Sometimes, Luftwafe night-ighters and antiaircraft ire were not the only enemy fought by RAF Bomber Command. On occasion, the weather was every bit as deadly as Elliot Doyle explains.
BELOW Halifax crews are given a weather briefing by the Met Officer prior to a sortie over enemy territory
The raid on Chemnitz on the night of 5 March 1945 cost Bomber Command 31 (4.1%) of the 760 bombers scheduled for the attack. Numbers 420 Sqn and 425 Sqn, RCAF, based at Tholthorpe, and 426 Sqn, RCAF, based at Lintonon- Ouse, each despatched 15 Halifax bombers – and lost ten (22%) in total. However, seven of those aircraft did not succumb to flak or to nightfighters over a hostile target. Instead, they were lost as they climbed away from their Yorkshire bases in the late afternoon and crashed before they had even cleared the county boundary; forty aircrew were killed; nine others managed to get out in time, four of them injured.
It seems likely that all seven losses were attributable to icing shortly after take-off, although weather briefings delivered at Tholthorpe and Linton earlier in the day had given no indication of the need for special precautions. The wind was forecast to be NNW at 13mph; scattered cloud w…
