BERLIN, FRANKFURT, KIEL
71 Hampdens, Wellingtons and Whitleys; less than half bombed primary targets. Kiel reports bombs in the naval yard and in other parts of Kiel with 2 people killed (1 a soldier) and 5 injured and some houses destroyed. 3 Whitleys lost.
8 Hampdens minelaying off Brittany without loss.
---
MANNHEIM
This raid to Mannheim was probably the most interesting operation of this period of the war. Bomber Command was authorized by the War Cabinet to carry out a general attack on the centre of a German city in retaliation for the recent heavy bombing of English cities, particularly Coventry and Southampton. Mannheim was chosen and a force of 200 bombers was prepared under the code-name Operation Abigail Rachel. Weather forecasts indicated that conditions over the bomber airfields would deteriorate and the force was cut to 134 aircraft - 61 Wellingtons, 35 Whitleys, 29 Hampdens and 9 Blenheims - but this was still the largest force sent to a single target so far.
The raid was opened by 8 Wellingtons, flown by the most experienced crews available, who attempted to start fires in the centre of Mannheim using all-incendiary bomb loads. Following crews were supposed to use these fires as a guide and attempt to cause as much destruction as possible. For the first time in more than fifteen months of war, Bomber Command was deliberately aiming at a target which was not primarily military or industrial in nature. The general area of the centre of Mannheim was the target. It was an early forerunner of what the R.A.F. would later call 'area bombing' and the Germans called 'terror bombing'.
The weather over the target was mainly clear of cloud and there was a full moon; the Mannheim defences were not heavy. Bomber Command's own records - the Operations Record Book and the Night Bombing Sheets give figures varying between 82 and 102 aircraft claiming to have bombed Mannheim. But the raid was not a success. The early Wellington 'fire-raisers' were not accurate and the largest fires were not in the centre of the city. The resultant bombing by the main force of bombers was scattered.
The Mannheim report (55 pages long!) shows that the majority of the bombs fell in residential areas. 240 buildings were destroyed or damaged by incendiary bombs and 236 by high-explosive bombs; included in these figures are 13 commercial premises, 1 railway station, 1 railway office, 1 school and 2 hospitals. The hospitals did not sustain serious damage although at one of them, a military hospital, 28 people, including 13 soldiers and 9 nursing sisters, were injured by flying glass caused by the blast of a nearby high-explosive bomb. 4 barges or river steamers were damaged. The total casualty list was: 34 dead, 81 injured and 1,266 bombed out. Of the dead, 13 were male civilians, 1 was a soldier, 18 were women and 2 were children. Of the bombed out, 223 were in the town of Ludwigshafen on the other side of the Rhine.
2 Hampdens and 1 Blenheim were lost and 4 more aircraft crashed in England.
