It started for my father on 4th September;
"Sept 4 / Wellington 1A / Self / F/O Macrae, A/c Hartnell, Cpl Roberts, A/c Wyndham / OPS BRUNSBUTTEL / 4/500 lb, GP."
I assume that means 4 X 500 lb bombs on Brunsbuttel, at the mouth of the Elbe. I wonder what the objective was, apart from letting them know that their war with Great Britain had begun?
(He went on to be an instructor after that, mostly in (then) S. Rhodesia, and his next OPS sortie was Sept 22nd 1943, to Hannover in his Lancaster, followed by 4 more, the last on Oct 2nd 1943, when he was shot down to spend the rest of the war in Stalagluft III and the Long March.)