550 Squadron and RAF North Killingholme Association

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: Calais (25 Sep 1944 - 25 Sep 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Calais	25 Sep 1944	25 Sep 1944	N	25 aircraft and crews detailed, briefed and took off to blast the Hun out of Calais, precision bombing was called for owning to the close proximity of Allied troops The weather conditions were bad over the target and the Master Bomber ordered all aircraft to return to base with their bombs.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
ED905	Returned	Abandoned on instructions of Master Bomber	F/L D A Shaw (P) Sgt C A Bruce (F/Eng) Sgt S Gartland (A/B) A L Llanwarne (W/Op) Sgt A Buckingham (MU/AG) Sgt E J Griffiths (R/AG) Sgt C W Cross (Nav)

Operation/Target: Calais (26 Sep 1944 - 26 Sep 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Calais	26 Sep 1944	26 Sep 1944	N	24 aircraft and crews again detailed, briefed and took off to blast the Hun who are still holding out of Calais. This time the weather was good enough to permit precision bombing which was successfully applied.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
ED905	Returned	Primary 3000 at 12.23hrs.	F/L D A Shaw (P) Sgt C A Bruce (F/Eng) Sgt S Gartland (A/B) A L Llanwarne (W/Op) Sgt A Buckingham (MU/AG) Sgt E J Griffiths (R/AG) Sgt C W Cross (Nav)

Operation/Target: Calais (28 Sep 1944 - 28 Sep 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Calais	28 Sep 1944	28 Sep 1944	N	12 aircraft and crews took once off for Calais this morning the target area being very small now owing to pressure by Allied forces precision bombing was called for; the weather over the target area was bad and the Master Bomber ordered all A/C to return to base.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
ED905	Returned	Abandoned	F/L N L Rose (P) Sgt K L Willis (F/Eng) F/O R C Foote (Nav) F/O E G Caswell (A/B) Sgt G W Page (W/Op) F/O J S Tointon (MU/AG) Sgt G S Spragg (R/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	3
MAX Aircraft deployed in single operation	1 (Calais, 25 Sep 1944)

These details were last updated: 22 April 2024

Note

this list is still being built and will take some time to complete
what is currently displayed is believed accurate but much more is still to be added

This note describes the options currently available to produce a smaller, more manageable list and also describes planned future enhancements to the reporting facility.

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