LE CREUSOT
290 aircraft of 3, 4, 6 and 8 Groups - 181 Halifaxes, 107 Stirlings, 2 Lancasters - to bomb the Schneider armaments factory and the Breuil steelworks. 2 Halifaxes lost.
The tactics for this raid were that the Pathfinders would only drop flares and that each crew of the Main Force was to identify their part of the target by the light of these flares. The Main Force crews were then to make 2 runs over the target area, dropping a short stick of bombs on each run from altitudes between 5,000 and 10,000 ft. By this stage of the war, however, Main Force crews were used to bombing target indicators and many had difficulty in making a visual identification of their target. Lingering smoke from the large number of flares was blamed for most of the difficulty. Bombing photographs showed that all crews bombed within 3 miles of the centre of the target but only about one fifth managed to hit the factories. Many bombs fell on nearby residential property but no report could be obtained from France to give details of casualties.
MONTCHANIN
26 of the H2S-equipped Pathfinders who had released flares at Le Creusot were intended to fly on to drop flares over the electrical-transformer station at Montchanin. By the light of these flares, a further 26 Lancaster bombers of 8 Group were to attack this second target. Most of the attacking crews, however, mistook a small metal factory for the transformer station and bombed that target instead. A few aircraft did identify the correct target but their bombs scored no hits on it.
Minor Operations: 6 Mosquitoes to Cologne, Duisburg and DÜSSELDORF, 12 Lancasters of 3 Group minelaying in the River Gironde. 1 Lancaster was lost.
Total effort for the night: 334 sorties, 3 aircraft (0.9 percent) lost.
