Page 4 - 576 Squadron History

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Frankfurt was targeted on the 20/21 and Berlin twice on the 23/24 and 29/30 December. The
last operation was the first where all aircraft from the Squadron returned to base. During
December the Squadron had operated on 6 nights and detailed 48 sorties. Seven Lancasters and
crews had failed to return. It had been a difficult and busy start for the Squadron personnel.

Sergeant Benjamin Frazer, a US Army war correspondent accompanied Flying Officer G. S.
Morgan and crew on a raid to Berlin on the 29/30 December and wrote an interesting account of
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his experience which was later published in the “Yank” magazine.
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1944 began with a raid on Berlin on the 1/2 January and the pattern was set with a further 6
raids on the German capital that month and also 1 each on Stettin, Brunswick and Magdeburg.
The effectiveness of the German defenses was becoming increasingly evident with the night
fighters taking an increasingly heavy toll of the attacking bombers. The Squadron records
comment on the considerable night fighter activity on several operations and sightings of enemy
aircraft and combats were frequent. The raid on the 21/22 January to Magdeburg was
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particularly costly for Bomber Command but thankfully 576 Squadron were spared any losses on
this occasion.

During January the Squadron had operated on 9 nights and detailed 89 sorties from which 7 failed
to return. The bad winter weather had curtailed operations to some extent. The Operational
Record Book comments that “Window” was being used by the crews to good effect. Window was
the code name for bundles of thin aluminum strips released by the bombers during their flight over
occupied territory which would produce thousands of false returns on the German ground and
airborne radar sets. This would make radar guided interceptions by German night fighters
extremely difficult and cause considerable confusion to the German command and Control
Centre’s and radar predicted flak weapons and searchlights on the ground. “Visual Monica”, a new
anti-night fighter device was being used by the Squadron for the first time. This was an active tail
warning device which gave warning of the approach of aircraft from astern. It was withdrawn later
in the year from the Main Force bombers after it was discovered that the Germans had developed
a device which homed onto Monica transmissions from up to 62.5 miles!

Due to more bad weather there were no more operations for the Squadron until the 15/16th
February 1944 when Berlin was again attacked. 576 sent 13 Lancasters and crews on this raid
and 1 failed to return. This was the crew of Flight Sergeant A. J. Kirk who were lost without trace.

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On the 19/20 February 576 detailed 15 Lancasters and crews for a raid on Leipzig. The bomber
losses on this night were very heavy, 78 aircraft being lost out of a total of 823. The Squadron
were fortunate not to lose any of their crews but Squadron Leader D.D. Haig and crew were
involved in five combats from which the gunners claimed 1 enemy aircraft destroyed and one
probable. This crew put up an extremely good show and managed to evade or fight off all the
attacks and return to base.

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Stuttgart was attacked on the 20/21 February and Schweinfurt on the 24/25 February. Finally
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that month Augsburg was targeted on the 25/26 February when the Squadron contributed 15
Lancasters and crews again without loss. This raid was outstandingly accurate in the clear
weather conditions and resulted in much destruction and heavy casualties in the city.