Source 1

Operation Records Book, February 1945; AIR 27/648

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Transcript

Date	Aircraft type & number	Crew	Duty	Time Up	Time Down	Details of sortie or flight
3.2.45	Lancaster I"W" ME 450	F/O WATSON, M F/S Wood, K NZ4212785 F/S Dawson, R NZ421686 F/S Ford, G Sgt Pare, R Sgt Mentiply, W Sgt Belland, A	Capt. Nav. A/B WO/AIR F/Eng MU/Gnr. R/Gnr.	16.32	21.33	Bomb Load 1 x 4,000 H.C. 7 x 500 ANM 2 x 500 M.C. 1 x Munro Primary Target Dortmund Good Attack

Glossary

A/B - Aircrewman Bombardier, or bomb aimer. The bomb aimer helped the navigator to guide the plane to a bombing target and release the bombs.

ANM - Anti-Nero Mine. Gordon Ford was a member of different crews who dropped these on German ships near Denmark. The mines had to be dropped from 60 feet. This meant the plane had to fly low, at great risk to the crew as they could easily be shot down.

Capt. - Captain

Dortmund- City in Germany, south of the River Ruhr.

F/Eng. - Flight Engineer

F/O - Flying Officer

F/S - Flight Sergeant

Mu/Gnr. - Mid-Under Gunner

Munro - Type of bomb used for dropping leaflets (used by USA)

Nav. - Navigator. The Navigator worked out the route to fly.

Primary - Main

R/Gnr. - Rear Gunner

Sortie - Flight, mission, job.

WO/AIR - Wireless operator for the plane.