Between 1942 and the end of the war in 1945, Bomber Command was tasked with the mining many areas around the coast of Europe - from Norway, to the Baltic Sea coast and all along the Atlantic coast.

ED559's target was the Bordeaux Estuary known as Deodars. Below is a list of the code names for other areas. The term ' Gardening Operation' was used for the 'sowing' of the sea mines but as can be seen below not every location has a theme based on trees and plants. A number were based on fish, there's one called 'Bottle' and the Channel Islands were 'Hostile Air' and 'Hostile Ozone'...

I recently came across clear photos of ED549 - a sister Lancaster to ED559 - and lost on the same first raid that 100 Squadron undertook on March 4/5 1943. You can make out the serial number but the aircraft has not yet had the JA-S painted on to the fuselage. ED549 crashed while attempting to land at Langar airfield due to poor weather at RAF Grimsby. Only the mid-upper gunner survived the crash.

Photo from IWM archive

I wonder if either of the two Lancasters in the background happen to be ED559... we'll probably never know.