COLOGNE, AACHEN, LE HAVRE
85 aircraft to these targets - 39 to Cologne, 28 to Le Havre, 18 to Aachen - but all encountered icing and thick cloud and only meagre bombing results were claimed. There were no losses.
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MANNHEIM
98 aircraft. 1 Hampden and 1 Whitley lost.
67 aircraft claimed to have bombed Mannheim in difficult conditions. The city reports only a light raid, with 2 buildings destroyed, 15 damaged, some railway damage and with 1 man (noted as being outside his shelter) wounded and 23 people bombed out. A machinery works employing 15 people had to close down until an unexploded bomb was cleared.
Minor Operations: 15 aircraft to Le Havre, 1 Manchester on a leaflet flight to France. No losses.
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:
It has been decided that the primary objective of your operations should now be focussed on the morale of the enemy civil population and in particular of the industrial workers.
Portal wrote a note the next day to Air Vice-Marshal Bottomley who had drafted the directive to Bomber Command:
Ref the new bombing directive: I suppose it is clear that the aiming points are to be the built-up areas, not, for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories where these are mentioned in Appendix A.
This must be made quite clear if it is not already understood.
The policy was not entirely new. Air Ministry directives had been encouraging Bomber Command since as early as October 1940 to devote a portion of its effort to just such a general attack on German cities, but only as a secondary task when weather conditions were unsuitable for selective industrial bombing. The bomber crews throughout 1941 had been aware of the gradual shift in emphasis and it is obvious from a study of raid results that, even though crews had been sent to attack industrial premises, bombs were increasingly dropped on the nearest built-up areas when difficulties were encountered. What was important about the new directive was that area bombing was now to be the primary type of bomber operation for the foreseeable future.
With the new policy came a new leader for Bomber Command. Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris was appointed on
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and, after flying Wellingtons for four months, converted to Halifaxes which were flown until the end of the war. Based at Driffield, East Moor, Rufforth and Lissett. Several short detachments were made to Coastal Command in November and December 1942.
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Raids Flown
Wellingtons - 78 bombing, 3 minelaying
Halifaxes - 267 bombing, 8 minelaying
Total - 345 bombing, 11 minelaying = 356 raids
Sorties and Losses
Wellingtons - 207 sorties, 14 aircraft lost (6.8 percent)
Halifaxes - 5,161 sorties, 145 aircraft lost (2.8 percent)
Total - 5,368 sorties, 159 aircraft lost (3.0 percent)
3 Wellingtons and 12 Halifaxes were destroyed in crashes.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Flew most Halifax sorties in Bomber Command. One of the squadron aircraft, Halifax III L V907 - nicknamed Friday the 13th from the day of its delivery to the squadron - flew 128 operational sorties and survived the war; this was a record number of sorties for a Halifax.
Suffered the following aircrew casualties: 859 killed, died of wounds or died in prison camps, 308 prisoners of war, 61 evaded capture. 78 of the dead have no known grave; 107 of the fatal casualties were suffered in crashes in the United Kingdom.
161 SQUADRON
SERVICE
Formed in February 1942 from a nucleus provided by the King's Flight. Operated until the end of the war as a Special Duty squadron delivering supplies and agents to Resistance units. Based at Tempsford and operated many types of aircraft.
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
The records of 161 Squadron are incomplete and confusing. The number of nights and days on which the squadron operated is not known. The sorties and losses shown below are known to have taken place but the true figure is greater:
Halifaxes - 786 sorties, 17 aircraft lost (2.2 percent)
Stirlings - 379 sorties, 6 aircraft lost (1.6 percent)
Lysanders - 266 sorties, 10 aircraft lost (3.8 percent)
Hudsons - 179 sorties, 10 aircraft lost (5.6 percent)
Whitleys - 139 sorties, 6 aircraft lost (4.3 percent)
Total - 1,749 sorties, 49 aircraft lost (2.8 percent)
The Lysanders and the Hudsons were the most commonly used aircraft for landing in fields to collect agents, which accounts for their high casualties; these aircraft often had to be abandoned by their crews when they crashed or became bogged in soft ground. The Lysanders, and some other types of aircraft, sometimes carried small bomb loads which were dropped on a nearby target after their Resistance loads had been delivered.
In addition to the above figures, at least 125 sorties by Havocs were flown; some of these were agent-landing operations but the Havoc was not suitable for this work and was replaced by the Hudson. Many of the 125 Havoc sorties were flown from St Eval as convoy escorts under Fighter or Coastal Command control. It is also known that the squadron had Albemarles, Ansons and Wellingtons for short periods but details of their operations, if any, were not recorded.
162 SQUADRON
SERVICE
After operating as a radio-countermeasures squadron in the Middle East, the squadron was disbanded in September 1944 but was re-formed in 8 Group on
