Squadron Operations: Summary Information

Overview

Listed below is the information available for operations to this target flown by 550 Squadron.

Operation Summary: The column headers should be fairly self-explanatory. The term "aborted" as used here covers a number of possibilities:

• the operation was cancelled before crews were briefed
• the crews have been briefed as to the target, and in some cases the planes may even have been bombed up and the crews on-board at their stations awaiting take-off, before the op has been stood-down
• finally a number of cases where the op was already under way and the planes en-route but for whatever reason the operation was aborted (e.g. the master bomber orders the attack cancelled due to weather conditions at target adversely affecting targeting).

Aircraft Deployed: When a link to a particular aircraft is given, this indicates aircraft known to have taken part in this raid (in the records currently available to the web-site author). A record of whether the aircraft returned or failed to return (FTR) is also logged.

Servicemen Deployed: Names of the crew in the operation.

Station Summary: This section is the information from the RAF North Killingholme Station Record Book for the operational date (if available).

Definitions of the abbreviations used are available: here.

Manageable Lists

The amount of data in the database is growing and this is resulting in the "all operations/targets" list getting rapidly bigger and thus slower to generate. There are options to display shorter, more quickly generated, reports if you want to home in on something specific. For example, there are options to generate reports on operations to a single target, or by single aircraft (to all targets) or by single aircraft to a single target. There is, on the database-reports summary page, a short user guide (PDF format) on how to do this.

Operation/Target: Berlin (23 Dec 1943 - 24 Dec 1943)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Berlin	23 Dec 1943	24 Dec 1943	N	With aircraft loaned from 100 Sqdn, seventeen aircraft and crews were briefed for operations and to attack targets in BERLIN. Two aircraft cancelled at the last moment owing to unserviceability. Shortly after take-off two aircraft collided in mid-air, crashed and were burnt out, the crews of both being killed. One aircraft did not return - no news after take off. Two aircraft returned early, the remainder successfully attacked the targets and in spite of very bad weather conditions over BASE - GRIMSBY landed safely.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
JB604	FTR	Collided with G2/550 and crashed at FULSTOW at 00.30hrs. Pilot, F/Eng and Navigator killed. Other members of crew not yet identified. [Ed: Listed as 100 Sqdn ND327 on Lostbombers site.]	F/Sgt W R Cooper (P) Sgt G W Claydon (F/Eng) Sgt A R Laurence (Nav) F/Sgt G W Guest (A/B) Sgt R W Theobald (W/Op) Sgt J Rawson (R/AG) Sgt J A Jordan (MU/AG)

Summary Statistics

Based on the data in the lists displayed above, and keeping in mind that data is still being updated and thus not yet complete, the following statistics are generated:

Aircraft Deployment Statistics

Aircraft deployments	1
MAX Aircraft deployed in single operation	1 (Berlin, 23 Dec 1943)

These details were last updated: 22 April 2024

Note

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