The Mission
On the 4 November 1944, Bomber Command were ordered to attack the town of Bochum in Germany. A total of 749 aircraft made up of 384 Halifaxes, 336 Lancasters and 29 Mosquitos of 1, 4, 6 & 8 Groups made the attack in a very successful raid based upon standard Pathfinder marking techniques. Unfortunately 23 Halifaxes and 5 Lancasters were lost, German night fighters causing most of the casualties. The Squadron put up 23 Halifax bombers and only one was lost, that of F/O Carrall. He came from Toronto in New South Wales, Australia. His aircraft crashed at Wetten, Germany. Only Wood and Gorton survived, the rest of the crew perishing.
The aircraft they were flying was a Mark III Halifax LV771. This arrived on squadron on 2 January 1944 and carried the Squadron letter NP plus the aircraft letter R. For some reason it had the name Rosie Galapagos, heavens knows why. It did 30 raids, was damaged, repaired and given NP-N doing a further 5 raids. In August it was NP-D and finally became NP-Y, was on its 13th raid on the night it was shot down.
Taken from a letter from Bluey Mottershead 158 Squadron (RAF Bomber Command) Association from 9th June 1999 to Sally Corps.
See below for map of the area showing Bochum and Wetten
Bochum is in the state of North Rhine Westphalia and is located in the Ruhr area.
The target that night was the steel plant, Bochumer Verein.
The aircraft they were flying was a Mark III Halifax LV771. This arrived on squadron on 2 January 1944 and carried the Squadron letter NP plus the aircraft letter R. For some reason it had the name Rosie Galapagos, heavens knows why. It did 30 raids, was damaged, repaired and given NP-N doing a further 5 raids. In August it was NP-D and finally became NP-Y, was on its 13th raid on the night it was shot down.
Taken from a letter from Bluey Mottershead 158 Squadron (RAF Bomber Command) Association from 9th June 1999 to Sally Corps.
See below for map of the area showing Bochum and Wetten
Bochum is in the state of North Rhine Westphalia and is located in the Ruhr area.
The target that night was the steel plant, Bochumer Verein.