That’s strange then that no mention is made of extra Nav/Radar operators. That’s going to make it hard to find if and when the change over to a dedicated H2S operator was made at any particular time. I wouldn’t think they were trying to keep it a secret as all the ORBs for my father’s tour of duty with 101 show his 8 man crew so you would think they would show the same when a H2S operator was with a squadron’s aircraft.
I know the ‘Fishpond’ indicator that detected enemy fighters attacking from below and behind was fitted in the Radio Operators position and that interfaced with the H2S system. Also the later gyro-controlled H2S was linked to the bombsight computer giving the capability of blind bombing with some accuracy. My father had Gee and H2S at his Nav position but I can only see mention of Gee, DR Comp, API, Camera heater and IFF in his Nav logs and nothing about H2S.
These are excerpts from his logs of a raid on Berlin on 2 Dec 1943 in DV302 H-Harry, one of the “Ton-Up” Lancs.
Aircraft Up @ 16:57 Aircraft Down @ 00:27
Bomb load :- 1 x 4,000lb.HC. 1200 x 4lb (90x) IB. 48 x 30lb. IB.
Bombs dropped on ETA at 21:22 hours from 20,000ft, heading 276M at IAS 160. One cone and scattered S/L in target area.
“We were twenty miles south of track when the route markers went down near Hanover and we had to go through the Hanover Flak and searchlights. We lost time there, with weaving and with navigational problems, and reached the Berlin area thirty minutes after the end of the proper time. We saw a few lights and activity on the ground but not enough to identify it as the target. We flew on and I took two astro shots; these showed us to be well beyond Berlin. We came back and eventually bombed the activity we had seen earlier, but more than an hour late. The navigation officer later back-plotted my results and said that we had bombed at Cottbus, fifty miles south-east of Berlin.
We came back by guess and by God and came out over Antwerp, a hundred miles south of the proper route. We landed at Bradwell Bay. We had plenty of fuel left and could have got home, but we had a few Flak holes and we were tired.”
Diary entry :-
“Briefing. Finished flight plan. All ok. Met W/V U/S!! Didn’t get to the Big City. NO speed & petrol going like water. Landed at 00:30 am at Bradwell Bay. Supper egg & spam, tea. Bed with sheets about 3 am. Up again at 09:15 crew bus to Mess!!! Went out to kite. Brought a lot of incendiaries back also flak holes, one in fin & rudder & one through both outer spinners. Soup, chips & fish; pear & semolina; cup of milk. Reading in Mess. Went out & put all nav. kit together.”
Many aircraft were late on target & the winds that night had caused many to end up well to the south. A “few” Flak holes actually turned out to be 23 and the unreleased incendiaries were hung up in the bomb bay. After repairs Lancaster DV 302 “H” went on to do 121 operational sorties and was scrapped in January 1947.
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