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Operations
Technical problems with the aircraft resulted in failure to take off. 22nd November 1943 - Berlin. Hit by flak flak shortly after bombing and port outer engine caught fire. Fire extinguishers put out the blaze and the airscrew was feathered. Sergeant Bishop in the mid upper turret had a lucky escape when a piece of shrapnel 3 inches long ripped the sleeve of his flying jacket but fortunately missed his arm. The Lancaster returned on 3 engines. 23rd November 1943 - Berlin. Early return due to engine failure. 26th November 1943 - Berlin. Rear gunner sighted Fw190 night fighter on outward flight and his early warning enabled the pilot to corkscrew the Lancaster and evade the fighter before it could get into an attacking position. On the return flight another night fighter was sighted but this failed to see them. Diverted to Croft on return due to bad weather. 16th December 1944 - Berlin. An electrical fault resulted in Squadron Leader Whittet aborting the mission after bombing German installations on the island of Texel off the Dutch coast. 20th December 1943 - Frankfurt. 29th December 1943 - Berlin. 1st January 1944 - Berlin. 14th January 1944 - Brunswick. 20th January 1944 - Berlin. 21st January 1944 - Magdeburg. The H2S radar set developed a fault that became evident on the outward flight when they approached Hannover from the North instead of the South. Soon afterwards the set failed completely and they had to rely solely on the dead reckoning navigation of Flying Officer O'Neil-Shaw to find the target and return home. This they did successfully but not before they had to run the gauntlet of the usual heavy flak, searchlight and fighter defences over Germany. 27th January 1944 - Berlin. A Bf 110 night fighter attacked the Lancaster and fire was returned by rear and mid upper gunners. The night fighter made one attack diving away to the starboard side. The aircraft suffered damage to the port inner engine, undercarriage, trimming wires and also put the rear turret out of action. Squadron Leader Whittet also received a small wound near his right eye. The damage to the control wires and loss of one engine made the Lancaster difficult to fly but Squadron Leader Whittet continued on to the target and bombed successfully from a height of 22,000 feet at 22:33 hours. The return flight was made even more difficult by a very strong headwind that gusted up to 100 mph. On landing at Elsham Wolds the undercarriage of the Lancaster collapsed and aircraft was out of service undergoing repairs until the 15th Feb 1944. Squadron Leader Whittet was awarded the DFC for this action and later commented that his crew had performed magnificently throughout this most difficult flight. 28th January 1944 - Berlin. 30th January 1944 - Berlin. 15th February 1944 - Berlin. 19th February 1944 - Leipzig. 20th February 1944 - Stuttgart. 24th February 1944 - Schweinfurt. Landed at Harwell on return due to shortage of fuel. 15th March 1944 - Stuttgart. 18th March 1944 - Frankfurt. 22nd March 1944 - Frankfurt. At this time Squadron Leader Whittet and Flying Officer O'Neil-Shaw had completed their second tours. Squadron Leader Whittet was awarded a bar to his DFC and Flying Officer O'Neil-Shaw was awarded the DFC. The crew had successfully completed nine operations to Berlin not counting two that were aborted and one when they could not take off due to a technical problem. They had also successfully completed nine operations to other German cities. The crew had performed extremely well throughout and Flight Sergeant Kinlay had fully played his part. During the Battle of Berlin few crews from Bomber Command managed to complete a tour and 103 Squadron was no exception. At this stage the five original crew members still had a number of operations to undertake before they had completed their first tours which were 30 operations as against a second tour of 20 operations. Flight Sergeant Kinlay was posted back to 460 Squadron at Binbrook where he flew ten more operations to complete his tour. These were all to targets as part of the preparations to the D-Day landings and in the immediate aftermath. These attacks were extremely important to the success of the invasion and not without dangers of their own. Operations with 460 Squadron 30th April 1944 - Maintenon (Ammunition dump). 1st May 1944 - Lyons (Berliot motor works). 6th May 1944 - Aubigne (Ammunition dump). 7th May 1944 - Rennes (Airfield). 9th May 1944 - Merville (Coastal gun batteries). 26th May 1944 - Merville (Coastal gun batteries). 27th May 1944 - Gun Batteries on French coast. 5th June 1944 - Crisbeq (Coastal gun batteries prior to the D-Day landings on the 6th June). 17th June 1944 - Aulnoye (Railway Communications). 23rd June 1944 - Saintes (Railway yards). During this period he was promoted to Pilot Officer. After the raid to Saintes on the 23rd June, 1944 P/O Kinlay finally completed his tour and was screened from further operations. He was then posted to an Operational Training Unit at Lichfield as an instructor for a period of six months before returning to Australia in 1945 with the rank of Flying Officer, following a further promotion. After the war John Kinlay worked for the Repatriation Department in Melbourne for eight years and then for the Army Audit for the remainder of his working life. John was married to Beryl and they had two children and had four grandchildren. Sadly, John passed away on 1 June 2002. Acknowledgment
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F/Sgt Kinlay relaxing in the snow at Elsham Wolds | ||
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