 |
||||||
 |
||||||
|
� Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th AnniversaryCampaign Diary
|
||||||
|
12 Bostons to Zeebrugge coke ovens and Lille power-station; only the Zeebrugge target was bombed. No Bostons lost.
Stuttgart
77 aircraft - 49 Wellingtons, 13 Stirlings, 11 Halifaxes, 4 Lancasters
- to the city and the Bosch factory. 3 Wellingtons and 1 Stirling lost.
There was no cloud but the ground was haze-covered. The Lauffen decoy
again attracted much of the bombing. The nearest bombs to Stuttgart
fell in woods west of the city.
Minor Operations: 19 aircraft to Nantes, 4 Blenheim Intruders to Schiphol, 10 aircraft on leaflet flights to France. No losses.
18 Bostons to Boulogne docks, Calais parachute factory and Caen power-station. All targets 're bombed without loss to the Bostons.
Stuttgart
97 aircraft - 55 Wellingtons, 15 Stirlings, 10 Hampdens, 10 Lancasters,
7 Halifaxes - the city and the Bosch factory. 5 Wellingtons and 1 Halifax
lost.
This third raid on Stuttgart was another failure, with crews again blaming
ground haze for their inability to identify the city. Stuttgart's records
show that no bombs fell in the city, though a few fell in woods to the
west. The Lauffen decoy may have been responsible for a raid which developed
on the large town of Heilbronn, only 5 miles from the decoy fire site
but 20 miles from Stuttgart. More than 150 buildings were hit in Heilbronn
and 7 people died there.
Minor Operations: 19 aircraft to Nantes, 4 Blenheim Intruders, 9 aircraft on leaflet flights to France. 1 Intruder lost.
12 Bostons to Ostend power-station and Zeebrugge coke ovens; direct hits were scored at Zeebrugge, near misses at Ostend. No Bostons lost.
Minelaying: 81 aircraft of 3 and 5 Groups to Copenhagen, the Great Belt, Kiel and Heligoland. 1 Hampden and 1 Wellington lost.
Minor Operations: 5 aircraft to St Nazaire, 1 Halifax on leaflet flight to France. No losses.
6 Bostons to Dieppe port and railway yards; none were lost.
|
Warnem�nde
193 aircraft - 98 Wellingtons, 27 Stirlings, 21 Lancasters, 19 Halifaxes,
19 Hampdens, 9 Manchesters - to the town and the nearby Heinkel aircraft
factory. 19 aircraft - 8 Wellingtons, 4 Lancasters, 3 Hampdens, 2 Halifaxes,
1 Manchester, 1 Stirling - lost.
No details are available from Warnem�nde but Bomber Command's own
records say 'the attack was only moderately successful'.
Minor Operations: 3 Blenheim Intruders to Leeuwarden, 3 aircraft minelaying off Heligoland. No losses.
12 Bostons to an oil depot at Bruges and railway yards at Hazebrouck. Only 'near misses' could be achieved at both targets. No Bostons lost.
Minelaying: 20 aircraft to Danish coasts, Kiel and the German Bight. No losses.
4 Wellingtons on cloud-cover raids to Essen but this target was not found. 3 aircraft bombed , M�lheim and 2 unidentified places. No aircraft lost.
Minelaying: 50 aircraft to the Western Baltic. 2 Hampdens and 2 Wellingtons lost.
12 Bostons to Boulogne docks which were accurately bombed without loss to the Bostons.
|
7 Lancasters and 7 Manchesters of 5 Group minelaying off Heligoland and Kiel without loss.
Minelaying: 32 Stirlings and 28 Wellingtons of 3 Group to the Frisians and the Heligoland area. German night fighters were active and 5 Stirlings and 2 Wellingtons were lost.
Minor Operations: 27 aircraft to Boulogne, 1 Stirling on a leaflet flight to France. 1 Wellington lost on the Boulogne raid.
Mannheim
197 aircraft - 105 Wellingtons, 31 Stirlings, 29 Halifaxes, 15 Hampdens,
13 Lancasters, 4 Manchesters. 11 aircraft - 4 Halifaxes, 4 Stirlings,
3 Wellingtons - lost.
155 aircraft reported hitting Mannheim but most of their bombing photographs
showed forests or open country. A concentrated group of about 600 incendiaries
in the harbour area on the Rhine burnt out 4 small industrial concerns.
Only light damage was caused elsewhere. The only fatal casualties were
2 firemen.
Minor Operations: 65 'freshmen' crews to St Nazaire but bombing results were poor, 9 aircraft minelaying off Lorient and near Heligoland, 13 aircraft on leaflet flights to France. 1 Wellington lost on the St Nazaire raid.
