1-7 February 1943

Overview

Another week without any casualties for 12 Sqn although they took part in attacks on Cologne (161 Bomber Command aircraft); Turin (188 aircraft) and L’Orient (128 aircraft).

During the raid on Cologne, a Pathfinder Stirling of 7 Squadron, was shot down by a night fighter and crashed in Holland. Unfortunately, it contained an H2S set (as described in an earlier post) in only the second operation using that technology. The Germans managed to repair and reassemble the damaged equipment and this led, eventually, to the development of a device codenamed “Naxos” which was used to home onto bombers that were using H2S.