FRANKFURT
650 aircraft - 390 Lancasters, 257 Halifaxes, 3 Mosquitoes. The German control rooms were able to plot the bomber force as soon as it left the English coast and were able to continue plotting it all the way to Frankfurt. There were many combats on the route to the target. The Mannheim diversion did not draw fighters away from the main attack until after the raid was over but the return flight was quieter. 41 aircraft - 27 Halifaxes, 14 Lancasters - lost, 6.3 percent of the force.
The bombing at Frankfurt did not go according to plan. The Pathfinders had prepared a ground-marking plan on the basis of a forecast giving clear weather but they found up to 8/10ths cloud. The Germans lit a decoy fire site 5 miles south-east of the city and also used dummy target indicators. Some of the bombing fell around the decoy but part of the creepback fell on Frankfurt causing more damage than Bomber Command realized at the time. 466 houses were completely destroyed and 1,948 seriously damaged in Frankfurt and in the outlying townships of Sachsenhausen and Offenbach. 117 bombs hit various industrial premises but no important factories are mentioned. The report stresses the large number of cultural, historical and public buildings hit, including the cathedral, the city library, the city hospital and no fewer than 69 schools. The Wehrmacht suffered damaged to 4 Flak positions, a clothing store, a veterinary depot and the Army Music School. 64 people were killed and 111 were missing or still covered by wreckage. 23,000 people were bombed out. A train standing 6 miles south of Frankfurt was hit by a 4,000-lb bomb and 13 people in it were killed.
Part of the bombing somehow fell on Mainz, 17 miles to the west, and many houses along the Rhine waterfront and in southern suburbs were hit. 14 people were killed.
MANNHEIM
44 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitoes of 1 and 8 Groups carried out a diversionary raid on this target but most of the bombing fell outside Mannheim. No aircraft lost.
Minor Operations: 8 Lancasters of 617 Squadron and 8 Pathfinder Mosquitoes attempted to bomb an armaments factory near Lige but the Mosquito marking was not visible below the clouds and the Lancasters did not bomb; 1 Lancaster lost. 6 Mosquitoes to Rheinhausen and 5 to Leverkusen, 8 R.C.M. sorties, 2 Beaufighters on Serrate patrol, 23 Stirlings minelaying in the Frisians, 38 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Stirling minelayer lost.
Total effort for the night: 802 sorties, 43 aircraft (5.4 percent) lost.
---
Minor Operations
9 Oboe Mosquitoes to the Mannesmann factory at DÜSSELDORF and 4 to the Knapsack power station, 4 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
