KIEL
134 aircraft - 72 Wellingtons, 32 Hampdens, 30 Whitleys - to attack harbour targets. 2 Whitleys and 1 Hampden lost.
Only 70 crews reported reaching the target area. Kiel's records state that search-lights could not penetrate thick, low cloud and that aircraft were heard to the east but no bombs fell in Kiel.
Minor Operations: 17 aircraft to Brest, 13 to Le Havre, 5 Hampdens and 2 Manchesters minelaying in Kiel Bay, 4 Hampdens made a night shipping patrol off the Frisians and bombed a convoy without scoring hits, 3 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Hampden from the shipping patrol was lost.
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4 Blenheims on an uneventful shipping sweep off Norway.
This day's sweep ended the long series of shipping searches and attacks carried out by the Blenheim squadrons of 2 Group. Since commencing these raids in March 1941, when Bomber Command was directed to turn its main attention on German U-boats and surface vessels, the Blenheims had pressed home their attacks on heavily defended ships in the most gallant manner. An Admiralty assessment committee estimated that 101 ships, totalling 328,000 tons, had been sunk or seriously damaged in this period. Post-war German records showed that 29 ships of 29,836 tons were actually sunk and 21 ships of 43,715 tons were seriously damaged. The Blenheim squadrons lost 139 aircraft on low-level shipping and harbour raids during this period plus many more aircraft badly damaged. The Blenheim shipping campaign was now called off because these casualties could no longer be justified.
