5 January 1945

Target: Zagreb East Sidings, Yugoslavia

On 5 January the Group Air Inspector, Captain Trommershausser, got his first assignment as a Group formation leader. The target was the East Sidings of the marshalling yard at Zagreb, Yugoslavia. On take-off the planes in the four flight formation worked their way up individually through a solid stratocumulus cloud layer and assembled on top for the mission. As had been the case for months, the crews had been briefed to bomb targets in Yugoslavia only by the visual method. When the formation arrived at Zagreb they found their target covered by a nine-tenths layer of clouds. After four unsuccessful bomb runs they abandoned the target and returned their bombs to Base.