Minor Operations
6 Mosquitoes to the Ruhr, 27 aircraft minelaying in areas as far south as Bayonne and as far north as Gydnia, 16 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Lancaster minelayer and 1 O.T.U. Wellington lost.
Operational Statistics,
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ESSEN
442 aircraft - 157 Lancasters, 131 Wellingtons, 94 Halifaxes, 52 Stirlings, 8 Mosquitoes. It was on this night that Bomber Command's 100,000th sortie of the war was flown. 14 aircraft - 4 Lancasters, 4 Wellingtons, 3 Halifaxes, 3 Stirlings - lost, 3.2 percent of the force.
The only tactical setback to this raid was that 56 aircraft - nearly 13 percent of the force - turned back early because of technical defects and other causes. 3 of the 'early returns' were from the 8 Oboe Mosquito marker aircraft upon which the success of the raid depended but the 5 Mosquitoes which did reach the target area opened the attack on time and marked the centre of Essen perfectly. The Pathfinder backers-up also arrived in good time and carried out their part of the plan. The whole of the marking was 'blind', so that the ground haze which normally concealed Essen did not affect the outcome of the raid. The Main Force bombed in 3 waves - Halifaxes in the first wave, Wellingtons and Stirlings in the second, Lancasters in the third. Two thirds of the bomb tonnage was incendiary; one third of the high-explosive bombs were fuzed for long delay. The attack lasted for 40 minutes and 362 aircraft claimed to have bombed the main target. These tactics would be typical of many other raids on the Ruhr area in the next 4 months.
Reconnaissance photographs showed 160 acres of destruction with 53 separate buildings within the Krupps works hit by bombs. A map from Essen shows the main area of damage to have been between the Krupps works and the city centre. The local report states that 3,018 houses were destroyed and 2,166 were seriously damaged. The number of people killed is given in various reports as between 457 and 482; at least 10 of these were firemen. If the higher figure is correct, the previous record number of people killed in an air raid on Germany - 469 in the 1000-bomber raid on Cologne in May 1942 - was exceeded.
Small numbers of bombs fell in 6 other Ruhr cities.
7 aircraft of 4 Group were sent minelaying in the Frisian Islands without loss.
