Mission Notes: Villers-Bocage
( see map at bottom of screen )
Operation Summary:
Lancasters successfully bombed the road junction at Villers-Bocage, which prevented a planned German armoured advance towards the British and American forces. This was Johnston’s first daylight operation.
Planes from 115 Squadron:
27
Planes lost from 115 Squadron:
None
Johnston’s Plane: KO-W (W.PB 131)
Take-off: 6:11 pm
Landing: 9:15 pm
Round trip time: 3 hrs 04 mins
Bombing Height: 11,500 ft
DIARY NOTES
Location
RAF Bomber Command, 115 Squadron at Witchford, near Ely
Op - Operational mission
Turret - Transparent bubble in a bomber in which a gunner was located
Rear Gun Turret of a Lancaster
U/S - Unserviceable, or unusable
Dave - Taylor, Johnston’s rear gunner
Villers - Villers-Bocage, a small town in France near the English Channel, 100 kms northwest of Paris
Rommel - German Field Marshall
Kites - Airplanes
Mildenhall - Home base of 15 & 622 Squadrons, in Suffolk
Flak - German anti-aircraft fire
Murray - Henderson, Johnston’s navigator
Johnny - Peardon, Johnston’s mid-upper gunner
Klufas - Canadian squadron Leader in 115 Squadron at Witchford
Folkes - Pilot in 115 Squadron at Witchford
Nav - Navigator
One lad - This was N.G. Berkeley, a Canadian pilot in 115 Squadron at Witchford
Beach head - Coastal area of France re-taken from the Germans and secured by the Allied troops
Shooting a real line - Telling a story, explaining oneself
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June 30, 1944 (Friday)
Operation # 5 - Villers-Bocage
Eleven 1,000 pound, four 500 pound bombs
Got ready for night op, checked over aircraft and rear turret U/S so spent most of the afternoon trying to fix it.
Left Dave to work on it and came in but no sooner arrived then they called a briefing for an emergency target for the Army. Villers or something – apparently Rommel just arrived with a Panzer division from Russia (after three weeks travel) so we set out to make a mess of it. And we surely succeeded – Lord what a mess it was when we bombed!! I hope the soldiers appreciate out little effort.
Not much opposition. Two kites collided from Mildenhall and two kites were shot down by flak. We bombed from 11,000 feet a bit early and got through OK.
Murray and Johnny missed briefing and S/L Klufas was going with me as Navigator – when Murray turned up he was disappointed as a kid! (He’s a good type too – I’d have enjoyed taking him – Folkes’ Nav was absent too but he wouldn’t go with him! Which isn’t a bit strange either).
July 1 addendum – Heard today one lad landed on the beach head – bet he’s shooting a real line!
Villers-Bocage bombing run photo
from 11,500 ft
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