MUNICH
294 Lancasters of 1, 5 and 8 Groups and 2 B-17s. 8 Lancasters lost, 27 percent of the force.
Visibility over the target was clear but the initial marking was scattered. Heavy bombing developed over the southern and south-eastern districts of Munich but later stages of the raid fell up to 15 miles back along the approach route. Most of this inaccurate bombing was carried out by 5 Group aircraft, which were again attempting their 'time-and-distance' bombing method independently of the Pathfinder marking. The 5 Group crews were not able to pick out the Wurmsee lake, which was the starting-point for their timed run.
Brief reports from Germany state that 339 buildings were destroyed, 191 people were killed and 748 were injured. No other details are available.
Minor Operations: 8 Mosquitoes to Cologne and Gelsenkirchen, 117 aircraft minelaying at various places from Lorient to Heligoland, 21 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Halifax minelayer lost.
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KASSEL
547 aircraft - 223 Halifaxes, 204 Lancasters, 113 Stirlings, 7 Mosquitoes. 24 aircraft - 14 Halifaxes, 6 Stirlings, 4 Lancasters - lost, 4.4 percent of the force.
This raid did not proceed according to plan. The H2S 'blind marker' aircraft overshot the aiming point badly and the 'visual markers' could not correct this because their view of the ground was restricted by thick haze. German decoy markers may also have been present. The main weight of the attack thus fell on the western suburbs and outlying towns and villages. But, even so, large fires were started at both the Henschel and Fieseler aircraft factories, at the city's main hospital and at several other important buildings. The eastern suburb of Wolfshanger was devastated. Kassel's casualties were 118 dead - 68 civilians, 12 military and 38 foreigners - and 304 injured. Musgrove, in his excellent book Pathfinder Force, records that a large ammunition dump at Ihringshausen, just north of Wolfshanger, was hit by a chance bomb load and the resulting explosions attracted further bombs; photographs taken later showed 84 buildings at the military location destroyed and a great mass of craters. The outlying townships of Bettenhausen and Sandershausen were also severely hit but details for these places are not available.
Mosquito Operations
10 aircraft on a diversion to Hannover, 12 Oboe aircraft to Knapsack power-station near Cologne, 4 aircraft on Mark II Oboe trials to Aachen. No losses.
Minor Operations: 7 Stirlings minelaying in the Frisians, 7 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
