COLOGNE
32 Wellingtons and 19 Whitleys; electrical storms allowed only 7 aircraft to claim attacks on the main target. 1 Wellington lost. Cologne reports no bombs.
DÜSSELDORF
30 Hampdens and 14 Wellingtons encountered thick cloud, snow and icing. Results of bombing not observed. 1 Wellington lost.
KIEL
41 aircraft - 18 Manchesters, 15 Stirlings, 8 Halifaxes - but ground haze spoiled bombing. 2 Manchesters lost. Light damage and no casualties in Kiel.
Minor Operations: 3 Wellingtons to Emden, 1 Hampden minelaying in Frisians, 3 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
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23 Blenheims on a Circus operation to a steelworks at Lille which was bombed accurately. No Blenheim losses.
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BREMEN
73 Wellingtons and 35 Whitleys; they encountered storms, icing conditions and, reported for the first time in Bomber Command records, 'intense night-fighter attacks'. 11 Whitleys - 31 percent of the Whitleys dispatched - and 3 Wellingtons were lost, the heaviest night loss of the war so far. No report is available from Bremen but many of the bombers must have found their way by mistake to Hamburg, 50 miles away. This city reports 76 bombing incidents, 14 fires, 7 people killed, 39 injured and 55 bombed out and 5 bombers shot down by night fighters over the city.
VEGESACK
28 Hampdens to attack U-boat construction yards. No losses.
Minor Operations: 4 aircraft to Dunkirk, 3 to Emden, 1 to Cologne, 1 to DÜSSELDORF, 3 Hampdens to the Frisians, 4 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
