Record of Operations Flown from John Mortimer Viney’s Log Book
From May 1941 to September 1942 flying training.
1942 1. 13 September: “Bremen” – a major industrial city in north-west Germany 2. 16 September: “Essen” – a major city in the heart of the Ruhr industrial area
October 14: posted to 158 Squadron RAF Rufforth 3. 22 October: “Genoa landed Castle Camp” - an Italian port, operation timed to coincide with opening of offensive at El Alamein 4. 7 November: “Genoa SOS sent short of petrol landed Manston” 5. 9 November: “Hamburg” - large north German port and industrial area 6. 15 November: “Genoa, SOS sent short of petrol landed Thorney Island” 7. 22 November: “Stuttgart port outer cut 200 miles SE France. Ops abandoned & returned to base” – Stuttgart a major railway centre in south-west Germany 8. 26 November: “mine laying” - off Bay of Biscay and the Frisian Islands, without loss 9. 2 December: “Frankfurt” – an important German trade and industrial area 10. 6 December: “Mannheim” 11. 11 December : “Turin port inner cut over alps (bombs jettisoned over Swiss, much umbrage taken by them) landed Abingdon” Turin, an industrial city in Italy. More than half the force turn back before the Alps because of severe icing. This presumably happened to JMV 12. 20 December: “Duisberg” – German city, a centre of chemical, steel and iron industries
1943 13. 14 January: “Lorient bad weather, good photo, returned via Bay of Biscay” Lorient was the German U-boat base on west coast of France 14. 15 January: “Lorient ideal trip” 15. 29 January: “Lorient” 16. 3 February: “Hamburg” 17. 13 February: “Lorient” – 466 planes dropped over 1,000 tons of bombs trying to destroy the German U-boat pens. However, it was thought that whilst the town was flattened the pens survived. 18. 14 February: “Cologne” 19. 25 February: “Nurmberg (sic) highly successful effort” – German city, birthplace of Third Reich 20. 8 March: “Nurmberg a/c damaged landed Harwell” 21. 12 March: “Essen port inner hit by flak returned 3 engines. Photo of aiming point” – Essen was home to the Kripps plant, which was badly damaged 22. 10 April: “Frankfurt” 23. 14 April: “Stuttgart flak damage no hydraulics exceptionally good effort” 24. 16 April: “Pilsen” – Skoda armament works in Czechoslovakia 25. 20 April: “Stettin” – a port on the Baltic 26. 26 April: “Duisberg diverted Marston Moor” 27. 28 April: “Kattegat” – sea between Denmark and Sweden 28. 4 May: “Dortmund” – an important centre of the coal and steel industries 1944 29. 11 May: “France – Colline-Beaumont” – a gun position at Le Touquet 30. 19 May: “Boulogne” – French port
31. 24 May: “Aachen 25% Squadron missing” – important railway junction 32. 2 June: “Trappes M.Y. 20% Squadron lost 5 – 23” – a railway marshaling yard to the west of Paris 33. 6 June: 00.45 am “Maisy coastal 6 gun Batt. D-Day Allied Forces Land on Normandy” 34. 6 June : 23.35 pm “Chateaudun M.Y.” – Luftwaffe airfield 70 miles south- west of Paris 35. 8 June “Gare de Versailles” – railway junction 36. 22 June: “Siracourt (Rocket planes)” – bunkers housing V-1 launch pads 37. 30 June: “Villers-Bocage” – in support of ground forces in Normandy campaign 38. 6 July: “Marquise Nimoyeques” (sic) V-3 flying bomb launch site at Mimoyecques, finally destroyed on 6 July with use of “Tallboy” bombs 39. 29 July: “Foret de Nieppe” – V-1 flying bomb site 40. 5 August: “Foret de Nieppe” 41. 12 August: “Brunswick attacked by fighter lost port outer engine” – German industrial city
August 27 1944 posted to RAF Leconfield Officer Commanding 640 Squadron 42. 27 August: “Homberg” – 1st large-scale daylight raid on Germany, the target the synthetic-oil refinery at Meerbeck 43. 10 September: “Le Havre” – in support of ground troops in Normandy campaign 44. 12 September: “Munster” – a military centre 45. 17 September: “Boulogne” – attack on French port in support of ground troops 46. 14 October: “Duisberg” – German industrial centre, massive Allied attack 47. 17 November: “Munster formation leader” 48. 12 December: “Essen”
1945 49. 16 January: “Magdeburg” Completion of second tour of operations consisting of 21 sorties completed
22 January: Posted to RAF Carnaby as Station Commander 4 May: “crew depart for Canada after 3 years as the same crew”
The record has been annotated with brief notes by Sarah Wearne, Abingdon School Archivist