Total effort for the night: 284 sorties, 12 aircraft (4.2 per cent) lost.
Minelaying: 33 Wellingtons and 15 Stirlings of 3 Group to the Biscay ports but poor weather allowed only 18 aircraft to lay mines. No aircraft lost.
Minor Operations: 27 Halifaxes to St Nazaire but cloud prevented all but 3 from bombing, 31 aircraft minelaying to St Nazaire and off German Baltic ports. No aircraft lost.
4 Bostons on uneventful sweep off the Dutch coast.
4 Lancasters minelaying in the Great Belt without loss.
Paris/Gennevilliers
77 aircraft - 31 Wellingtons, 20 Halifaxes, 14 Lancasters, 9 Stirlings,
3 Hampdens - to the Gnome & Rhone factory, 4 Wellingtons and 1 Halifax
lost.
Later photographic cover showed little or no damage to the factory,
A local report says that 38 houses were destroyed and 49 damaged, with
34 French people being killed and 167 injured.
Minor Operations: 31 aircraft to Cherbourg, 17 aircraft to Dieppe. 21 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians and off Copenhagen, 3 aircraft on leaflet flights to France, 1 Stirling minelayer lost.
|
The Thousand Bomber Raid, Cologne
1,047 aircraft were dispatched, this number being made up as follows:
1 Group - 156 Wellingtons
3 Group - 134 Wellingtons, 88 Stirlings = 222 aircraft
4 Group - 131 Halifaxes, 9 Wellingtons, 7 Whitleys = 147 aircraft
5 Group - 73 Lancasters, 46 Manchesters, 34 Hampdens = 153 aircraft
91 (OTU) Group - 236 Wellingtons, 21 Whitleys = 257 aircraft
92 (OTU) Group - 63 Wellingtons, 45 Hampdens = 108 aircraft
Flying Training Command - 4 Wellingtons.
Aircraft totals: 602 Wellingtons, 131 Halifaxes, 88 Stirlings, 79 Hampdens, 73 Lancasters, 46 Manchesters, 28 Whitleys = 1,047 aircraft
The exact number of aircraft claiming to have bombed Cologne is in
doubt; the Official History says 898 aircraft bombed but Bomber Command's
Night Bombing Sheets indicate that 868 aircraft bombed the main target
with 15 aircraft bombing other targets. The total tonnage of bombs was
1,455, two-thirds of this tonnage being incendiaries.
German records show that 2,500 separate fires were started, of which
the local fire brigade classed 1,700 as large. Property damage in the
raid totalled 3,330 buildings destroyed, 2,090 seriously damaged and
7,420 lightly damaged. More than 90 per cent of this damage was caused
by fire rather than high-explosive bombs. Among the above total of 12,840
buildings were 2,560 industrial and commercial buildings, though many
of these were small ones. However, 36 large firms suffered complete
loss of production, 70 suffered 50-80 per cent loss and 222 up to 50
per cent.
The estimates of casualties in Cologne are, unusually, quite precise.
Figures quoted for deaths vary only between 469 and 486. The 469 figure
comprises 411 civilians and 58 military casualties, mostly members of
Flak units. 5,027 people were listed as injured and 45,132 as bombed
out.
The RAF lost 41 aircraft which were: 29 Wellingtons, 4 Manchesters,
3 Halifaxes, 2 Stirlings, 1 Hampden, 1 Lancaster, 1 Whitley, 3.9 per
cent of the bombing force.
Bomber Command later estimated that 22 aircraft were lost over or near
Cologne - 16 shot down by Flak, 4 by night fighters and 2 in a collision;
most of the other losses were due to night-fighter action in the radar
boxes between the coast and Cologne.
Intruder Operations
In a major effort to help the bomber force attacking Cologne, 34 Blenheims of 2 Group, 15 Blenheims of Army Co-Operation Command and 7 Havocs of Fighter Command attempted to attack German night-fighter airfields alongside the bomber route. No particular success was gained by these Intruders and 2 of the Blenheims were lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,103 sorties, 43 aircraft (3.9 per cent) lost.
5 Mosquitos of 105 Squadron were dispatched to take photographs of bomb damage at Cologne and drop a few more bombs there. These were Bomber Command's first Mosquito operations of the war but 1 aircraft was hit by Flak and later crashed into the North Sea.
2 Wellingtons were dispatched to Cologne but the area was found to be cloud-covered and no bombing results were seen. The Wellingtons both returned safely.
|
|
�
[ Aircraft | Background
| Commanders | Diary
| Anatomy | Groups
]
[ Famous Raids | Gallery
| Squadrons | Stations
]
[ Home ]
[ Return to the RAF Site ]
� Crown Copyright 2004 and � Deltaweb International Ltd 2004
�
�
