STUTTGART
343 Lancasters of 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 Groups. The first aircraft to be equipped with A.B.C. (night-fighter communications jamming), from 101 Squadron, 1 Group, operated on this night. The German night-fighter controller was confused by the Mosquito diversion on Munich and only a few night fighters reached Stuttgart at the end of the attack; 4 Lancasters were lost, 1.2 percent of the force.
The target area was cloud-covered and the H2S Pathfinder marking developed in 2 areas. Many bombs fell in various parts of Stuttgart where 344 buildings - mostly dwelling-houses - were destroyed and 4,586 buildings were damaged. In the city centre, 4 hospitals, a museum (the Lindenmuseum) and the garrison church were hit, and 36 people were drowned in an underground air-raid shelter at the main railway station when a water main was damaged by a bomb and burst. Total casualties in Stuttgart were 104 killed and missing, 300 injured. The town of Bblingen, 10 miles to the south-west, must have been under the second group of markers. 350 houses were hit and 60 people were killed here.
Friedrichshafen
16 Lancasters of 8 Group carried out a diversionary raid without loss and claimed hits on the Zeppelin factory.
Minor Operations: 10 Mosquitoes to Munich, 7 to Emden, 5 to Aachen, 79 aircraft minelaying from Brest to Heligoland, 14 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Stirling minelayer lost.
