, a new directive was issued. One aspect of it was startling. This is the relevant passage:
As a result of the recent serious increase in the menace of the enemy U-boat operations, the War Cabinet has given approval to a policy of area bombing against the U-boat operational bases on the west coast of France.
A decision has accordingly been made to subject the following bases to a maximum scale of attack by your command at night with the object of effectively devastating the whole area in which are located the submarines, their maintenance facilities and the services, power, water, light, communications, etc. and other resources upon which their operation depend. The order of priority of importance of the bases is as follows:
To give effect to this decision, I am to request that you will initially undertake such an operation on the heaviest scale against Lorient.
The startling aspect of these orders was that Bomber Command was deliberately to 'area bomb' French towns. The need to do this instead of attempting the precise attacks on the actual U-boat base facilities is a measure of the ruthlessness with which this three-year-old war was now being prosecuted and the danger posed at that time by the German U-boat force in the Atlantic. The tragedy in store for the French ports was obvious but it was compounded by a major error which had already been committed. After Bomber Command's last major 'naval diversion' in 1941, the Germans had commenced the construction of huge U-boat 'pens', shelters covered by concrete roofs which were easily proof against the explosion of any conventional bomb. This work was now complete, having been uninterrupted by any serious bombing. The construction of these shelters must have been one of the finest investments the Germans made during the war, the failure to bomb them during the vulnerable stages of construction a major British failure. The Germans concentrated all their essential services into these shelters and, when this new round of bombing commenced in early 1943, they quickly moved all their non-essential services out of the port towns to outlying villages. Former U-boat men described how, by evening, everything and everyone connected with the U-boat service was either in the bombproof shelters or out in the safety of the countryside. The next round of bombing would cause irritation to the Germans but no serious disruption of U-boat operations and no loss of U-boats. The French towns were reduced to ruins and many of the townspeople killed in what proved to be one of the most ineffective and tragic episodes of the bombing war.
Lorient and St-Nazaire were repeatedly attacked but Brest and La Pallice were spared when the campaign was later abandoned after the realization came that the bombing was causing little harm to the Germans. A further directive, however, issued late in January, added the U-boat construction yards in German ports to the list of targets. Bomber Command made a start on these but this campaign, too, would be short-lived. The coming weeks also saw a dissipation of the effort available against Germany when the Prime Minister personally urged that attacks on Italy should continue. So, at a time when Bomber Command was far better equipped to attack Germany than ever before, the coming period of nearly three months would prove to be one of the quietest periods of the war for most of the German cities.
But it was only a temporary respite. Things were turning sour for Germany. Their army at Stalingrad was forced to surrender on
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ESSEN
3 Mosquitoes and 66 Lancasters. 4 Lancasters lost.
The Oboe Mosquitoes were again in trouble. 2 aircraft had to return without marking and the sky-markers of the third aircraft failed to ignite above the cloud. German aircraft also appeared to have dropped decoy flares to distract the Lancasters. Despite all this, Essen reports a sharp raid with 52 buildings destroyed and 67 seriously damaged. 20 of the buildings destroyed were wooden hutments for workers. 63 people were killed, including 11 French prisoners of war and 6 other foreigners, and 113 people were injured.
This raid concluded the recent series of Oboe Mosquito trials.
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6 Halifaxes on a cloud-cover raid to Leer but only 1 aircraft bombed, through a gap in the clouds. 7 Wellingtons of 4 Group minelaying in the Frisians; 1 aircraft lost.
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LORIENT
122 aircraft - 63 Halifaxes, 33 Wellingtons, 20 Stirlings, 6 Lancasters - in the first of 8 area attacks on this French port being used as a U-boat base. 2 Wellingtons lost. This was 6 Group's first bombing operation, with 9 Wellingtons and 6 Halifaxes being sent to Lorient. Wellington BK165 of 426 Squadron was the group's first loss; Pilot Officer George Milne and his crew - 5 Canadians and 1 Englishman - all died when the Wellington was lost in the sea.
The Pathfinder marking of the target was accurate but later bombing by the Main Force was described as 'wild'. Lorient's scanty report shows a minimum of 12 people killed in the centre of the town and 120 buildings, including 2 churches, destroyed.
Minor Operations: 41 aircraft minelaying off Lorient and Brest, 13 O.T.U. flights. 1 Wellington of 91 O.T.U. lost.
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- Lorient/Minor Operations. Page 343, last line:
91 O.T.U. should read 29 O.T.U.
