After 2 cancellations, due to bad weather, 11 aircraft set off on February 12th, each carrying a single 12,000 lb HC ‘Blockbuster. As they approached the Antheor Viaduct, they found the whole area blanketed in thick cloud.At their briefing No617 Sq were assured of clear skies and perfect bombing conditions. This made identification of the target difficult , and diving lower than 3,000 ft was unwise due to surrounding terrain. Cheshire and Martin made several passes with Cheshire finally dropping his markers on the beach just beyond the Viaduct, he instructed the crews to adjust their bombing accordingly, but it was still difficult, but worse was to come. Mick Martin dropped down below the cloud to drop his back up flares and was greeted by another Intelligence error, a dozen flak guns from 20mm up to the dreaded ‘88’ opened up. Staying low and clearing the viaduct by only 50 ft , Martin raced over the beach and out to sea away from danger. However his aircraft had been hit and 20mm rounds had hit bomb aimer Flt Lt Bob Hay, killing him instantly, and Flight Engineer, Ivan Whittaker was wounded. Aborting his drop, Martin headed for Sardinia, on the way he experienced severe icing, a stalled engine and worse, when he tried to jettison his bomb he got a hang up. He eventually landed the crippled bomber at an American airbase, where Whittaker was admitted to the station hospital with severe leg wounds. Although the mission was a failure it was squarely down to poor intelligence, but worse for 617 Sq was the loss of Bob Hay, a popular member of the squadron and Bombing Leader on the ‘Dams’ raid. Having flown his aircraft from Sardinia to Bilda with the undercarriage down due to hydraulic damage, Martin’s aircraft was repaired and he returned to Woodhall Spa on the 25th, having seen Bob Hay buried in the local Cemetry at Cagliari. On March 1st an attack on the BMW aero engine factory at Albert, Northern France was so devastating that a large part of the factory was simply abandoned. Production never rose above 10% of pre-raid output until wars end. An attack on the La Ricamerie needle bearing factory at St Etienne was met by ten –tenth cloud cover after another report of perfect conditions. Cheshire dived to 500 ft and then dropped to 200 ft to drop his flares. Despite the poor visibility more than 80% of the factory was destroyed. A further bad weather report made bombing impossible at Woippy, in France. However on the way home, Flg Off Warren Duffy’s rear gunner Flt Sgt Tom McLean noticed 2 Me 110’s shadowing them, he engaged and destroyed both aircraft. A third aircraft flying off to the side as a distraction was also hit and seen to go down followed by a Fw-190 that had been flying top cover and unwisely came down for a ‘looksy’. Further success followed in successive raids, despite further poor weather reporting..