Our thanks to G.Planinshek for sharing her collection of newsclippings on this Operation.

Up until the beginning of February of 1942 the British government had held back on bombing missions of industrial objectives within the occupied countries of Europe. There was a push on many fronts within the War Office and by other military advisors to sanction the bombing of these occupied factories. The permission was held back by the knowledge that civilians in those countries would be in danger. Continued and growing evidence that the volume these facilities’ output could place a threat on Britain loosing the war, permission was finally given.
For the new head of Bomber Command A/C/M Harris it was time to put the permission to good use. Located in Billancourt one of the Western suburbs of Paris was located the large Renault Works. The French Renault tank had been produced and designed in these factories since before the war. The factories of Renault had the capability to build many components of other vehicles all of which were destined for the German Army .
The problem in many minds was the proximity of the city of Paris. A city which had not been damaged by the German occupiers in their capture of the city. And with the target in question being only five miles from the center of Paris the bombs had to be accurately placed. What was not fully comprehended by many at the time was that the night time bombing accuracy was not as good as was reported.
A force of some 200 bombers was assembled the big new heavies, Halifax and Lancaster along with other work horses of the earlier years of the Command Wellingtons, Manchester and Stirling bombers were to have a clear night to to help them find the target.
At just around nine o’clock the first wave of bombers arrived. Bombing low for accuracy sometimes down to 3,000 feet the raid left a great deal of some areas of the Works heavily damaged and different levels of damage to other sections of the huge expanse of work shops. The end result was a three to four month shutdown of the plants war efforts.




Amongst the formation of bombers were eight of 419 squadron’s Wellington aircraft. Of the eight F/S Thompson’s was the only one damaged when the port engine and it’s propeller cut out near the base the crew survived the crash-landing. The other squadrons had losses from the attack, 311 squadron lost one Wellington crew, a Halifax of 35 squadron was lost to flak but made it back with her crew uninjured. 158 squadron did like wise. The crew of a returning Stirling lost two members of the crew who died from injuries after a hung up bomb dropped when the aircraft landed.

List of 419 crews on the Billancourt Operation as best could be read from the poor quality copies available
S/L Turner Pilot
Sgt. Harris 2nd Pilot
F/S Fowler Nav
F/S Hobson W/O
F/O O’Callingham WAG
F/S Dell A/G

F/L Wolfe Pilot
Sgt. Dutton 2nd Pilot
Sgt. Pearce Nav
Sgt. Goodwin W/O
Sgt. Morrison WAG
Sgt. A/G

P/O Cavaghan Pilot
Sgt. Wiggens 2ND Pilot
Sgt. Crawford Nav
Sgt. Forbes W/O
Sgt. Keller WAG
Sgt. Whitley A/G

X99
F/S Thomson Pilot
P/O Fillmore 2nd Pilot
F/O Dodd Nav
Sgt. Pope W/O Sgt. Johnson WAG
Sgt. Baker A/G

X9718
F/O Hobson Pilot
F/S Marcotte 2nd Pilot
F/O Nav
Sgt. Paul W/O
F/S Dailey WAG
P/O Brodrick A/G

Z1077
Sgt. Dunn Pilot
Sgt. Murphy 2nd Pilot
Sgt. Evans Nav
Sgt. Ferguson W/O
Sgt. Holmes WAG
Sgt. Skinner A/G

Z1095
F/Sgt. Swanson Pilot
F/O Higham 2nd Pilot
Sgt. Brichta Nav
Sgt. Crosby W/O
Sgt. O’Brien WAG
F/S Wilson A/G

Z1095
F/Sgt. Swanson Pilot
F/O Higham 2nd Pilot
Sgt. Brichta Nav
Sgt. Crosby W/O
Sgt. O’Brien WAG
F/S Wilson A/G