LEIPZIG
527 aircraft - 307 Lancasters, 220 Halifaxes. Despite the loss of two pressmen on the previous night, the well-known American broadcaster, Ed Murrow, flew on the raid with a 619 Squadron Lancaster crew. He returned safely.
The bomber force took another direct route towards Berlin before turning off to bomb Leipzig. German fighters were in the bomber stream and scoring successes before the turn was made but most of them were then directed to Berlin when the Mosquito diversion opened there. There were few fighters over Leipzig and only 3 bombers are believed to have been lost in the target area, 2 of them being shot down by Flak. A relatively successful raid, from the point of view of bomber casualties, was spoiled when many aircraft flew by mistake into the Frankfurt defended area on the long southern withdrawal route and more than half of the bombers shot down on this night were lost there. 24 aircraft - 15 Halifaxes, 9 Lancasters - were lost, 4.6 percent of the force.
The Pathfinders found and marked this distant inland target accurately and the bombing was very effective; this was the most successful raid on Leipzig during the war. A large area of housing and many industrial premises were severely damaged. One place which was hit by a large number of bombs was the former World Fair exhibition site, whose spacious buildings had been converted to become war factories, the largest buildings being taken over by the Junkers aircraft company. The British Official History (Vol. IV, p. 267) quotes the Leipzig city records as giving a figure of 1,182 people killed but a German local police report compiled a week after the raid gives a different figure, 614 people killed and 464 injured. It is not known which report is correct.
Minor Operations: 9 Mosquitoes in feint attack on Berlin, 3 R.C.M. sorties, 12 Halifaxes minelaying in the Frisians. No losses.
---
MINOR OPERATIONS
9 Mosquitoes to Duisburg, 48 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians, 9 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Stirling minelayer and 1 O.T.U. Whitley lost.
