Minor Operations
21 aircraft to Le Havre and Lorient, 21 aircraft minelaying off French ports, 11 leaflet flights to France. 1 Manchester and 1 Wellington lost from the minelaying operation.
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THE AUGSBURG RAID
This was another of Sir Arthur Harris's experimental raids, an attempt to achieve accurate bombing of a vital target using a small force of the new Lancaster bombers flying at low level in daylight. The target selected by Bomber Command was the diesel-engine manufacturing workshop building in the M.A.N. factory at Augsburg, 500 miles from the French coast. Harris had earlier considered attacking one of the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt but preferred the Augsburg target for tactical reasons.
After a week of low-flying practice, 12 Lancasters - 6 each from 44 and 97 Squadrons - carried out this famous raid. 30 Bostons and a large Fighter Command effort were dispatched to targets in Northern France to divert German fighter attention from the Lancaster force but were not completely successful in this. 1 Boston was lost. 4 of the Lancasters were shot down en route to Augsburg and 3 more near the target. The 8 crews which did reach the target carried out accurate bombing but the casualties were too heavy and this type of operation was not repeated. Squadron Leader J. D. Nettleton of 44 Squadron, who returned in a badly damaged aircraft, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership of the raid.
There was later some dispute over this raid. The British Official History contains the text of letters between the Ministry of Economic Warfare, the Prime Minister, the Air Ministry and Bomber Command over the selection of the diesel-engine factory at Augsburg for this raid. The Ministry of Economic Warfare protested that there were other, more vital, bottleneck targets in Southern Germany which they would have recommended for such a risky raid. Sir Arthur Harris defended his decision on tactical grounds and the correspondence ended on 2 May.
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HAMBURG
173 aircraft - 134 Wellingtons, 23 Stirlings, 11 Halifaxes, 5 Manchesters. 7 Wellingtons and 1 Manchester lost.
107 crews claimed to have bombed the target but the German estimate was that no more than 50 aircraft had attacked Hamburg. There were 75 fires in Hamburg - 33 classed as large - 23 people were killed and 66 injured. The largest fire was in the warehouse of a drinks manufacturer. 60,000 bottles of alcohol were lost, mainly because the heat of the fire forced the corks out of the bottles.
Minor Operations: 22 Whitleys to St-Nazaire, 4 aircraft to Le Havre, 6 Blenheim Intruders to Holland, 9 aircraft minelaying off Heligoland. 1 Intruder and 1 minelaying Manchester lost.
Total effort for the night: 214 sorties, 10 aircraft (47 percent) lost.
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; later, as Wing Commander Nettleton, killed in action returning from a raid to Turin on
