| Company: 12 Squadron RAF |
Category: aviation history
Country: UK
url: http://www.revolver66.freeserve.co.uk
Tom Forbes - Lancaster Captain - 12 Sqn. The Battle of the Ruhr was in full flight when Tom joined 12 Squadron as a Lancaster pilot in May 1943. From March of this year Bomber Command was ready for a sustained and major effort against Germany that would last into the spring of 1944. Crucially, target-finding methods were being further developed, especially Oboe; a "blind-marking" device. The huge spread of industrial cities in the Ruhr valley were now within range of Oboe and Bomber Command's force of increasingly four-engined aircraft which were able to take heavier bomb loads to the target. The main battle would last for four months, two thirds of the effort would be concentrated on the Ruhr, but the remainder would be scattered across Europe; Stettin on the Baltic, Pilsen in Czechoslovakia, Munich in Bavaria and Turin in Italy. |
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