MINELAYING, STAVANGER, SEAPLANE BASES
31 Hampdens to minelaying operations off Kiel, Lbeck, Warnemnde and in the Elbe; 23 aircraft laid mines.
9 Whitleys to bomb Stavanger airfield were recalled because of bad weather; 1 did not pick up signal and bombed the target.
6 Wellingtons patrolled seaplane bases.
There were no losses from any of these operations.
Operational Statistics, 9 April to
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(31 days/nights)
Number of day raids when bombs dropped: 12
Number of days with other operations: 7
Number of night raids when bombs dropped: 16
Number of nights with other operations: 8
Number of daylight sorties: 268, from which 17 aircraft (6.3 percent) were lost
Number of night sorties: 663, from which 19 aircraft (2.9 percent) were lost
Total sorties: 931, from which 36 aircraft (3.9 percent) were lost Approximate bomb tonnage dropped in period: 198 tons
Average per 24-hour period: 30.0 sorties, 1.2 aircraft lost, 6.4 tons of bombs dropped
It is not possible to provide tonnages or numbers for mines laid.
The long-anticipated German offensive in the West opened early on 10 May with German troops crossing the borders of Belgium and Holland and with airborne landings at several points. This move through the Low Countries outflanked the famous Maginot Line and violent mobile warfare - the Blitzkrieg - commenced immediately. The French and British had foreseen an initial German move through Belgium - as in 1914 - and had prepared plans to move most of the British Expeditionary Force into Belgium to face this, but no cooperation of any kind had been possible with Holland and this country fell within days. The British and French troops in Belgium were steadily pressed back and were eventually encircled with their backs to the sea after a brilliant German armoured breakthrough in the south reached the Channel coast. The evacuation from Dunkirk followed between 26 May and 4 June. Italy came into the war on Germany's side on 10 June. France, which had held the Germans so gallantly for four years in the First World War, finally collapsed on 25 June, only six weeks after the first German attack. It was a period of almost unbelievable historical event.
Despite all the intelligence warnings and the daily reconnaissance flights over Germany before the offensive, Bomber Command had carried out no bombing of any kind to hinder the German preparations; the policy of bombing restraint had been held to the end. The French Government had been promised that the entire British bomber force would be used to help in what came to be called the Battle of France, and Bomber Command was immediately committed. Even though the Norwegian campaign would not end for another four weeks, the whole of the British bomber effort was immediately concentrated into supporting this new, much nearer, land battle.
The Blenheims of 2 Group were placed under the tactical control of the R.A.F.'s Advanced Air Striking Force in France, although the Blenheims continued to fly from their own airfields in England; within days the head of the German advance would be within 200 miles of those airfields. The Blenheims would operate by day throughout the battle and would sometimes suffer heavy casualties in doing so. But the more distant-ranging Wellingtons, Hampdens and Whitleys operated only by night and they would emerge from the battle with the light casualties which had characterized all night operations so far in the war. In return for this comparative immunity, however, they would continue to face almost insuperable problems with navigation, target-finding and bomb-aiming.
The targets for the Blenheims were always on or near the battlefield, where German fighters and mobile Flak batteries were a constant scourge. Initially, the Blenheims flew in formations of six, nine or twelve aircraft; if larger numbers of aircraft are recorded in the diary entries as operating on one day, such numbers usually represent several separate raids. The Blenheims would later learn to operate in larger formations combining several squadrons. The night bombers always flew singly, usually spreading out their raids over several hours of darkness. Initially they attacked the German road and rail communications to the battle front. Despite the ferocity of the German attack and the seriousness of the situation, these raids were restricted by the political order to locations west of the Rhine until 15 May, the day the Germans bombed Rotterdam, when the War Cabinet finally allowed the bombers to cross the Rhine and reach into the German heartland. That date,
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DUTCH AIRFIELDS
33 Blenheims to attack German troop-carrying planes and other targets at Waalhaven and Ypenburg airfields and on a beach north of The Hague; many German planes were reported hit. 3 Blenheims lost.
3. Early Blenheim crews at an unnamed airfield.
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WAALHAVEN AIRFIELD, COMMUNICATIONS
36 Wellingtons to Waalhaven airfield and 9 Whitleys to bomb bridges across the Rhine at Rees and Wesel and columns of road transport near Goch and Geldern. No losses.
