LORIENT
377 aircraft - 131 Lancasters, 103 Halifaxes, 99 Wellingtons, 44 Stirlings - carried out the last large raid in this series on Lorient. 363 aircraft dropped mainly incendiary loads in clear visibility. 1 Lancaster lost.
Bomber Command had flown 1,853 sorties in 8 'area' raids in response to direct instructions from the Air Ministry. 1,675 aircraft claimed to have bombed Lorient during these raids, dropping nearly 4,000 tons of bombs. 24 aircraft - 1.3 percent of those dispatched - were lost. Few records are available from Lorient but it is known that the town was now almost completely ruined and deserted.
Minor Operations: 32 aircraft minelaying off Brest and St-Nazaire, 4 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
Total effort for the night: 413 sorties, 1 aircraft (0.2 percent) lost.
---
12 Venturas to Dunkirk but the target was not reached, 6 Wellingtons on cloud-cover raids to Emden which was bombed by 3 aircraft. There were no losses.
---
Minor Operations
2 Mosquitoes to Bochum and Hamborn, 12 Stirlings minelaying in southern Biscay. No aircraft lost.
