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Date: December 16th 1943
Diary

[newspaper clippings titled:]

Goebbels gags Press after great blow at Reich
LANCASTERS RAIN 1,500 TONS ON BERLIN
[and]
‘R.A.F. killed 85,000 in Berlin raids’

[handwritten heading and note:]

LANCASTER “R”     16:12:43     NO. 20.
BERLIN   D.O.T.

B.D.T.D.  52 T  7 c  96 LBS.

Very poor weather ground fog. 495 A/C on raid. 30 lost on raid and 36 crashed on return. My turret was working slow going to the target broke a pip line just as we left the target and had to rotate it by hand. Oil was all over the perspects so I had to have all the clear vistion panels open. I also took the [axe?] to some of the remaining perspects. It was without perspects I lost my big grean silk scarf. We were in the first wave and just as we were leaving the target they started dropping hundreds of fighter flares lighting up the whole sky. We then went north and back over Denmark. One of our crews landed in Sweden. When F/L Burns found out the rear turret was U.S. he told the nav to kick the speed up to 210 M.P.H. and we were first home by some time.
none of us want another trip like it. The fog was very bad on return resulting in 30 crashes. 3 from our station

Original Scans

Original Scans