Operation: Nuremberg

Date: 30/31 March 1944 (Thursday/Friday)

Unit: No. 101 Squadron RAF (motto: ‘Mens agitat molem’ - ‘Mind over matter’)

Type: Avro Lancaster III

Serial: LM463

Code: SR-K

Base: RAF Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire

Location: Dillenburg, Germany

Pilot: P/O. Albert Edward Lander, NZ422293, RNZAF, age 32 - Prisoner of War *

Flight Engineer: Sgt. Alexander Oliver Johnston, 1851675, RAFVR, age 29 - Killed

Navigator: F/O. Mervyn Gillard Hutchinson, NZ416862, RNZAF, age 28 - Killed

Air Bomber: Fl/Sgt. Raymond Leonard Cato, NZ42828, RNZAF, age 20 - Killed

Special Operator: Sgt. Alfred James Herbert Clayton, 1811224, RAFVR, age 19 - Killed

Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Fl/Sgt. William George Clapp, 1602121, RAFVR, age 21 - Prisoner of War **

Air Gunner (mid-upper): Fl/Sgt. Cyril Robert Parkinson, NZ425467, RNZAF, age 25 - Killed

Air Gunner (rear): Sgt. Gordon Erod Johnson, 1036704, RAFVR, age 21 - Killed

* PoW No. 1866/42141. Held at Oflag IXA/H Spangenberg, later Stalag IXC Bad Sulza, and subsequently Stalag Luft III, Sagan and Belaria. Officer prisoners from aircrew were usually processed first through Dulag Luft for interrogation before being sent to an Oflag or an officers’ section - Spangenberg fits this pattern for RAF officer POWs captured in early 1944.

** PoW No. 53292. Held at Stalag IXC, Bad Sulza.

Reason for Loss

On the night of 30/31 March 1944, RAF Bomber Command despatched 795 aircraft - Lancasters, Halifaxes, and Mosquitoes - to attack the German city of Nuremberg. It became the single most costly operation of the entire strategic bombing campaign: ninety-five heavy bombers were lost, along with a further twelve written off on return, at a cost of well over five hundred aircrew killed, missing, or taken prisoner.

A Flawed Plan

The raid was compromised almost from the outset. A largely straight-line route deep into southern Germany gave German controllers ample time to predict the bomber stream's path, while a forecast band of protective cloud failed to materialise. Instead, the Main Force flew for over 250 miles in bright moonlight and clear air, with the added misfortune of condensation trails betraying their exact positions to waiting night fighters.

The Nachtjagd's Finest Hour

German night fighters of Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 were fed into the bomber stream well before the target and stayed with it for much of the outward and return legs. Over one hundred claims were submitted by Luftwaffe crews, the great majority confirmed. Bombers fell in clusters along the route, particularly in the Frankfurt-Fulda-Giessen area of central Germany, where several aircraft were shot down within minutes of one another. Adding to the confusion, many crews who believed they had bombed Nuremberg had in fact released their bombs over Schweinfurt, roughly fifty miles to the north-west.

One Crew Among Many

Among the aircraft lost was Lancaster LM463 (SR-K) of No. 101 Squadron, flying from RAF Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire. The aircraft was fitted with 101 Squadron's secret ‘Airborne Cigar’ (ABC) radio-jamming equipment, operated by Sergeant Alfred Clayton, the crew's German-speaking Special Duties Operator. Shot down near Dillenburg, only Pilot Officer Lander and wireless operator Sergeant William Clapp survived, both taken prisoner; the other six crew members were killed and are buried at Hanover War Cemetery. Their fate was repeated, in one form or another, across dozens of crews that night.

Owing to the concentration of losses in such a small area, it is impossible to pin down with certainty which night fighter was responsible. Feldwebel Ernst Reitmeyer (1./NJG 5) claimed a four-engined bomber at 6,000 metres near Eckelshausen - a village essentially adjoining Dillenburg - at 00:38 hrs, his tenth victory. Major Paul Semrau claimed a four-engined bomber at 6,000 metres in the general Giessen-Dillenburg-Limburg area, and Oberleutnant Johannes Werth claimed one over the nearby Herborn-Limburg area. Any of the three is a plausible candidate for LM463, but none can be confirmed.

