Gallery 10

This page shows a variety of documents relating to 97 Squadron.

The letter below was sent to F/Sgt Anderson's wife back home informing her that he was a prisoner of war (see Gallery 8 for a photo of F/Sgt Anderson).

Above is a copy of a highly prized Path Finder Force (PFF) Certificate notifying the award of the yhe PFF Badge. The recipient in this case was Squadron Leader Ken Foster DFC & Bar who was killed on the night of 23rd/24th September 1943.

Above is a certificate that was awarded to Flight Lieetenant Fletcher's crew for returning with an aiming point photograph from an attack on Spezia in Italy in April 1943.

(Above) This is a caricature pencil drawing of P/O W.H.Layne DFC by Pat Rooney, which was drawn during their time in captivity.

(Above) Typical Logbook entry which crews had to enter each time they flew. It had to be completed after training flights or operational flights. If you look at the last but one column on the right you will see entered whether it was a training flight or operational. The total hours in the air is recorded in the last column.

(Below) The three documents below relate to the loss of F/Sgt Bill Whiting. Each was sent to F/Sgt Whiting's father in the aftermath of his son's death.

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Aiming Point Photograph

(Above) This is an aiming-point photograph taken by the on-board camera from the aircraft of Flying Officer Woolnough on 15th August 1944. The target for this daylight attack was the Luftwaffe nightfighter aerodrome at Deelan in the Netherlands. 97 Squadron sent 13 lancasters on this attack. The following is the recollection of the Gunnery Leader, Sqn Ldr Charles Sherring DFC (taken from Night Air War by Theo Boiten)

“The programme was a combined blitz by the Americans and all Bomber Command on German night fighter aerodromes, about twenty of them all told, with about 100 bombers to each.  Our target was Deelen aerodrome, just west of the Rhine near Arnhem.  It was the loveliest day for flying I could have ever imagined.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and you could see as far as the horizon.
We formed our own lot up between Grantham and Coningsby and then went across the Wash past Wells to Cromer, where the rest of our show joined us.  We headed straight out towards Holland at 18000 feet.  Halfway across you could clearly see England and Holland at the same time.  We went in close to Ijmuiden, north of Rotterdam, and then south of the Zuyder Zee, and passed an aerodrome that had just been bombed by 6 Group – smoke was up to 12000 or 14000 feet and it looked an awful shambles below.  We were eleven minutes late, as Woodroffe was quite inexperienced at leading.  There were about thirty or forty heavy guns firing from the aerodrome, which you could see quite clearly from some way away, runways, buildings and all.  Then we started our bombing run.  The aircraft next to us to port got a direct hit and blew up in the air.  It just disintegrated completely before it even began to fall. I’m afraid there was no chance of survivors.  The flak was being pretty accurate and then our bombs started to go off.  We were carrying maximum load – fourteen 1000lb and one 500lb, and the result below from 100 aircraft was staggering.  All the bombs were on the aerodrome, which just disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke, and a great column of smoke came up to nearly our height.  As we turned for home you could see far into Germany, no haze and no cloud, and here and there a great pillar of black smoke where another aerodrome had just been bombed.  There had been a fighter patrol over all the aerodromes for the morning to prevent any of the night fighters taking off.  The damage must have been appalling.
Lindsay, who was flying the other side of the aircraft which had blown up, closed in next to us.  Before we were clear of the target area he got a direct hit on his two starboard engines.  He got the fire under control but lost half his height and a lot of speed.  He kept calling up for fighter support, which went to him and kept with him.  He kept going down on two engines till finally he was at 2000 feet trying to clear the coast, where he was hit again by light flak and another engine went.  He lost more height and came down in the sea ten miles off Holland off Ijmuiden.  We left the formation to go on on its own and went back to Lindsay.  The fighters were circling round them.  We gave out wireless fixes and so on, and finally beat them up at really low level.  The aircraft tail was still afloat and he and all his crew were near it in their dinghy, all looking really miserable.  We left them as the fighters turned for home as well, and turned back over the sea.
Lindsay got an immediate DFC.  The ASR people got going and picked him up from within ten miles of Ijmuiden, and that same evening he was back in England.  We passed one speed launch going out as we came back.  Theykept a fighter patrol over him till all was okay.”