Stuttgart devastated by bombing. 

Bomber Command detailed 602 aircraft to strike two targets in the Stuttgart area, 28-29 Jan 45. The Thunderbird sixteen Halifaxes were part of a 135 bomber attack of the Hirth aero-jet engine factory and the Bosch ignition works in Stuttgart's northwestern suburb of Zuffenhausen. Each No 426 Squadron aircraft carried one 2000 pound bomb and 4240 pounds of incendiaries.

Air defence consisted of slight heavy flak and fighters in the target area. The attack was all the more difficult because there were so many aircraft over the target that many pilots had to take evasive action to avoid mid-air collisions. Fourteen of the Thunderbird bombers reached the objective between 2333 and 2340 hours, dropping their loads from 18000 to 20000 feet.

W/C F.C. Carling-Kelly, AFC, third Thunderbird CO shot down.

No 426 Squadron lost one Halifax in this raid. W/C F.C. Carling-Kelly and his crew on NP768/OW “Q”, were at 18000 feet in the middle of the bomber stream when it was hit from the starboard quarter. The rear gunner, F/O P. Hyde, was killed instantly when he was hit in the head. The pilot's panel disintegrated as well as the bomb aimer's perspex. Fire broke out in the rear of the aircraft and in the wing behind the port outer engine. The Halifax went into a spiral dive and Carling-Kelly, who was wounded, gave the order to bail out while he struggled to hold the aircraft steady. He then bailed out from about 8500 feet.

Three crew members died: the navigator, Sgt S.G. Rundle (Bowmanville, Ontario), who had made eight sorties; the mid-upper gunner, F/O A.L. Evans (Regina, Saskatchewan); and the rear gunner, F/O Hyde (Magog, Quebec), both on their ninth mission of their second tours. They are buried in the War Cemetery, Durnbach, Germany.

The rest of the crew were captured and became prisoners of war. The Squadron Commander, W/C Carling-Kelly (Toronto, Ontario), was the third Thunderbird CO to be shot down and, though wounded, unlike Blanchard and Crooks, survived the ordeal. The other crew members were: bomb aimer, F/O D.J. Bird (Toronto, Ontario); wireless operator, F/O H.J. Dales (Windsor, Ontario); and flight engineer, Sgt J.A. Bromley (Leicester, Leicestershire).

It was hard to gauge the success of the raid due to cloud cover, but crews did observe several explosions and fires. Bomber Command lost eleven aircraft of the 602 despatched on this Stuttgart operation.