104 Squadron - B for Baker's Dozen

Steven K. Dixon 2021

Squadron: 101 Aircraft Name (Lancaster): B for Baker's Dozen

Crew:

Position	Name	Rank
Pilot	Bainbridge	FLTLT
Wireless	Alker	FSGT
Navigator	Beacon	PLTOFF
Bomb Aimer	Horner	PLTOFF
M/U Gunner	Tyndall	SGT
Engineer	Meys	FSGT
Rear Gunner	Lightfoot	FSGT

1942 Missions:

Mission Number/Date	Target	Result
13	Westerschelde	On Target 45%
14	Bremen	Off Target 5%
15	Emden	On Target 20%
16
17	Wilhelmshaven	On Target 60%
18	Saarbrucken	DNB - Abort
19	Mannheim	Off Target 0%
20

1942 Credited Kills:

Mission No.	ME 110 F-4	ME 110 G-4	JU 88 C-6	JU 88 G-7	DO 217 J-1	DO 217 N-2	HE 219 A-0	FW 190 A-5UZ	ME 109 G-6U4N	ME 262 B-1AU1	TA 154 A-0	DO 217 J-1 (Italy)
13
14
15
16
17	1		1
18
19
20

1942 Mission AAR

Mission 13 Gardening Mission Westerschelde area: IB - No opposition till Westerschelde. Absence of flak Barges made a relatively easy run but 1 ME-110 night fighter took out the heater in the tail section. Fortunately it was driven off before any more damage was taken. OB - Stirred up a hornets nest on the way home and was repeatedly attacked by a total of 4 night fights comprising of a mixture of ME-110s, a Ju-88, and a Do-217. Damage to the Port Engine and Rear section resulted before the fighters retired after running out of ammunition. Landed safely back at Norwich after landing on one engine.

Mission 14 - Bremen: OTB - low level flying all way to Bremen. Quiet run in. 1 NF JU-88C but thankfully not spotted.

Over Target AAA was light, no hits recorded. Dropped bombs with thermal turbulence effecting 1 bomb THAT thankfully finally worked its way out the bomb bay without causing damage. Again NF activity over target was heavy. A JU-88C and Do 217 came sniffing around but they were successfully evaded.

INB - Open throttles all the way home flying low. No NF activity till over base. A ME110 undetected causing superficial damage to the bomb bay - luckily there were no crew in the area. The ME 110 lost contact after the first pass and a successful landing completed the mission.

Mission 15 - Emden: O/B - Almost a cake walk to Bremen. Attacked twice, once by a 110 and again by a Do 217. The 110 damaged the Emergency flotation bag and on its second pass shattered the tail gunners Perspex causing lacerations to FSGT Prescott. The Do 217 fortunately could not locate our kite.

Over the target there was light AAA and was partially obscured. FLTLT Wainwright confirmed bombs away but noted that although on target only approx. 20% of the bombs found their mark.

Whilst over the drop zone another Do217 managed to extract revenge. The Pilot, FLT LT Beckwith suffered a serious head wound and had to be replaced by the Navigator FLT LT Wainwright. The nose gunner PL OFF Horner also was seriously wounded, fracturing his femur and was replaced by the wireless operator FSGT Alker

I/B saw Bakers Dozen successfully evade 2 more night fighter attacks before landing heavily with FLT LT Wainwright at the controls. (Wainwright mentioned in dispatches)

Mission 17 - AAR

Mission 18 - AAR

Mission 19 - AAR