Minor Operations
6 Oboe Mosquitoes bombed Essen, Rheinhausen and the German night-fighter airfield at St-Trond; a map from Essen shows that bombs were dropped on the southern part of the Krupps factory. 4 Stirlings laid mines in the River Gironde and 2 O.T.U. Wellingtons dropped leaflets over France. No aircraft lost.
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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.
