GERMANY
88 aircraft, 82 to bomb Darmstadt, Hamburg, Hamm and Hanau and 6 minelaying. No losses.
Bomber Command's Operations Record Book includes the expression 'fire-raising attacks' for this night. There is no explanation for this phrase but it is believed to refer to the carrying of quantities of small fire-raising devices, code-named Deckers and Razzies, which were dropped on German forests and on the ripening German harvest after aircraft had carried out their normal bombing attack. The smaller devices, believed to be the Deckers, which were used in an attempt to burn the crops, were impregnated pieces of cloth with a delayed ignition process. When they fell near houses, people who collected them as souvenirs and carried them round in their pockets received a nasty surprise when the device suddenly burst into flames. (This report comes from Hamburg.)
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GERMANY, FRANCE
38 aircraft - 24 Wellingtons, 13 Whitleys, 1 Blenheim - on 'cloud-cover raids' to Germany. Most of the targets were in the Ruhr but 5 Whitleys attempted to bomb the battleship Scharnhorst at Kiel; results are not known. 1 Whitley lost.
24 Blenheims carried out extensive photographic reconnaissance of the French coast without loss.
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GERMANY
73 aircraft to Osnabrck and Kiel and minelaying. 1 Hampden and 1 Whitley lost.
One of the Hampdens attacking the Scharnhorst at Kiel was flown by Flying Officer Guy Gibson of 83 Squadron, who dropped the first 2,000-lb bomb of the war. He released it on the sixth shallow dive-bombing attempt but the bomb overshot the Scharnhorst and exploded in the town of Kiel. 10 people were killed in Kiel on this night.
