Date:	Thursday 2 January 1941
Time:	01:35
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk IC
Owner/operator:	301 (Ziemi Pomorskiej) Sqn RAF
Registration:	T2518
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Wellingore, Lincolnshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
During the night of 1-2 January 1941, RAF Bomber Command dispatched 141 aircraft: 85 to Bremen, 13 to Ostend and Flushing, 12 to Emden, 7 to Brest and 24 to various other targets.

The RAF crews dispatched to Bremen reported many fires in the target area and this is confirmed by Bremen sources. Accurate bombing was recorded, particularly by the first wave of aircraft, which hit the Focke-Wulf factory in the southern suburb of Hemelingen. Two other industrial firms received serious damage and several others were lightly hit. A large fire was started in stacks of straw and hay at an army depot. Fire units from outside Bremen were called in to help and the firemen had a difficult time in the prolonged bombing raid in a temperature of -12° Celsius. The bombing spread to the town centre where 14 housing units (blocks of flats) were destroyed and 313 damaged, though much of the damage consisted only of broken windows. 11 people were killed (including 3 firemen) and 30 injured.

No bomber was lost over the continent but four crashed in England, including one probably shot down by an Intruder, and 12 men were killed.
_________________________________________________________________________

The night was particularly tragic for 301 (Polish) Sqn RAF which lost 11 killed. Bremen was considered one the most difficult target to attack, and Poles welcomed a chance to have crack at it. It was to be the unit’s first nearly seven-hours sortie. Since the Poles were to be among the first over the objective, their Wellingtons were bombed up each with 360 incendiaries.

The crews reached the target and dropped their loads. On the way back to England they encountered a snow blizzard with nil visibility. Three squadron’s aircraft crashed: if the Wellington R1006 crash-landed while attempting to land at Swinderby without casualties and too much damage (it was repaired), the Wellington IC T2517 GR-A was probably shot down by an Intruder near Digby without survivors and the Wellington IC T2518 GR-K crashed in a field between the villages of Wellingore and Welbourne, 9 miles S of Lincoln, with only one survivor.

The latest crash occurred at 0135 hrs on 2 January. Mishandling of the flaps is quoted as being a possible cause. It had been reported that it had been shot down by an Intruder flown by Uffz Helmut Arnold of 1./NJG 2 the latter claimed a Wellington in the evening and not the early hours of the 2nd, so the crash was very probably accidental as no German claim was made at that time.

Crew
Plt Off Boleslaw Murawski (pilot) KIA
Plt Off Tadeusz Dziubinski (pilot) KIA
Flg Off Boleslaw Sadowski (navigator) KIA
Sgt Kazimierz Sawicz (wireless operator) KIA
Sgt Gustaw Kasianowski (air gunner) KIA
Sgt Jan Wanciszewicz (tail gunner) WIA

"The Bomber Command War Diaries", by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, ISBN 1-85780-033-8
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, vol 2: Aircraft and Crew Losses 1941", by W R Chorley. ISBN 0-904597-87-3
"1941 the turning point. Part 1", by John Foreman, ISBN 1-871187-22-2
Luftwaffe claim lists by Tony Wood and Jim Perry (http://lesbutler.co.uk/claims/tonywood.htm)
https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/Poles-perished-enemy-intruders-downed-Wellingtons/story-28440869-detail/story.html
http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.com/301/301_story.html
http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.com/301/301_losses.html
http://www.bcar.org.uk/1941-incident-logs
http://www.polishairforce.pl/dyw301straty.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellingore
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/england/east-midlands/lincolnshire-county/wellingore/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
03-Jan-2017 16:53	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
04-Jan-2017 11:55	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Aircraft type]
18-Oct-2018 16:58	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]