Aftermath

The scale of the losses prompted an internal Air Ministry inquiry and marked a turning point in Bomber Command's tactics, hastening a shift away from long, predictable routes over bright, moonlit terrain. For the Luftwaffe's night fighter arm, it stood as its greatest single success of the war - but one it could not sustain, as Allied fighter escorts, radar countermeasures, and sheer weight of numbers turned the campaign decisively against it over the following year.

No. 101 Squadron suffered the heaviest losses of any unit that night: seven of its aircraft and fifty-six men were reported missing. The Australian pilot ‘Dutch’ Holland recalled the wait for aircraft that would not return:

“We waited and waited and waited. We were an experienced crew and accustomed to losing the odd one or two aircraft, and this was the era when we in Bomber Command were losing quite large numbers on every raid. But with nearly one third of our squadron missing, this was a big kick in the guts for us all. We waited up until nearly mid-day before going to our huts - stunned, shocked and silent, each crew member wrapped in his own mental anguish.”

Above L-R: P/O. Lander, F/O. Hutchinson, Fl/Sgt. Cato, Fl/Sgt. Parkinson and Sgt. Erod Johnson

Pilot Officer Lander himself later recalled the final moments before he escaped the burning aircraft:

“After I told the crew to abandon the aircraft, I tried to keep the plane straight and level as long as I could until the flames entered the cockpit. I covered my face with my left arm but lost control of the aircraft, which went into a spin, throwing me out of my seat into a position with my back against the cockpit window. Many thoughts passed through my mind as I lay there. Anyway, things were getting bloody hot in there and my clothes were starting to burn, so I put my feet against the pilot's seat and, by straightening my legs, I managed to push myself out through the window and flipped out over the wing. How quiet and cool everything was then! I realised I still had a chance and felt for the rip cord.”

The importance of 101 Squadron's role was not lost on the Luftwaffe, which made every effort to locate and destroy the modified Lancasters. The squadron flew more sorties than any other in Bomber Command and suffered the highest losses of any squadron in the RAF during the Second World War. Its nominal strength was twenty-six aircraft at any given time, with eight crew members per aircraft. By the end of the war in Europe, the squadron had lost 1,176 aircrew killed and 146 aircraft, including thirty-three lost in flying accidents.

Airborne Cigar (ABC)

What it was: a British electronic countermeasure system developed by the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) to jam the VHF ground-to-air radio used by German night-fighter controllers to direct interceptors onto the bomber stream.

How it worked: each set had a wide-band receiver and three 50-watt tunable transmitters. A German-speaking Special Duties Operator - often the aircraft's eighth crewman - listened across the VHF band, identified which frequency a German controller was using, and tuned a transmitter to it, broadcasting a rasping, warbling noise over the transmission. The Germans nicknamed the effect ‘Dudelsack’ (bagpipes).

Fitted almost exclusively to No. 101 Squadron, based at Ludford Magna, as part of Bomber Command's electronic warfare effort alongside No. 100 Group. Because the equipment's range was only about fifty miles, ABC Lancasters were spread individually through the bomber stream rather than flown as a separate formation - which is why LM463 was flying as a lone ABC aircraft within the Main Force on the Nuremberg raid.

Visual signature: ABC Lancasters were recognisable by three extra aerial masts - two dorsal blade aerials above the fuselage and one ventral aerial under the nose - in addition to their standard equipment. They still carried a full bomb load alongside the jamming gear.

The cost: because the jamming signal itself could be homed in on by German night fighters, 101 Squadron paid a heavy price for the role, suffering the highest overall losses of any Lancaster squadron in Bomber Command - a fact directly reflected in the fate of the crew of LM463.

Burial Details

They were initially buried near Dillenburg, then post-war reinterred at Hanover War Cemetery, Germany.

Sgt. Alexander Oliver Johnston. Hanover War Cemetery. Grave 5.H.2. Son of Oliver and Ellen Louisa Johnston, of Bristol; husband of Irene Johnston, of Fishponds, Bristol. Epitaph: 'Thoughts Of You, Jimmy, Will Always Be With Your Mum, Dad, The Girls And David'.

