12 Mosquitoes to Berlin; 8 bombed this target and 3 bombed alternative targets. No aircraft lost.
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COLOGNE/GREMBERG
153 Lancasters of 3 Group attacked the railway yards in conditions of good visibility. Some of the bombing fell on the target but some overshot. 3 Lancasters were lost and 1 crashed in France.
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STUTTGART AREA
602 aircraft - 316 Halifaxes, 258 Lancasters, 28 Mosquitoes - of 1, 4, 6 and 8 Groups. 11 aircraft - 6 Lancasters, 4 Halifaxes, 1 Mosquito - lost.
This raid was split into 2 parts, with a 3-hour interval. The first force - of 226 aircraft - was directed against the important railway yards at Kornwestheim, a town to the north of Stuttgart, and the second was against the north-western Stuttgart suburb of Zuffenhausen, where the target is believed to have been the Hirth aeroengine factory. The target area was mostly cloud-covered for both raids and the bombing, on sky-markers, was scattered.
There are some interesting local reports. Bombs fell in many parts of Stuttgart's northern and western suburbs. The important Bosch works, in the suburb of Feuerbach, was hit. The attack on Kornwestheim was the worst suffered by that town during the war; the Kornwestheim local report shows that the local people felt they had been bombed by mistake and that the main target was in Stuttgart. 14 high-explosive bombs fell in the industrial area of the town and in the railway yards. Fires burned for up to 12 hours. 123 people were killed in Stuttgart and 41 in Kornwestheim. A large number of bombs fell outside Stuttgart, particularly in the east around a decoy fire site which was also firing dummy target-indicator rockets into the air. The village of Weilimdorf, situated not far away, complained bitterly about its damage and casualties!
Our local expert, Heinz Bardua, also tells the story of the newly promoted Flak Leutnant at his battery position at Vaihingen, situated just south of the decoy fire site. With bombs falling all around his position, the Leutnant thought that the raid was directed against the Flak positions. He ignored regulations about conservation of ammunition and shot his entire stock at the radar echoes of the attacking bombers. 2 Lancasters and a Halifax crashed in the immediate vicinity, much to the relief of the officer, who had feared a court martial because of his prodigious use of ammunition.
This was the last large R.A.F. raid on Stuttgart. Herr Bardua says that the city had endured 53 major raids, most of them by the R.A.F., during which 32,549 blocks of flats or houses were destroyed (67.8 percent of the total). After the war, 4.9 million cubic metres of rubble had to be cleared. 4,562 people died in the air raids, among them 770 prisoners of war or foreign workers. Stuttgart's experience was not as severe as other German cities. Its location, spread out in a series of deep valleys, had consistently frustrated the Pathfinders and the shelters dug into the sides of the surrounding hills had saved many lives.
Minor Operations: 67 Mosquitoes to Berlin and 8 to Mainz (a 'spoof' raid for the Stuttgart attacks), 51 R.C.M. sorties, 36 Mosquito patrols, 6 Lancasters of 1 Group minelaying in the Kattegat. 1 Mosquito of 100 Group crashed in France.
Total effort for the night: 770 sorties, 12 aircraft (1.6 percent) lost.
