5-11 April 1943

Overview

As stated previously, the records for 12 Sqn and RAF Wickenby for April 1943 are missing from the National Archives, so the information I will be showing for this month are not as comprehensive as we would wish. Those that do appear were put together by members of the Wickenby Register, an association of ex-aircrew who did research in the National Archives and spoke to surviving aircrew during the 1980’s. They had annual reunions and paid for the memorial at the main gate of Wickenby Aerodrome and paid for the book of remembrance that is kept in the museum and contains the names of all 12 and 626 Sqn personnel who died in WW2.

*The Icarus memorial at the Wickenby Aerodrome main gate*

12 Sqn took part in 3 operation this week on three consecutive nights, 8,9 and 10th April, to Duisburg twice and then Frankfurt – there were no casualties. The attack on Frankfurt was through complete cloud cover and led to a failure. Bombing photos showed only cloud and Bomber Command had no idea where the bombs had fallen.