MOSQUITO OPERATIONS
38 Mosquitoes to Hannover, 28 to Hamburg, 9 to Schwerte, 8 to Bielefeld and 6 to Duisburg. 1 aircraft lost from the Hamburg raid.
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WITTEN
140 Lancasters of 3 Group on a G-H raid to the Ruhrstahl steelworks. German fighters intercepted the force in the target area and 8 Lancasters were lost.
Witten provided a report for this raid. It was the town's first major raid of the war. The steelworks were not hit and bombs fell all over the town, destroying 126 houses and 5 industrial premises. 334 people were killed, 64 were missing and 345 were injured.
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ESSEN
540 aircraft - 349 Lancasters, 163 Halifaxes, 28 Mosquitoes - of 1, 4 and 8 Groups. 6 Lancasters lost.
This was the last heavy night raid by Bomber Command on Essen (though 2 day raids were still to come in 1945). During the post-war interrogations of Albert Speer, Hitler's Armaments Minister, he was asked which forms of attack were most effective in weakening the German war effort. After referring to the effectiveness of daylight raids and to some of the Oboe Mosquito attacks, Speer paid a compliment to the accuracy of this raid on Essen:
The last night attack upon the Krupp works, which was carried out by a large number of 4-engined bombers, caused surprise on account of the accuracy of the bomb pattern. We assumed that this attack was the first large-scale operation based on Oboe or some other new navigational system.
A report from Essen shows that, besides the industrial damage caused on this raid, 696 houses were destroyed and 1,370 seriously damaged. The fatal casualty details are unusual. The total number of people killed was 463, made up of 160 German civilians, 89 prisoners of war, 13 foreign workers and 201 prisoners who were killed when the city prison was hit; a further 39 prisoners were 'missing'.
Minor Operations: 49 Mosquitoes to Osnabrck, 43 R.C.M. sorties, 43 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 675 sorties, 6 aircraft (0.9 percent) lost.
