BREST
88 Hampdens and 21 Wellingtons; smoke-screens concealed the warships. 1 Hampden and 1 Wellington lost.
MNSTER
47 Wellingtons; 2 lost. Crews claimed many fires in the target area but Mnster reports only 30 incendiary bombs in the town and no casualties.
DORTMUND
31 Whitleys and 15 Wellingtons. 2 Whitleys lost. Haze was present over the target but fires were claimed.
Minor Operations: 5 Wellingtons to Rotterdam and 2 to Emden, 6 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
Total effort for the night: 215 sorties, 6 aircraft (2.8 percent) lost.
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20 Blenheims on coastal sweeps. Aircraft of 105 and 139 Squadrons made an attack on a convoy off Holland and hit 2 ships but lost 3 aircraft. 8 Stirlings made escorted raids to Northern France without loss.
Operational Statistics, 12/13 March to
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(117 days/nights)
Number of days with operations: 106
Number of nights with operations: 87
Number of daylight sorties: 2,189, from which 87 aircraft (4.0 percent) were lost
Number of night sorties: 10,532, from which 234 aircraft (2.2 percent) were lost
Total sorties: 12,721, from which 321 aircraft (2.5 percent) were lost
Approximate bomb tonnage in period: 11,849 tons
Averages per 24-hour period: 108.8 sorties, 27 aircraft lost, 101.3 tons of bombs dropped
Official History, Vol. IV, p. 133.
Official History, Vol. 1, pp. 165-6.
Official History, Vol. IV, p. 135.
Some of the details of this raid on Brest and later raids on the German warships come from Scharnhorst and Gneisenau by Richard Garrett, David & Charles, 1978.
Feuersturm ber Hamburg, op. cit. pp. 89-92. As noted earlier, many Hamburg reports come from this source.
Four months to the day after being forced to turn its attention from Germany to help with the war at sea, Bomber Command was released and was free to resume its main task. The danger at sea had receded, temporarily at least, and, because the main strength of both the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe was now deep into Russia, the prospects once again appeared to be favourable for an uninterrupted resumption of the bombing offensive against Germany.
A new directive arrived at Bomber Command Headquarters on
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COLOGNE
114 Wellingtons; 3 lost. Crews reported perfect weather and good bombing. Cologne reports its heaviest raid in 1941 with much damage in the centre and in the eastern areas of the city. There were 300 individual damage locations with 174 fires of which 62 were classed as large. The Maria Himmelfahrt church was burnt out, 3 railway lines were completely cut. 138 dwellings were destroyed and 7 industrial buildings badly damaged. Personnel casualties were: 45 killed, 114 injured and 5,450 bombed out.
OSNABRCK
54 Whitleys and 18 Wellingtons; 3 Whitleys lost. Good bombing of railway yards claimed. Osnabrck reports bombing in the south-western suburbs with no casualties and 3 buildings damaged but no mention of railway damage.
MNSTER
49 Wellingtons; 3 lost. The only report from Mnster says many bombs in the town and 9 people killed.
MNCHENGLADBACH
40 Hampdens; 2 lost.
Minor Operations: 14 Halifaxes and 3 Stirlings to Frankfurt, 5 Wellingtons to Boulogne, 4 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Halifax lost.
Total effort for the night: 301 sorties, 12 aircraft (4.0 percent) lost.
Sergeant J. A. Ward, a New Zealand second pilot in a 75 Squadron Wellington, was awarded the Victoria Cross for an action on this night. His aircraft was damaged by a night-fighter attack while returning from Mnster and a fire broke out near the starboard engine. Sergeant Ward climbed out on to the wing, making holes in the canvas covering of the geodetic framework of the aircraft to obtain hand- and footholds. He was able to beat out sufficient of the fire to enable the Wellington to return to England.
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by climbing out on to the wing of his aircraft to put out a fire. Sergeant Ward was killed when his Wellington was shot down on the Hamburg raid; his grave is in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot in Hamburg's main cemetery.
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; later killed in action on a raid to Hamburg on
