Mosquito's to Oberhausen 21-1-1944 ?

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello,

Who has details of the few Mosquito's sent to Oberhausen on the evening of 21th January 1944 ?

Any info about the squadron(s) involved would be much appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

Marcel Hogenhuis / Venlo

[Dave Wallace]

I show 8 Mosquitos from 105 Squadron detailed to bomb the Gutehoffnungshutte AG in Oberhausen. They took off from 19:21 to 20:10 and returned from 22:08 to 22:48. Four bombed the target successfully while the other four bombed targets of last resort in the Duisburg, Dusseldorf & Wesel areas.
Form B No.583 confirms that 105 Squadron was the only Squadron sent to this target which was shown in the Form B as GF2252, Zero hour was 21:00 and their task was precision bombing using Oboe. All aircraft carried 4 x 500 lb bombs.
The weather was clear over the target and the searchlights were very effective. Flak however was only moderate and inaccurate for height.
Dave Wallace

[SES]

Hi Dave,
Does the report specify why 50% of the force failed to bomb the primary? Since it was intended to use Oboe weather cannot be a factor. Did Oboe suffer (an apparent) failure?
bregds
SES

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Dear Dave,

Thank you very much for this most appreciated and helpful answer. Especially the start and landing times will be a great assistence for further research! If you should have a page of the ORB with the identities of those Mossies, could you let me know if a scan is possible?

Good night ! Marcel Hogenhuis

[Dave Wallace]

Hi SES
These failures were most likely what they referred to as P.D. Failures (P.D. means Precision Device, referring to the Oboe equipment). That simply meant that they could not get a lock on the two Oboe ground stations. It could have been a problem with the equipment in the aircraft. The aircraft the Oboe squadrons were using at this point were unpressurized Mark IXs and most attacks in the Ruhr were done from 28,000 to 34,000 feet and in that high altitude, high vibration environment the Oboe equipment using vacuum tubes often failed, which they planned for. It also could have been a problem with either of the Oboe ground stations as well, they were using the stations at Trimmingham and Hawkshill that night. 105 also sent 5 aircraft out to Rheinhausen and only one was successful using the same ground stations. 109 made a number of attacks that same night, used the same ground stations and only one of eleven sorties had a PD failure.
Things got better once they had the pressurized Mark XVIs.
Dave

[Hans Nauta]

Hi Marcel,

I expect to have that ORB part in a couple of weeks. If Dave can't supply the pages, I can.

Regards,
Hans

[SES]

Hi Dave,
Thanks a lot. I suspected that much. But I know from other accounts (allied and German) that the crews reported equipment failure, when in fact they had be subjected to jamming. Please see:
http://www.gyges.dk/jamming_service%20Oboe.htm
bregds
SES

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Hans, hello Dave

Hans: many thanks for your kind offer (and help!).
Dave: the reason for asking the info about Oberhausen raid - but I realize that I should ask the same question for Rheinhausen as well - is that the Dutch town of Wageningen was quite surprisingly hit by two middle heavy bombs on the evening of 21th January 1944. These were dropped approx. 20.30 hours by "a low level flying aircraft, coming from a southeast direction and flying on a northwest course".
The combination of the time, the description of the explosives and the time of impact fits quite well to the few Mossies that were sent out to Oberhausen and nearby Rheinhausen.

So, if I may summarize: 105 and 109 Sqdn. sent the Mossies to Oberhausen and Rheinhausen and whether by jamming or failure, not every Mosquito was able to bomb the main targets?

All the best, Marcel

[Dave Wallace]

Hi Marcel
Let me know your email and I can send the information to you.
109 Squadron aircraft are not a good possibility for you as they were marking for the main force at Crossbow sites in France and carried green target indicators and red spot fires for marking but no bombs.
I don't know if the 105 aircraft going to Rheinhausen are a good match either since the ORB states the unsuccessful ones attacked the Duisburg area. Also the Oboe aircraft tended to be very high up and there was no benefit to them going at low level.
There was a special operation by 617 Squadron that night led by Leonard Cheshire that I don't have the routes for. http://www.dambusters.org.uk/docs/recordbook.pdf
There were also diversionary attacks on Berlin, the route I have for that was:
Base - CROMER - 5430N 0640E - 5309N 0931E -TARGET - 5212 N 1330E? -5250N 1000E -5240N 0740E -5318N 0440E -Haisboro - Base. Zero Hour was 23:00
Magdeburg was the main target that night and the route was:
BASE - 5430N 0500E - 5430N 0640E - 5320N 0931E - 5247N 1200E - TARGET - 5155N 1118E - 5320N 0931E -5430N 0640E - 5430N 05??E - BASE
Zero Hour 23:00

SES - the failures could have been caused by German jamming of the Oboe transmissions. I believe they were using Mk I Oboe set which were non-directional and the Germans did jam it as you well know. I don't think they managed to do it on the later sets which were directional and had a number of extra security features. I am very familiar with your excellent site and the mountain of work you have put into it. It really is wonderful and packed with information that cannot be found elsewhere. I think we have had some previous discussions a few years back. Nice to cross paths again.
Cheers
Dave

[SES]

Hi Dave,
Yes I do recall some Exchanges.
It is my understanding that Oboe II was jammed for sure, I'm uncertain about Oboe III. Certainly the Germans built a jammer intended to be employed against it.
bregds
SES