They Spread Their Wings (25 page)

Jim’s crew were stood down for a week and it was not until the night of 21/22 June that they were called for ops again. Up until now Jim had flown the Mk IC version of the Wellington, which was powered by two Bristol Pegasus XVIII engines. For the operation on 21/22 June he was allocated W5452, a Wellington Mk II powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin X engines, and this change of aircraft seems to have been related to the early in-service evaluation of the new 4,000lb High Capacity (HC) blast bomb that came to be known throughout the RAF as a ‘Blockbuster’ or ‘Cookie’.

The Merlin engines gave the Mk II a superior performance to the IC and allowed a higher all-up weight to be achieved, which in turn gave it the ability to carry a greater bomb load or have an increased range by carrying more fuel. Coupled with a higher ceiling and cruising speed, the Mk II was considered a good platform to carry a 4,000lb bomb being proposed by the Air Ministry during 1940. The explosive, usually Amatol or RDX/TNT, comprised about 75 per cent of the total weight of this weapon, which measured 110in (279cm) in overall length, including a 27in (69cm) tail. The diameter was 30in (76cm). The Wellington bomb bay was stuffed pretty full by one of these beauties! The designer of the Wellington, Barnes Wallis, came up with the modifications required for the bomb bay area, including removal of the intermediate bomb doors; replacement of the normal bomb-carrying beams by special vertical supports inserted in the centre-section spar bracing; and the provision of additional fittings on the forward frame designed to assist the suspension of this new 4,000lb monster in the bay.

A 4,000lb Cookie being loaded into a Vickers Wellington. (B. Parker Collection)

A 4,000lb Cookie was dropped operationally for the first time during a raid on Emden on 1 April 1941 by one Wellington from each of Nos 9 and 149 Squadrons. With the first production order for 1,000 bombs only being issued during April 1941, by mid-June just a small number of these had been dropped in anger. However, when suitably modified Wellington aircraft also began to roll off the line, both were gradually spread out among Bomber Command to give as many squadrons as possible a chance to try out this new weapon. It is recorded that 226 Cookies had been dropped by the end of August 1941 – and 93,000 by May 1945. By way of comparison, it is estimated that a Wellington carrying one 4,000lb HC Cookie carried over 2.5 times the amount of explosives as it would have done if the load had been 18 x 250lb or 9 x 500lb GP bombs.

Plt Off Jim Crampton was selected to do the honours for No 214 Squadron during an operation to Cologne on 21/22 June 1941. Having taken off at 23.45 with Plt Off Jenkins as second pilot for this trip, W5452 reached the city at 02.05 but cloud and haze made aiming difficult. Plt Off Jenkins was now to be the regular second pilot in Jim’s crew and flew with him for the remainder of his operations.

The navigator saw two areas of fire in the northern part of the city and the 4,000-pounder was dropped in that area, its release being marked by the bomber taking a distinct surge upwards. Some of the crew thought they could see debris being thrown into the air from its detonation and Sgt Taylor in the rear turret reported a few scattered small fires as the aircraft left the target area. Thirteen other aircraft from No 214 Squadron claimed similar results, but in
Bomber Command War Diaries
, author Martin Middlebrook wrote: ‘Cologne: 68 Wellingtons; cloud and haze encountered. Out of the 500 HE and nearly 5,000 incendiaries carried by the bombers, none are recorded as dropping inside Cologne’s boundaries, only a few in villages to the west. No aircraft lost.’

After a couple of nights off, Jim and his crew were back on ops on 24/25 June, this time taking N2800, a Mk IC, to Düsseldorf along with eleven other aircraft, while three more of the squadron’s bombers attacked the port of Emden. One of the latter, R1609 captained by Sgt Godfrey Jones, failed to return and all but the second pilot, Plt Off Forrest, were posted as missing in action.

Wellington Mk II, W5442, BU-V of No 214 Squadron, Stradishall. (Andrew Thomas)

Düsseldorf was the objective for twenty-three Wellingtons and eight Manchesters and no aircraft were lost from this raid. Jim took off at 23.30 with a load consisting of one 1,000lb, four 500lb and one 250lb bombs. These were released over the southern part of the town from 15,000ft but no results were observed. The return leg was uneventful as usual and they landed back at 05.00. So far, the squadron ORB entries recorded no brushes with night-fighters and there was little or no comment recorded about flak or searchlight activity encountered.

This situation was unlikely to continue and indeed a sign that things were about to change became evident during Bomber Command’s, and Jim Crampton’s, next major operation, when seventy-three Wellingtons and thirty-five Whitleys were despatched to Bremen on 27/28 June 1941. Nineteen of these aircraft were from No 214 Squadron.

Lifting his aircraft off Stradishall runway at 23.15, Plt Off Jim Crampton took his regular crew in a IC, R1613, loaded with two 500lb bombs and six containers of 4lb incendiaries. Martin Middlebrook wrote of this raid:

They encountered storms, icing conditions and, reported for the first time in Bomber Command records, ‘intense night-fighter attacks’. Eleven Whitleys (33 per cent of the force sent) and three Wellingtons were lost, the heaviest night loss of the war so far. Many of the bombers must have found their way to Hamburg, 50 miles away. That city reported 76 bombing incidents and five bombers shot down over the city.

