LORIENT
157 aircraft - 65 Wellingtons, 48 Halifaxes, 40 Stirlings, 4 Lancasters. 1 Stirling and 1 Wellington lost.
Bombing was more accurate than on the previous night. At least 800 buildings were destroyed and 12 civilians killed. Most of the inhabitants had fled the town during the previous day.
Minor Operations: 2 Mosquitoes to Aachen, 9 Wellingtons minelaying off Lorient and St-Nazaire, 3 O.T.U. sorties. No losses. The 2 Mosquitoes raiding Aachen used Oboe when bombing; it can be assumed that most attacks by small numbers of Mosquitoes in and around the Ruhr area will now be Oboe raids.
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BERLIN
201 aircraft - 190 Lancasters, 11 Halifaxes - from the Pathfinders and 1, 4 and 5 Groups were dispatched on this interesting raid - the first attack on Berlin for 14 months, the first use of proper 'target indicators' and the use of an all 4-engined bombing force. Stirlings were withdrawn from an original plan so that only the higher-flying Lancasters and Halifaxes would participate. Most of the force was provided by 5 Group.
The raid was a disappointment. Berlin was well beyond the range of Gee and Oboe, and H2S radar was not yet ready. Thick cloud which was encountered on the way to the target hindered navigation and Berlin was found to be covered by haze. Bombing was scattered, mostly in the southern areas, with the greatest concentration in the Tempelhof district. The report from Berlin contains some interesting items among the usual details of buildings destroyed, etc. The German air-raid warning system failed to report the approach of a large bomber force, only of a few single aircraft. The Lancasters and Halifaxes thus arrived over Berlin in the evening when a lot of people were away from their homes. The first bombs coincided with the sounding of the sirens and there were many scenes of panic until the police could control the crowds attempting to find shelter. Goebbels, the Gauleiter of Berlin, is reported as having been most angry and he ordered an overhaul of the procedure. Because of the failure, an unusually high number of people were killed, considering the weakness of the bombing: 198; but this figure includes 53 prisoners of war - 52 Frenchmen and 1 Englishman - and 6 foreign workers. Another event was that about half of the personnel of the Berlin Flak units were away from the city, taking part in a course; this resulted in a very much lighter barrage than normal.
The next day, the whole of Berlin was talking of a 'miracle' which had occurred at the Deutschlandhalle, the largest covered hall in Europe, with 10,000 seats. The raid had started in the middle of the evening show of the yearly circus in the hall, a major event in Berlin's social life. The air-raid police and the fire brigade managed to supervise the evacuation of every person and all the circus animals to open ground in parks around the hall. 21 people were slightly injured in the crush as the crowds left the building. Just after the last person had left, a large number of incendiary bombs fell on to the hall and it was completely burned out, becoming the largest ruin in Berlin so far in the war. None of the 10,000 people in the open near by were hurt!
16 (a and b). The huge Deutschlandhalle in Berlin before and after bombing from which 10,000 people escaped just before it was bombed on
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The R.A.F. casualties were also light. Only 1 Lancaster, from 5 Group, was lost. The Bomber Command report mentions the lightness of the Berlin Flak defences and assumed that the greater altitude of the bomber force surprised the German gunners.
2 Mosquitoes attacked Duisburg and Essen without loss.
