COLOGNE
905 aircraft - 438 Halifaxes, 435 Lancasters, 32 Mosquitoes. No aircraft lost.
This was an Oboe-marked raid through cloud, and Bomber Command estimated that only 'scattered and light' damage was caused in the western parts of the city. But the local report shows that enormous damage was caused in the suburbs of Braunsfeld, Lindenthal, Klettenberg and Slz, which were 'regelrecht umgepflgt' - 'thoroughly ploughed up' - by the huge tonnage of high explosive dropped (3,431 tons of high explosive and 610 tons of incendiaries were dropped). A vast amount of property, mostly civilian housing, was destroyed but railways and public utilities were also hit. There was little industry in the area which was bombed. Among the buildings destroyed or seriously damaged were Cologne University, the local army-garrison headquarters and the 1,000-year-old St Gereon church, struck by a heavy bomb which blew 'an enormous hole'; the damage took 35 years to repair! 497 Germans were killed and 57 were 'missing'. The number of foreigners killed is not known but a prisoner-of-war camp in the Heliosstrasse was destroyed.
Minor Operations: 62 Mosquitoes to Berlin and 3 each to Heilbronn and Oberhausen, 42 R.C.M. sorties, 57 Mosquito patrols. 2 Mosquitoes were lost - 1 from the Berlin raid and 1 Intruder.
Total effort for the night: 1,072 sorties, 2 aircraft (0.2 percent) lost.
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BOTTROP
101 Lancasters of 3 Group carried out a good G-H attack on the oil plant. 1 Lancaster lost.
Minor Operations: 1 Wellington carried out a signals patrol and 1 Hudson flew a Resistance operation.
