550 Squadron and RAF North Killingholme Association

Squadron Operations: Summary Information

Overview

Listed below is the information available for operations to this target flown by 550 Squadron.

Operation Summary: The column headers should be fairly self-explanatory. The term "aborted" as used here covers a number of possibilities:

the operation was cancelled before crews were briefed
the crews have been briefed as to the target, and in some cases the planes may even have been bombed up and the crews on-board at their stations awaiting take-off, before the op has been stood-down
finally a number of cases where the op was already under way and the planes en-route but for whatever reason the operation was aborted (e.g. the master bomber orders the attack cancelled due to weather conditions at target adversely affecting targeting).

Aircraft Deployed: When a link to a particular aircraft is given, this indicates aircraft known to have taken part in this raid (in the records currently available to the web-site author). A record of whether the aircraft returned or failed to return (FTR) is also logged.

Servicemen Deployed: Names of the crew in the operation.

Station Summary: This section is the information from the RAF North Killingholme Station Record Book for the operational date (if available).

Definitions of the abbreviations used are available: here.

Manageable Lists

The amount of data in the database is growing and this is resulting in the "all operations/targets" list getting rapidly bigger and thus slower to generate. There are options to display shorter, more quickly generated, reports if you want to home in on something specific. For example, there are options to generate reports on operations to a single target, or by single aircraft (to all targets) or by single aircraft to a single target. There is, on the database-reports summary page, a short user guide (PDF format) on how to do this.

Operation/Target: Augsburg (25 Feb 1944 - 26 Feb 1944)

Operation Summary
Target	Out	Back	Aborted (Y / N)	Comments
Augsburg	25 Feb 1944	26 Feb 1944	N	Twelve aircraft with crews were offered for operations and briefed to attack targets in AUGSBURG. One aircraft did not take-off owing to technical trouble. Two aircraft did not return from the operations, no news since take-off, but the remaining nine aircraft succcesfully bombed the targets and returned safely, landing at BASE - NORTH KILLINGHOLME.

Station Summary
OPERATIONS 12 aircraft of 550 Squadron were detailed for a raid on AUGSBURG. 11 took off and 2 sorties were missing. Some strain was inevitably thrown on all sections concerned in preparation for this operation, as take-off was early and followed a late return from the previous night's raid. The Base Commander attended briefing. ORGANIZATION During the past 5 days 4 armoured fighting vehicles for station defence work have been collected by our M.T. Section. Plans for station defence have now reached the stage where a station manning exercise is possible. This has been ordered for 28 Feb. Difficulty in ground-testing of auto-controls has been reduced by loan of portable air compressor trolley from RAF KIRMINGTON.

Station Summary

OPERATIONS
12 aircraft of 550 Squadron were detailed for a raid on AUGSBURG. 11 took off and 2 sorties were missing. Some strain was inevitably thrown on all sections concerned in preparation for this operation, as take-off was early and followed a late return from the previous night's raid. The Base Commander attended briefing.
ORGANIZATION
During the past 5 days 4 armoured fighting vehicles for station defence work have been collected by our M.T. Section. Plans for station defence have now reached the stage where a station manning exercise is possible. This has been ordered for 28 Feb. Difficulty in ground-testing of auto-controls has been reduced by loan of portable air compressor trolley from RAF KIRMINGTON.

Aircraft Deployed			Servicemen Deployed
Aircraft Service Number	Returned or FTR	Comments	Crew Details
ME582	FTR	Missing, no news after take off [Ed: ORB stated ME583-"E"]	Sgt C Tattersall (P) Sgt W Johnstone (F/Eng) Sgt W R Williams (A/B) Sgt H Stollar (W/Op) Sgt A Hatfield (MU/AG) Sgt J L Powell (R/AG) Sgt P L Colman (Nav)

Summary Statistics

Based on the data in the lists displayed above, and keeping in mind that data is still being updated and thus not yet complete, the following statistics are generated:

Aircraft Deployment Statistics

Aircraft deployments	1
MAX Aircraft deployed in single operation	1 (Augsburg, 25 Feb 1944)

These details were last updated: 22 April 2024

Note

this list is still being built and will take some time to complete
what is currently displayed is believed accurate but much more is still to be added

This note describes the options currently available to produce a smaller, more manageable list and also describes planned future enhancements to the reporting facility.

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