BERLIN
769 aircraft - 495 Lancasters, 264 Halifaxes, 10 Mosquitoes. 35 aircraft - 22 Halifaxes, 13 Lancasters - lost, 4.6 percent of the force. 102 Squadron, from Pocklington, lost 5 of its 16 Halifaxes on this raid, 2 more crashed in England and the squadron would lose 4 more aircraft in the next night's raid. The bomber approach route took a wide swing to the north but, once again, the German controller managed to feed his fighters into the bomber stream early and the fighters scored steadily until the force was well on the way home. The diversions were not large enough to deceive the Germans.
The Berlin area was, as so often, completely cloud-covered and what happened to the bombing is a mystery. The Pathfinder sky-marking appeared to go according to plan and crews who were scanning the ground with their H2S sets believed that the attack fell on eastern districts of Berlin. No major navigational problems were experienced. No photographic reconnaissance was possible until after a further 4 raids on Berlin were carried out but the various sources from which the Berlin reports are normally drawn all show a complete blank for this night. It is not known whether this is because of some order issued by the German authorities to conceal the extent of the damage or whether the entire raid missed Berlin.
Minor Operations: 12 Mosquitoes to DÜSSELDORF, 4 to Kiel and 3 to Hannover, 6 R.C.M. sorties, 5 Serrate patrols, 29 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians and off French ports, 20 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
Total effort for the night: 848 sorties, 35 aircraft (4.1 percent) lost.
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MAGDEBURG
648 aircraft - 421 Lancasters, 224 Halifaxes, 3 Mosquitoes - on the first major raid to this target. The German controller again followed the progress of the bomber stream across the North Sea and many night fighters were in the stream before it crossed the German coast. The controller was very slow to identify Magdeburg as the target but this did not matter too much because most of the night fighters were able to stay in the bomber stream, a good example of the way the Tame Boar tactics were developing. 57 aircraft - 35 Halifaxes, 22 Lancasters - were lost, 8.8 percent of the force; it is probable that three quarters of the losses were caused by German night fighters. The Halifax loss rate was 15.6 percent!
The heavy bomber casualties were not rewarded with a successful attack. Some of the Main Force aircraft now had H2S and winds which were stronger than forecast brought some of these into the target area before the Pathfinders' Zero Hour. The crews of 27 Main Force aircraft were anxious to bomb and did so before Zero Hour. The Pathfinders blamed the fires started by this early bombing, together with some very effective German decoy markers, for their failure to concentrate the marking. No details are available from Magdeburg but it is believed that most of the bombing fell outside the city. An R.A.F. man who was in hospital at Magdeburg at the time reports only, 'bangs far away'.
BERLIN
22 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitoes of 5 and 8 Groups carried out a diversionary raid; 1 Lancaster lost.
FLYING-BOMB SITES
111 aircraft - 89 Stirlings, 12 Lancasters, 10 Mosquitoes - carried out raids on 6 sites in France without loss.
Minor Operations: 8 Mosquitoes to Oberhausen and 5 to Rheinhausen, 8 R.C.M. sorties, 5 Serrate patrols, 8 Wellingtons minelaying off St-Nazaire, 16 O.T.U. sorties. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 843 sorties, 58 aircraft (6.9 percent) were lost. The number of aircraft lost was the heaviest in any night of the war so far, but only by 2 aircraft.
