BERLIN
483 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitoes on the main raid and 5 further Mosquitoes dropped decoy fighter flares south of Berlin.
The bomber route again led directly to Berlin across Holland and Northern Germany and there were no major diversions. The German controllers plotted the course of the bombers with great accuracy; many German fighters were met at the coast of Holland and further fighters were guided on to the bomber stream throughout the approach to the target. More fighters were waiting at the target and there were many combats. The bombers shook off the opposition on the return flight by taking a northerly route over Denmark. 25 Lancasters, 5.2 percent of the Lancaster force, were lost. Many further aircraft were lost on returning to England (see later paragraph).
Berlin was cloud-covered but the Pathfinder sky-marking was reasonably accurate and much of the bombing fell in the city. The local report says that the raid had no identifiable aiming point but the central and eastern districts were hit more than other areas. Little industrial damage was caused; most of the bombing hit housing and railways. Conflicting figures on the number of dead are given; the overall total may be 720, of which 279 were foreign workers - 186 women, 65 men and 28 youths. 70 of these foreigners - all from the East - were killed when the train in which they were travelling was bombed at the Halensee Station. In the city centre, the National Theatre and the building housing Germany's military and political archives were both destroyed. The damage to the Berlin railway system and to rolling stock, and the large numbers of people still leaving the city, were having a cumulative effect upon the transportation of supplies to the Russian Front; 1,000 wagon-loads of war material were held up for 6 days. The sustained bombing had now made more than a quarter of Berlin's total living accommodation unusable.
On their return to England, many of the bombers encountered very low cloud at their bases. The squadrons of 1, 6 and 8 Groups were particularly badly affected. 29 Lancasters (and a Stirling from the minelaying operation) either crashed or were abandoned when their crews parachuted. The group with heaviest losses was 1 Group with 13 aircraft lost; the squadron with heaviest losses was 97 Squadron, 8 Group, with 7 aircraft lost. There is a little confusion in Bomber Command records over aircrew casualties but it is probable that 148 men were killed in the crashes, 39 were injured and 6 presumed lost in the sea.
FLYING-BOMB SITES
47 aircraft - 26 Stirlings, 12 Mosquitoes, 9 Lancasters - carried out raids on 2 sites near Abbeville. No aircraft lost.
Neither raid was successful. The larger raid, by the Stirlings on the Tilley-le-Haut site, failed because the Oboe Mosquito markers could not get any closer than 450 yards from the small target. The 9 Lancasters of 617 Squadron which attacked the second site, in a wood at Flixecourt, dropped their 12,000-lb bombs accurately on the markers placed by the only Oboe Mosquito operating at this target but the markers were 350 yards from the flying-bomb site and none of the 617 Squadron bombs were more than 100 yards from the markers.
Serrate Operations
2 Beaufighters and 2 Mosquitoes of 141 Squadron, recently transferred from Fighter Command to 100 Group, inaugurated Bomber Command's Serrate operations in patrols near the routes of the Berlin raid. (Serrate was a device which homed on to the radar emissions of a German night fighter.) 1 Mosquito made contact with an Me 110 and damaged it with cannon-fire. The crew of this first successful Bomber Command Serrate patrol was Squadron Leader F. F. Lambert and Flying Officer K. Dear. (Freddie Lambert was for many years after the war a very helpful official at the Public Record Office.)
Minor Operations: 5 Mosquitoes to Duisburg, 35 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians and off Biscay ports. No losses.
Total effort for the night: 589 sorties, with 25 aircraft missing and 30 crashed in or near England, a total casualty rate of 9.3 percent.
