DARMSTADT
226 Lancasters and 14 Mosquitoes of 5 Group. 12 Lancasters lost, 5.3 percent of the Lancaster force.
A previous 5 Group attack in August had failed to harm Darmstadt but, in clear weather conditions, the group's marking methods produced an outstandingly accurate and concentrated raid on this almost intact city of 120,000 people. A fierce fire area was created in the centre and in the districts immediately south and east of the centre. Property damage in this area was almost complete. Casualties were very heavy. The deaths of 8,433 people were actually reported to police stations. This figure was made up of: German civilians - 1,766 men, 2,742 women and 2,129 children, 936 service personnel, 492 foreign workers and 368 prisoners of war. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, which quotes these figures, adds that the actual death figure may have been 5,000 more, because many deaths were not immediately reported by the 49,200 homeless people who were evacuated from Darmstadt, most of whom did not return until after the war, if at all. A present-day Darmstadt city guide says: '12,300 dead, 70,000 homeless.'
41. Messages about dead and bombed-out relatives on the steel door of a German air-raid shelter.
42. Mobile cookers - traditionally called Gulaschkanonen in Germany - provide emergency meals for bombed-out air-raid victims.
The Darmstadt raid, with its extensive fire destruction and its heavy casualties, was held by the Germans to be an extreme example of R.A.F. 'terror bombing' and is still a sensitive subject because of the absence of any major industries in the city. Bomber Command defended the raid by pointing out the railway communications passing through Darmstadt; the directive for the offensive against German communications had not yet been issued to Bomber Command, although advance notice of the directive may have been received. Darmstadt was simply one of Germany's medium-sized cities of lesser importance which succumbed to Bomber Command's improving area-attack techniques in the last months of the war when many of the larger cities were no longer worth bombing.
Minor Operations: 47 Mosquitoes to Berlin and 7 to Steenwijk, 13 R.C.M. sorties, 44 Mosquito patrols, 76 Halifaxes and Lancasters minelaying in the Kattegat. 3 Lancaster minelayers and 1 Mosquito lost on the Berlin raid.
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SYNTHETIC-OIL PLANTS
412 aircraft - 315 Halifaxes, 75 Lancasters, 22 Mosquitoes - of 4, 6 and 8 Groups attacked plants at Dortmund, Scholven/Buer and Wanne-Eickel. The Dortmund raid was particularly successful, but smoke-screens prevented observation of results at the other targets. 7 aircraft were lost - 3 Lancasters and 1 Halifax from the Wanne-Eickel raid and 2 Halifaxes and 1 Lancaster from the Scholven raid.
MNSTER
119 Halifaxes of 4 Group and 5 Pathfinder Lancasters carried out the first raid by R.A.F. heavies on Mnster since June 1943. 2 Halifaxes were lost.
Many fires were seen but smoke prevented an accurate assessment of the bombing results. A brief report from Mnster describes a 'sea of fire' in the southern part of the town which could not be entered for several hours and tells of water mains destroyed by high-explosive bombs so that 'the firemen could only stand helpless in front of the flames'. 144 people died.
Minor Operations: 9 R.C.M. sorties, 2 aircraft on Resistance operations. No losses.
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FRANKFURT
378 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitoes of 1, 3 and 8 Groups on the last major R.A.F. raid of the war against Frankfurt. 17 Lancasters lost, 4.5 percent of the Lancaster force.
The local report says that the raid occurred when many of the city's firemen and rescue workers were away working in Darmstadt. The bombing caused severe destruction in the western districts of the city, which contained many industrial premises. Property damage was extensive. A troop train was hit at the West Station. 469 people were killed, including 172 inside a public shelter in the Bockenheim district, the 2-metre-thick concrete side wall of which was blown in by a high-explosive bomb. The last fires were not extinguished until the evening of the 15th.
The next entry in the Frankfurt diary, for mid-September, says that members of the Hitler Youth, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (a labour service) and the Organisation Todt were being sent to work on the strengthening of the Westwall (Siegfried Line) fortifications, a sign that Allied troops were approaching the German homeland.
STUTTGART
204 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitoes of 1 and 5 Groups. 4 Lancasters lost.
Our local Stuttgart expert, Heinz Bardua, writes that 'the northern and western parts of the centre were erased' in this concentrated attack and that a firestorm occurred. Several valuable cultural buildings were destroyed, including the Schloss Rosenstein and the Prinzenbau. Other property damage was extensive, though no industrial buildings are mentioned. 1,171 people were killed, Stuttgart's highest fatal casualty figure of the war.
SUPPORT AND MINOR OPERATIONS
138 training aircraft on a diversionary sweep over the North Sea, 29 Mosquitoes to Berlin and 6 to Steenwijk, 31 R.C.M. sorties, 81 Mosquito patrols, 12 Halifaxes minelaying in Oslo harbour. 2 Halifaxes were lost, 1 from the diversionary sweep and 1 from the minelaying operation.
Total effort for the night: 901 sorties, 23 aircraft (2.6 percent) lost.
