The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

Farben Werke at Dormagen hit only a large farm and killed a dairyman.
Another report stated that he had switched on an outside light by mistake
while on the way to the lavatory and that this provided a mistaken marker
for a stick of British bombs. A further five were reported wounded in
Cologne. It had hardly set the Ruhr alight.
False confidence was probably no bad thing for the men of Bomber
Command, however. At 10 Squadron in Dishforth near Ripon in North
Yorkshire, there was certainly a sense of relief – tempered with
apprehension – that they were at last taking the fight to the enemy. Many of
the crews had flown over the Reich before, but they had only dropped
leaflets urging the Germans to lay down their arms. There had been cries of
derision from the crews at the time, but as Leading Aircraftsman Larry
Donnelly now recognized all too clearly, the lack of aggressive bombing
operations had been a blessing in disguise, for it had given them muchneeded
experience.
More recently, they had been attacking airfields and other targets in
Norway, a difficult task that had meant flying over long stretches of the
North Sea, often through fiendish weather. Inadequate heating, oxygen
facilities and clothing had created further unpleasant hardships for the
crews. But now it was May and a hop over the Channel and then over the
Low Countries to the Ruhr was seen as a more straightforward proposition.
Furthermore, 10 Squadron had recently been re-equipped with new Merlinpowered
Whitley Mk Vs, a considerable improvement on the earlier
models. The wings also now had de-icing equipment, while the draughty
one-gun manually operated rear turret had been replaced by a hydraulically
operated, tightly sealed four-gun turret. Since Larry Donnelly was, as
second wireless operator in the five-man crew, the person to fill that seat, he
was delighted with the upgrade. ‘I now felt,’ he noted, ‘I had a much better
chance of giving a good account of myself should the occasion arise in
future operations.’
Larry and his crew had been bombing rail and road targets – too late –
at Dinant on the night of 15/16 May, but the following day they were told
that they would be bombing Germany that night. The day had begun well
because their skipper, Flight Lieutenant Richard Bickworth, had been
awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the news had come through
that morning. 10 Squadron was to fly along with 51 and 58 Squadrons to
attack the oil storage depot at Bremen near the German north-west coast.