AULNOYE
192 aircraft - 92 Halifaxes, 47 Lancasters, 37 Stirlings, 16 Mosquitoes. No aircraft lost.
The weather was clear but the Pathfinders were not able to mark the railway yards accurately. Most bombs fell wide of the target but no report is available from France.
Minor Operations: 22 Lancasters of 5 Group to an aero-engine factory at Lyons, 10 Mosquitoes to Berlin and 2 to Hamm, 7 Serrate patrols, 14 Stirlings minelaying in Brittany to the Frisians, 5 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
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ESSEN
705 aircraft - 476 Lancasters, 207 Halifaxes, 22 Mosquitoes. The sudden switch by Bomber Command to a Ruhr target just across the German frontier caught the German fighter controllers by surprise and only 9 aircraft - 6 Lancasters, 3 Halifaxes - were lost, 1.3 percent of the force.
Essen was covered by cloud but the Oboe Mosquitoes marked the target well and this was a successful attack. 48 industrial buildings were seriously damaged and 1,756 houses destroyed. 550 people were killed, 49 missing and 1,569 were injured. The figures for killed and missing are broken down in the Essen report as follows: Germans - 192 women, 155 men, 27 children, 6 soldiers, 4 policemen and 2 Hitler Youth. Foreigners - 74 forced workers and 1 prisoner of war. The remaining 138 victims were mixed German and foreign concentration-camp prisoners, large numbers of whom were now providing the labour forces in German factories.
COURTRAI
109 aircraft - 70 Halifaxes, 32 Stirlings, 7 Mosquitoes - of 3, 4, 6 and 8 Groups. No aircraft lost.
A detailed report is available from Courtrai (from local historian Jos Vanbossele). It is obvious that the bombing spread to many built-up areas beyond the railway targets. 313 buildings in the town were destroyed, including the gaol, where 5 prisoners were killed, and a Catholic school, where 9 nuns died. When the gaol was hit, several prisoners escaped including a local butcher who had been caught helping airmen to evade capture. The total number of civilians killed was 252; 79 of these people were not local inhabitants but visitors who had come to Courtrai for the celebration of a religious feast. Many fires developed in the town and Hauptmann Schller, from a nearby airfield, is noted as having been most helpful in sending men to put out the fires.
Details on damage to the railways are limited. The Germans called in 450 unemployed civilians and 1,200 other local men to repair the damage and the railway line was open 3 days later.
Minor Operations: 22 Mosquitoes to Hannover, 3 to Aachen and 3 to Julianadorp, 8 R.C.M. sorties, 13 Serrate patrols, 20 Stirlings minelaying off French ports, 4 aircraft on Resistance operations, 12 O.T.U. sorties. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 899 sorties, 9 aircraft (1.0 percent) lost.
