With 4 Mosquitos now on strength, 617 Sq was the spearhead of a force of 265 bombers accompanied by further Pathfinders from No 83 and 97 Sqn. With clear skies the four 617 Sq Mosquitos dropped their markers accurately, however back up markers from the pathfinders landed too far South. The rest of the attacking force was unaware of this error, as one of the pathfinder crews inadvertently left his transmitter on jamming all communications. The resulting bombing was widespread with little damage to the target as a whole. Cheshire consoled himself on the way home by shooting up an airfield control tower, that he noticed advertising itself by having all the lights on. Although the raid was unsuccessful overall, No 617 Squadrons marking had been accurate and bomber command decided to repeat the raid again 2 days later, only this time against the Marshalling Yards at Munich. To divert some attention away from the attack, a spoof raid was carried out over Milan by six crews dropping marker flares to simulate an imminent attack. No 617 Sq contributed twelve Lancasters and four Mosquitos to a force of 260 aircraft. Once over the target Cheshire dived from 12,000 to 3,000 ft, dropping red spot fires right on target, these were immediately backed up with additional markers from Shannon and Kearns. Accurate bombing saw the yards heavily damaged. As they left the area heading for home several crews came under fire with Flt Lt John Cooper being shot down, Cooper and five others were taken prisoner but bomb aimer George Harden was killed. Cheshire considered this one of their best raids, with marking extremely accurate and 90% of bombs dropped hitting the designated targets. This one raid caused more damage than all previous RAF and USAAF heavy bomber raids combined. On May 1st, 617 Sq received word that their Squadron Shield, submitted nearly twelve months before, had finally been approved. The official description of the badge was given as On a roundel, a wall in fess, fractured by three flashes of lightning in pile and issuant from the breach, water proper. By now Operation Overlord, D-Day, was in the final planning stages. Returning from leave Cheshire attended a special pre-invasion planning conference at Bomber Command HQ, were he expected to hear of an important bombing role for No 617 Squadron. However to his dismay, he learned that the squadron would not be needed for bombing operations, or even to operate over enemy territory No 617 Squadron was needed for what appeared to be a very dull, though vital special mission. No 617 Sq was immediately stood down to allow them to carry out extensive training. However on May 3rd, Cheshire, Shannon, Kearns and Fawke were detailed to act as markers in support of a force of bombers attacking a German panzer training camp at Mailly-le-Camp in France. Over Mailly, Cheshire was first in and marked well, as did the other Mosquitos but as Cheshire tried to radio the main force controller to begin the attack, he found he was unable to make contact. The controllers wireless had been wrongly tuned and was picking up an American Forces broadcast. As the bombers circled the target awaiting orders German fighters pounced. Eventually the deputy controller took over and ordered the attack, wiping out the entire panzer division on the ground but not before 42 of the 346 bombers involved had been shot down by the enemy fighters.....