two versions one event ?

[izzy]

im researching a casualty named on my vilage war memorial. there are two published versions of events regarding the loss of his plane and the crew and i would like to find out which version is the correct one. the facts i have is that george ashplant died on the first night of the hamburg firestorm raid operation gommorah. he was pilot of 166 squadron wellington hz314 lost with all crew. the two versions of events i have are that the plane was coned by searchlights and shot down by flack [martin middlebrook the battle of hamburg page 141] the other version is that the plane was hit by indiscriminate shellfire[kevin wilson bomber boys the r.a.f. offensine 1943 page 250] which version of events would be the factual one

[PeterG]

Izzy

According to Bomber Command Losses, volume 4, by W. C. Chorley, Wellington X HZ314 AS-P, crewed by:

W/O G Ashplant CGM
F/S H J A Reid
Sgt C A Land
Sgt A G Wells
F/S A E Jeffery

[The Wellington was] hit by flak and crashed at Buchholz, where all were buried on 26 July 1943. All have since been exhumed and taken to Hamburg Cemetery, Ohlsdorf.

Peter

[izzy]

peter thanks for your reply i knew that the plane was hit by flack but was the plane targeted or was it indiscriminite [i.e firing blindly] flack that hit the wellington i hope that you understand what im trying to convey the two books mentioned seems to me to give diffrent accounts of its loss

[PeterG]

Izzy

I doubt if anyone could resolve that now. But it is most unlikely that a single ack-ack gun targeted a specific bomber, nor was fire indiscriminate. Carefully planned rectangular patterns of shells, known as box barrages, were shot to a specific height by up to ten batteries of four 88mm guns per battery all controlled by a single predictor. This was a very effective method.

Peter