KIEL
68 Wellingtons to attack the Deutsche Werke U-boat yard. 5 aircraft lost.
The report from Kiel indicates that the port area was successfully bombed, with damage in the Deutsche Werke and the Germania Werft, both building U-boats, and in the naval dockyard. The accommodation ship Hamburg was hit. There was also bombing in the town. Casualties are listed as 12 killed and 21 injured but it is not known whether service personnel were included. The Kiel report adds two unusual items, a siren which suffered a technical defect and 'howled' for an hour and a half, and a warning issued for people to watch out for spies being dropped by parachute during the raid.
EMDEN
20 Wellingtons and 20 Whitleys; 3 Whitleys lost. Bombing photographs indicated that the nearest bombs were 5 miles from the target.
Minor Operations: 26 Hampdens and 1 Manchester minelaying off German ports, 1 Hampden on a leaflet flight to France. No losses.
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11 Bostons to Hazebrouck railway yards. No losses.
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COLOGNE
135 aircraft of 6 different types. 1 Manchester lost.
This can be considered the first successful Gee-led raid. Although there was no moon, the leading crews carrying flares and incendiary-bomb loads located the target and much accurate bombing followed. It was later estimated that this raid was 5 times more effective than the average of recent raids on Cologne. This estimate is confirmed by the local report. In industrial areas, the Franz Cloud rubber works was seriously damaged, resulting in complete production loss for 1 month and 80 percent loss for a further 11 months. The Land- und See-kabelwerke A.G. factory was also badly damaged and put out of action for a month, further rubber factory and a large railway-repair workshop were also hit. All these industrial premises were in the Nippes section of the city. Non-industrial premises hit or damaged included 5 churches, the Tivoli cinema and more than 1,500 houses. There were 237 separate fires.
Casualties were 62 killed and 84 injured. 46 of the dead were in blocks of flats which were collapsed by two 4,000-lb bombs, one near the city centre and one in the northern suburb of Longerich. 2 children were rescued alive after 65 hours of digging in the city-centre incident.
Minor Operations: 20 aircraft to Boulogne, 19 to Dunkirk, 2 Blenheim Intruders to France and Holland, 5 Hampdens minelaying in the Frisians, 7 Hampdens on leaflet flights to France. 2 Wellingtons were lost from the Dunkirk raid and 1 Wellington from the Boulogne raid.
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. Flew Wellingtons and Lancasters until the end of the war, a conversion to Halifaxes after the Wellington phase being cancelled before any operations were flown on this type. Based at Breighton and Binbrook.
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Raids Flown
Wellingtons - 50 bombing, 9 minelaying, 2 leaflet
Lancasters - 280 bombing, 27 minelaying
Total - 330 bombing, 36 minelaying, 2 leaflet = 368 raids
Sorties and Losses
Wellingtons - 538 sorties, 29 aircraft lost (5.4 percent)
Lancasters - 5,700 sorties, 140 aircraft lost (2.5 percent)
Total - 6,238 sorties, 169 aircraft lost (2.7 percent)
31 Lancasters were destroyed in crashes.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Being a three-flight squadron for most of its operational career, and serving in a group which strove for maximum efforts and bomb loads, led to 460 Squadron being credited with many records.
Flew the most sorties in 1 Group.
Carried out the most bombing raids, flew the most sorties and suffered the most losses in Australian squadrons.
Suffered the highest percentage loss in all Bomber Command Wellington squadrons.
Flew the most Lancaster sorties in 1 Group and in Bomber Command; suffered the most Lancaster losses in 1 Group.
Believed to have dropped the greatest tonnage of bombs - approximately 24,000 tons - in Bomber Command.
462 (AUSTRALIAN) SQUADRON
SERVICE
Formed as a Halifax squadron in the Middle East in September 1942 but lost its identity in March 1944. Re-formed in 4 Group on
