MOSQUITO OPERATIONS
86 Mosquitoes to Berlin, 2 each to Erfurt and Paderborn, and 2 which bombed both Berlin and Magdeburg on a 'siren tour'. No aircraft lost.
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PADERBORN
268 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitoes to attack this town where American troops were attempting to complete the encirclement of the Ruhr. No aircraft lost.
Paderborn was covered by cloud but the raid was still carried out with almost perfect accuracy and this old town was virtually destroyed in less than a quarter of an hour. A local report, compiled a few hours after the raid, estimated that there were 3,000 separate fires and 330 people, including 50 foreigners, were dead or buried in the ruins.
HAMM
150 Lancasters of 3 Group carried out GH raids on 2 benzol plants in the Hamm area. No results were seen, because of cloud, but dense black smoke rose through the cloud from both targets. No aircraft lost.
FARGE
115 Lancasters of 5 Group attacked an oil-storage depot (95 aircraft) and a U-boat shelter (20 aircraft of 617 Squadron) at this small port on the River Weser north of Bremen. Both attacks appeared to be successful. The results of the raid on the oil depot were not known because this target was attacked with delayed-action bombs so that clouds of smoke would not obscure the target. The U-boat shelter was a particularly interesting target. It was a huge structure with a concrete roof 23 ft thick. It was almost ready for use when 617 Squadron attacked it on this day and penetrated the roof with 2 Grand Slams which brought down thousands of tons of concrete rubble and rendered the shelter unusable.
No aircraft were lost in these attacks.
Total effort for the day: 541 sorties, no aircraft lost.
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MINOR OPERATIONS
82 Mosquitoes to Berlin, 7 to Bremen, 4 to Erfurt and 3 each to Hannover and Magdeburg, 46 R.C.M. sorties, 23 Mosquito patrols, 8 Mosquitoes of 5 Group minelaying in the River Elbe. 4 Mosquitoes lost - 3 from the Berlin raid and 1 from the minelaying operation.
