MINOR OPERATIONS
30 Mosquitoes to Stuttgart and 12 aircraft on Resistance operations. No aircraft lost.
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PAS DE CALAIS
199 aircraft - 159 Halifaxes, 20 Mosquitoes, 20 Stirlings - of 3, 4 and 8 Groups attacked two launching sites and made two further separate raids on the Fort de Nieppe storage site. All bombing was through cloud but the various methods used were believed to have led to accurate results. 1 Halifax lost from one of the Fort de Nieppe raids.
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STUTTGART
494 Lancasters and 2 Mosquitoes of 1, 3, 5 and 8 Groups in the last raid of the current series on this target. German fighters intercepted the bomber stream while over France on the outward flight; there was a bright moon and 39 Lancasters were shot down, 7.9 percent of the force.
HAMBURG
307 aircraft - 187 Halifaxes, 106 Lancasters, 14 Mosquitoes - from 1, 6 and 8 Groups. German fighters again appeared, this time on the homeward flight, and 18 Halifaxes and 4 Lancasters were lost, 7.2 percent of the force. The Halifax casualties were 9.6 percent; 431 (Canadian) Squadron, flying from Croft airfield in Co. Durham, lost 5 of its 17 aircraft on the raid.
This was the first heavy raid on Hamburg since the Battle of Hamburg just a year earlier. The bombing on this raid was not well concentrated. The Germans estimated that only 120 aircraft bombed in the city area, with no recognizable aiming point, though western and harbour areas received the most bombs. A large proportion of the attack fell on areas devastated in 1943 but 265 people were killed and more than 17,000 had to be evacuated from homes damaged in this raid, many of which were probably only temporary wooden accommodation at this stage of the war. Brunswig (p. 339) describes how a panic developed at the large Reeperbahn air-raid shelter when a lone aircraft came in to bomb after the all clear had sounded and nearby Flak guns opened fire. 2 women were trampled to death and others were badly hurt.
FORT DE NIEPPE
119 aircraft of 1, 4 and 8 Groups attacked the stores area again. No aircraft lost.
SUPPORT AND MINOR OPERATIONS
95 training aircraft on a diversionary sweep over the North Sea, 13 Mosquitoes to Frankfurt, 41 R.C.M. sorties, 50 Mosquito patrols, 5 Halifaxes minelaying in the River Elbe. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,126 sorties, 61 aircraft (54 percent) lost.
