00hr.

[mhuxt]

Hi Roger:

There is a copy of the 617 Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book) "out there" on the net, however it makes no mention of a 262 on the 9th, either in the details of operations, in which your man Hagarty appears on NG339, or in the summary report for the day.

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello Kutscha,

Thanks for the account from the Classic book. Interesting. So, at least Lancaster of 61 Sqd had combat with Me 262s.

Hello mhuxt,

Thanks for the information about the ORB. I googled it and found the ORB. I tried to find any mention of fighter attacks in the whole document and only found very few. Maybe air combat was not generally mentioned in the ORB? I can’t imagine that they had so little enemy fighter contact during their whole career.

But the information about the mission on 9 April incl. the particular Lancaster they flew with is very interesting. Thank you!

Regards,
Roger