Two enemy aircraft were reported being shot down on this raid, one by a Lancaster of 626 Squadron, west of Hannover at 2.23 am. One fighter attacked them four times before it fell away in flames. A few minutes later there was a violent explosion beneath the clouds, so it was claimed as destroyed.

The second was by a Lancaster of 7 Squadron whose gunners claimed an attacking Ju88 destroyed while making its third pass at them. It was seen to fall in flames.

Lieutenant Nick Knilans of 619 Squadron, flying Lancaster ED859 ‘V’, had to make a sudden dive under about ten Mel09s that suddenly came out of the darkness right over the target.

‘Don’t shoot,’ he shouted to his gunners, ‘they’re not bothering us, don’t attract their attention.’

His WOP tuned the rest of the crew into the intercom to listen to what he was receiving over his set. There seemed to be a terrible row going on between the German pilots and German Luftwaffe women on the ground. The WOP said that some of the girls’ voices were English WAAFs giving wrong headings etc – in German – to the enemy pilots, causing them to run low on petrol while over the sea or over mountainous countryside.

The route to Berlin on this night was nearly direct. The return made via Le Treport. The flak over the city was intense at first but moderated upon the arrival of the night fighters. Many combats took place over the target; one Lancaster seen shot down by two fighters. Some ten aircraft were seen shot down by fighters between the Dutch coast and Berlin and over the same area, aircraft were seen shot down by flak – one at Bremen, and three by individual salvos from single batteries at Meppel, Texel and north-east of Hannover.

On the return flight losses to flak were witnessed over Brussels and Lille. Returning to base, some aircraft met slight snow flurries, but for some Lincoln based squadrons, they met the dreaded fog. Lieutenant Knilans was diverted to Fiskerton where they had a FIDO system in operation. As he approached it was lit up and they broke into clear air at about 100 feet. The flames from the system shot two walls of fire up to 50 feet as Knilans brought his Lancaster down between them. It was very impressive and a little awe-inspiring.

A total of 28 Lancasters (6.7%) were missing from this operation. For each loss 50 tons of bombs had been dropped, the overall tonnage being 1,400.4. One of the missing aircraft was a Lancaster (DV307 ‘Z’) of 101 Squadron, flown by Squadron Leader Robertson. He had in his crew Flight Lieutenant Duringer DFC, in the role of Special ABC Operator. He had taken the place of Pilot Officer Bill Parker. Parker had gone to London to collect his officer’s uniform, having just been commissioned, and arrived back to find himself on that night’s op. To let him settle into the Mess, Duringer took his place and asked him to look after his fiancee, Section Officer Knatchbull-Hugessen. Bill never forgot the tension of waiting for the aircraft to return, but it never did.

The Germans reported the raid lasting from 2.56 to 3.45 am, and that some 30 mines, 200 HE bombs, 10,000 incendiaries and 500 phosphorus bombs had been dropped. Damaged appeared somewhat lighter than previously; 21 houses destroyed, 28 severely damaged, 66 medium and 360 slightly damaged. Casualties were 79 dead, 117 injured. One industrial concern was destroyed and two damaged, while five military sites were also damaged. The target area and damage also embraced the Central Post Office, Exhibition Hall of the Fair Charlottenburg, Tempelhof goods station, a secondary flak battery at Wupperstraum and a gasometer in Neuhoellin.

Flight Sergeant E.G. Bacon of 542 PRU Squadron tried to take photographs in Spitfire EN685 but was unsuccessful.

Germany was becoming an even more dangerous place over which to fly. By January 1944 there were 6,716 heavy guns, 8,484 medium/light guns and 6,320 searchlights and 1,968 balloons in their defence arsenal. Also in January 1944 there came a reorganisation of night fighters, by the formation of Luftflotte Reich. This was responsible for entire direction of the air defence and controlled the directions of fighter units as well as directing the strength of flak artillery. Meanwhile the First Fighter Corps directed the operations of both night and day fighters as well as training fighter units.