F/O. Mervyn Gillard Hutchinson. Hanover War Cemetery, Grave 5.H.5. Born 17 December 1915 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Educated at Christchurch Technical College, where his sports were cricket, swimming and hockey. His civilian occupation was branch manager in a chain-store grocery company. He applied for RNZAF service in November 1940. Son of James Gillard Hutchinson (died 1962, aged 84) and Rosine Jane Hutchinson (née Gery, died 1947, aged 67), of Bromley, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Fl/Sgt. Raymond Leonard Cato. Hanover War Cemetery, Grave 5.H.1. Born 19 January 1924 in Takapau. Educated at Nelson College, with later evening classes at Petone Technical College. His sporting interests were swimming, hockey and athletics; he was a member of the Nelson College Athletic Club and Gymnastic Leader of the Hutt Valley YMCA and Hockey Club. Before enlisting he worked for Mr H. Vile, Hardware Merchant, Wellington. Son of Andrew Charles Leonard Cato and Catherine Ada Cato (died 1952, aged 50), of Takapau, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

Sgt. Alfred James Herbert Clayton. Hanover War Cemetery, Grave 5.H.6. Trained at No. 11 Operational Training Unit, Westcott, Buckinghamshire, and the satellite aerodrome at Oakley, on Wellington aircraft. Son of Alfred Frederick and Beatrice Cicely Clayton, of Edmonton, Middlesex. Epitaph: ‘Thoughts Of You, Jimmy, Will Always Be With Your Mum, Dad, The Girls And David.’

Fl/Sgt. Cyril Robert Parkinson. Hanover War Cemetery, Grave 5.H.4. Born 13 October 1918 at Warkworth, Auckland, New Zealand. Educated at Te Rau-a-Moa School, where he passed his Proficiency Examination, and later studied with the Wellington Correspondence School. His sporting interests were football, tennis and golf; he was a member of the Ketetahi Senior Rugby Team. He worked as a motor driver for various carrying firms in Te Awamutu, and at the time of applying for aircrew training was a driver for Advance Cars Ltd, Te Awamutu. Son of William John Parkinson (died 1958, aged 84) and Elizabeth Parkinson (née Muir, died 1973, aged 91), of Te Awamutu, near Hamilton, New Zealand.

Sgt. Gordon Erod Johnson. Hanover War Cemetery, Grave 5.H.3. Son of George and Edith Johnson, and brother of Kathleen Johnson, of Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. 

P/O. Albert Edward Lander. Born 27 October 1911 in Auckland, New Zealand. Husband of Venice Jane ‘Venus’ Lander (née Partridge, died 19 October 2011, aged 99). Albert Lander died on 12 May 1975, aged 63. Both are buried at Papatoetoe Cemetery, Papatoetoe, Auckland, New Zealand.

Fl/Sgt. William George Clapp. Born 18 September 1922. No further details currently held.

Hanover War Cemetery

Many of the graves in Hanover War Cemetery were brought in from prisoner-of-war camp cemeteries, small German cemeteries, and isolated positions in the surrounding countryside. The cemetery contains 2,407 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, of which sixty-two are unidentified. There are also thirty-nine non-war burials and ten war graves of other nationalities, most of them Polish. It was designed by P.D. Hepworth.

Hanover War Cemetery adjoins Hanover Military Cemetery, a substantial post-war military cemetery containing more than three thousand burials.

New Zealander except where noted.
L-R: Back; Thompson (USA), Aldrich, Munn (CAN), Austin, (ENG), Shearer, Benson, Fallon (ENG), Shatford (CAN), Allan (CAN), Estcourt, Baxter (ENG).
Middle; Falker (CAN), Lander, Harley (Wales), Christiansen, Bullen, Collett, Archibald, Hanley (ENG), Place (CAN), Sideen (CAN), Harris (USA), Atkins, Sivisko (USA).
Front; Howard, Reynolds (CAN), Almas (USA), Adlam, Owens (ENG), Burman, Kramer (USA), McGlynn (ENG), Evans (CAN), Collison (CAN), Traplin (CAN), Davidson (CAN).

Sources and Acknowledgements

• UK National Archives
• New Zealand Cenotaph
• Air Force Museum of New Zealand
• Aircrew Remembered Archives
• Errol Martyn, ‘For Your Tomorrow’, Vols. 1-3
• Nachtjagd Combat Archive
• Calder/Wakefield Archive
• Kracker Luftwaffe Archive
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission (cwgc.org)