Fires were already visible in the town south of the river when Jim arrived to make his bomb run at 15,000ft at around 01.30. The crew believed they saw fires start from the explosions. There was no comment about enemy air activity and their aircraft touched down at 04.40.

Jim took R1613 to Bremen again on 2/3 July, dropping one 1,000lb, three 500lb and one 250lb bombs on the city. He reported afterwards that no definite results could be seen and no searchlights were operating at the time of his attack. Two nights later he set out in Mk II, W5452, with a Cookie on board, but had to abort the op and land – probably very delicately – at RAF Boscombe Down due to engine trouble. The squadron diary records that at least one other Mk II was in operation that night carrying a 4,000lb Cookie, so it seems several of these were filtering through to the squadron now.

At the beginning of July 1941 Bomber Command was allowed to move its operations away from maritime-related targets and return to its main task of attacking German transportation targets. A new directive ordered that during the moon period of each month, bombers should be despatched to attack a ring of land, rail and water-borne transport targets around the Ruhr. On nights with no moon a list of designated city targets close to the distinctive River Rhine was specified and when the weather was too bad for the Rhine targets, a list of other more distant cities would be attacked.

It was this new directive that saw twelve aircraft from No 214 Squadron among a total of 114 Wellingtons called upon to attack Cologne in near perfect weather conditions on the night of 7/8 July. Jim Crampton’s crew in R1613 bombed the centre of the city at 01.30 with one 1,000lb and two 500lb bombs from 12,000ft. Out of the attacking force only three aircraft were lost – including T2992 flown by Plt Off Jenkyns from No 214 Squadron – and Jim’s crew returned safely at 04.20. Two nights later, on 9/10 July, Jim went to Osnabrück in R1613 in company with sixteen other Wellingtons from the squadron. On this op, for reasons unknown, Sgt Greenaway was in the rear turret rather than Jim’s regular gunner Sgt Taylor. Although all fifty-seven bombers despatched claimed to have bombed the target, reports from the town stated that no bombs fell in Osnabrück and only a few in a couple of nearby villages.

Things did not go well for No 214 Squadron from the start on the night of 14/15 July 1941, when the squadron despatched only four aircraft on ops to Bremen. The remainder of the attacking force was made up of seventy-four Wellingtons and nineteen Whitleys and there were three aiming points allocated: the docks, the railway station and the city centre.

Vickers Wellington IC, BU-Z of No 214 Squadron, airborne from RAF Stradishall. (Andrew Thomas)

Wellingtons R1341 (Plt Off Guild), R1613 (Plt Off Crampton), R1614 (Plt Off Brown) and T2918 (Sgt Gwilliam) took off from Stradishall at three- minute intervals from 23.57. Just before midnight, over the North Sea, Plt Off Guild ran into some bad weather and icing conditions. Ice built up rapidly all over his aircraft and he could not get the bomber to climb, so reluctantly he decided to turn back, managing to land safely at 01.20. Sgt Gwilliam was also well out over the North Sea when he had to turn back, in his case due to engine trouble. He touched down behind Plt Off Guild at 01.20.

Plt Off Victor Brown was last away at 23.15 and he and his crew were never heard from again. It is believed he, too, may have become victim to the weather and severe icing over the North Sea. Plt Off Brown’s body was washed ashore in Holland and is buried in Bergen op Zoom Commonwealth cemetery. The bodies of air gunner Flt Sgt William Lewis and wireless operator Sgt Ronald Hull came ashore on English beaches, but the rest of that crew (second pilot Sgt Max Collins, navigator Sgt Joseph Else and rear gunner Sgt Jack Taylor) were posted as missing in action and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Jim Crampton had a new rear gunner in his crew that night instead of his regular Sgt Taylor. It was never clear what Sgt Taylor’s initials and first names were and it is therefore possible that the Sgt Jack Taylor lost in R1614 might have been Jim’s original rear gunner. Canadian air gunner Sgt Marshall (‘Marsh’) Johnson was new to the squadron, having arrived just a day or so before he was allocated as rear gunner in Jim Crampton’s crew for this operation. Many years later, Marshall recalled: ‘I threw my kit on the bunk, climbed into a Wellington for my first op and didn’t come back!’

Wellington R1613, coded BU-G, reached Bremen and Jim settled at 10,000ft to begin manoeuvring ready for the bomb run. It was at this juncture that all hell broke loose. In later years Jim recalled that his rear gunner, Marshall, calmly announced over the intercom that ‘we are under attack’ as a night-fighter curved in towards the rear from above and to one side. At the same time Marsh met the attacker with a hail of gunfire from his turret. The German fighter’s own fire raked the forward section of the bomber, killing second pilot John Jenkins and starting several fires in the fuselage. It was clear that the bomber was doomed so Jim gave the order to bale out. The remainder of the crew, with the exception of Sgt Robert Kent, managed to exit safely sustaining only minor injuries between them. Tragically, Sgt Kent’s parachute deployed too quickly and the canopy became entangled with the tail of the burning bomber, dragging him to his death. His body was not discovered for two weeks, after which he was interred at Rheinberg cemetery near his friend John Jenkins. The four surviving members of Jim Crampton’s crew were soon rounded up by the Germans, who sent two off to hospital and the other two to the aircrew interrogation and transit centre Dulag Luft in Frankfurt and thence to separate prison camps. When he was shot down, Jim was on his eighteenth operation.