Page 8 - Dennis Ovenden

The crew had to complete 30 Main Force sorties before being screened from further operations
and being, if selected after a period of leave sent as instructors to training establishments to pass
on their experience to novice crew’s.
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The new crew undertook three training flights in No.576 Squadron Lancasters on the 13 ,14 and
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30 November and were then signed off as fit to fly by
Squadron Leader Basil Arthur Templeman-Rooke, the Squadrons ʻAʼ Flight Commander.

Squadron Leader Rooke’s biography is here

Squadron Leader B.A. Templeman-Rooke

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The crew’s operations went on as normal until the 13 operation to Dresden on the evening of the
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13 February 1945 in Avro Lancaster A-Able2. The crew taking off from Fiskerton at 21-25pm that
evening, part of the second raid on the city that evening by Bomber Command. Dresden,
as far as the crew’s were concerned was just another operation assisting the Soviet advance, the
city being used as a transportation hub for German troops and supplies going east to the front line.
The crew’s pilot, Flying Officer Ian Carter was forced to feather one engine prior to reaching the
target. He pressed on and bombed Dresden from 12,000 feet, well below the Main Force height of
20,000 feet. After bombing and setting course for home he had further engine trouble which
resulted in the pilot feathering a second engine.
The crew made a successful landing at the allied liberated airfield of Juvincourt in France,
returning to Fiskerton the next day as passengers in another squadron Lancaster, B-Bravo2 flown
by Flying Officer Whyler, the crew arriving back at Fiskerton at 16-25pm the next day.

The first Dresden attack that evening at 22-00pm by No.5 Group, operating from airfields in south
and east Lincolnshire consisted of 244 Lancasters. In total 796 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitos were
dispatched in two separate raids and dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of
incendiary bombs. This first attack, carried out entirely by No.5 Group, using their own
low-level marking methods, was only moderately successful due to cloud
partially covering the city.
The second raid, 3 hours later, was again an all-Lancaster attack by aircraft of Nos 1,3,6
(Canadian) and 8 Groups, with No. 8 Group providing standard pathfinder marking. The weather
was now clear and 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs with great accuracy.
Much has been written about the fearful effects of this raid. Suffice it to say here that a firestorm,
similar to the one experienced in Hamburg in July 1943, was created and large areas of the city
were burnt out. No one has ever been able to discover how many people died but it is accepted
that the number was about 20,000. Bomber Command casualties were 6 Lancasters lost,
with 2 more crashed in France (of which Dennis’s crew were one) and 1 in England.

311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons of bombs on Dresden the next day, with the railway yards
as their aiming point. Part of the American Mustang-fighter escort was ordered to strafe traffic on
the roads around Dresden to increase the chaos. The Americans bombed Dresden again on the
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15 February and the 2 March but accepted that it was the RAF night raid which caused the most
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serious damage to the city.
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The crew, carried on with their operations and completed their 30 sortie to Bremen on the
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22 April 1945. This operation was in support the British Armies 3rd Infantry Division
attack on the city. The crew were then screened from further Main Force operations and sent on a
well-earned period of leave. Thus ended Dennis’s war in Europe.