---

Strategic bombing during World War II was unlike anything the world had previously witnessed. The British attack on German cities was agreed by the Cabinet in 1942 after a paper was presented by Professor Lindemann, the British government’s leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet, proposing the “dehousing” of the German workforce through area aerial bombing of German cities. Air Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris was appointed to carry out the task and issued a new directive. As the campaign developed, improvements in the accuracy of the RAF raids were by better crew training, electronic aid, and new tactics such as the creation of a “pathfinder” force to mark targets for the main force.

No. 180 Squadron was formed at West Raynham, Norfolk, in September 1942 as a light-bomber squadron equipped with North American Mitchells. Early in October it moved to Foulsham – also in Norfolk – and it was from there, on January 22, 1943, that it flew its first operational mission against the enemy – a raid on oil targets at Terneuzen (Ghent) in Belgium. Of the six aircraft which took part in the raid, two failed to return.