8 Group RAF, also referred to as the Pathfinder Force, and began operation nine days later with a night raid on Lille on the 9/10 April 1944.

[6] During a raid on 23 February 1945, Captain Edwin Swales, a South African, won a posthumous Victoria Cross over Pforzheim.

[7] In addition, a further posthumous VC was awarded to a pilot of a 582 Squadron aircraft.

Sqn Ldr Robert "Bob" Palmer, a Mosquito pilot of 109 Squadron led a daylight attack on 23 December 1944, using OBOE, on the Gremberg marshalling yards in Cologne with his regular navigator Flt Lt George Russell.

They were flying on the Lancaster (PB371) of Flt Lt Owen Milne alongside other 582 Squadron aircrew.