ROTTERDAM
31 Hampdens and 3 Wellingtons bombed dock targets. 1 further Wellington to Antwerp. No losses. Hampdens of 50 Squadron dropped 500 bags of tea from the Dutch East Indies for civilians during the Rotterdam raid.
KREFELD
20 Hampdens and 9 Whitleys to the railway yards; they encountered cloud over the target and only 1 aircraft claimed to have hit the yards. There were no losses.
MNCHENGLADBACH
29 Wellingtons to a railway target; the area was completely cloud-covered. No aircraft lost.
2 Wellingtons of 115 Squadron carried out the first trial of the new Gee navigation device on this raid. The trials were continued for a further 2 nights. They were successful but the flights then stopped to allow mass production of the equipment for later use to commence.
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COLOGNE POWER-STATIONS
This was another special daylight operation. In an attempt to help Russia by drawing German fighters back to the West, raids by 54 Blenheims were made on the important Knapsack and Quadrath power-stations near Cologne. 38 aircraft were dispatched to Knapsack and 18 to Quadrath. An extensive series of diversions and fighter-escort flights was also carried out, but the limit of the fighters' range was reached well short of Cologne.
The Blenheims, each carrying two 500-lb bombs, made fast, low-level approaches. Most crews reached the targets and reported accurate bombing but 10 aircraft were shot down by Flak or fighters - 18.5 percent of the attacking force.
The diversions and supporting operations all proceeded according to plan. 2 forces each of 6 Hampdens carried out escorted raids to St-Omer and Gosnay and 6 Blenheims bombed Le Trait shipyard, all without loss. 4 Fortresses made high-level raids on Cologne, De Kooy airfield and Emden, also without loss. 175 Fighter Command sorties were flown, claiming 10 German fighters destroyed or 'probables' but losing 6 Spitfires. 2 Blenheims detailed to act as navigation leaders to R.A.F. fighter formations were both lost, bringing the Bomber Command losses to 12 aircraft, 15.4 percent of the 78 bomber sorties dispatched.
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HANNOVER
65 Wellingtons and 13 Hampdens. 4 Wellingtons were lost including one of the Gee trial aircraft but the loss of this aircraft did not result in the Germans discovering any details of the still secret equipment.
BERLIN
70 aircraft - 40 Wellingtons, 12 Halifaxes, 9 Stirlings, 9 Manchesters; the Air Ministry building in the Alexander Platz was the aiming point but only 32 aircraft reached and bombed in the Berlin area and 9 aircraft - 3 Manchesters, 3 Wellingtons, 2 Halifaxes, 1 Stirling - were lost.
MAGDEBURG
36 Hampdens; none lost.
ESSEN
35 aircraft - 30 Wellingtons, 3 Stirlings, 2 Halifaxes; the target, the Krupps works, was not hit. 1 Wellington was shot down over England by an Intruder.
Minor Operations: 14 Wellingtons to Le Havre, 1 Stirling to Bielefeld. No losses.
Total effort for the night: 234 sorties, 14 aircraft (60 percent) lost and 6 more crashed in England.
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, when 54 Blenheims had attacked power-stations near Cologne for the loss of 10 aircraft.
This raid was escorted by 9 squadrons of Spitfires on the outward flight and 7 squadrons on the withdrawal. 1 Me 110 was seen; the Spitfires drove it off. There was intense Flak over the target but no bombers were lost. The target was the Rhein-preussen synthetic-oil refinery at Meerbeck. The bombing was based on Oboe marking but 5-8/10ths cloud produced difficult conditions, though some accurate bombing was claimed through gaps in the clouds.
MIMOYECQUES
226 aircraft - 176 Halifaxes, 40 Lancasters, 10 Mosquitoes - of 6 and 8 Groups carried out an accurate attack on a flying-bomb site without loss.
Brest
24 Lancasters and 1 Mosquito of 5 Group bombed 2 ships in the harbour and claimed hits on both. No aircraft lost.
