11 Oboe Mosquitoes bombed a steelworks at Hallendorf without loss.
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OBERHAUSEN
160 Lancasters of 3 Group carried out a G-H raid but no results could be seen because of cloud. 1 Lancaster lost.
A short local report says that heavy damage was caused in the centre of the town, around the railway station. 472 houses were destroyed and 483 seriously damaged and several industrial and public premises were hit. The number of casualties is difficult to determine; 266 people are recorded as being killed, 642 as injured and 169 as missing in a composite report for this part of Germany, Wehrkreis VI, but the casualties for an American raid on Soest are included in this figure.
URFT DAM
27 Lancasters and 3 Mosquitoes of 8 Group carried out the first of several raids on this large reservoir dam in the Eifel, the destruction of which was required so that the Germans could not release water to flood areas through which American troops wished to advance. The series of raids did blast 13 ft off the top of the dam but no large breach was ever made and the Germans were able to release large quantities of water whenever they wished to interfere with American advances being attempted further downstream.
No aircraft were lost from this raid.
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KARLSRUHE
535 aircraft - 369 Lancasters, 154 Halifaxes, 12 Mosquitoes - of 1, 6 and 8 Groups. 1 Lancaster and 1 Mosquito lost.
The marking and bombing were accurate and severe damage was caused, particularly in the southern and western districts of the city. Among individual buildings destroyed were the important Durlacher machine-tool factory, the main Protestant church and the concert hall. 375 Germans and 39 foreigners were killed.
HEILBRONN
282 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitoes of 5 Group. 12 Lancasters lost.
This was a crushing blow on Heilbronn which stood on a main north-south railway line but was otherwise of little importance. It was the first and only major raid by Bomber Command on this target. 1,254 tons of bombs fell in a few minutes and the post-war British Bombing Survey Unit estimated that 351 acres, 82 percent of the town's built-up area, were destroyed, mainly by fire. Much investigation by various people resulted in the reliable estimate that just over 7,000 people died. Most of these victims would have died in fires so intense that there was probably a genuine firestorm.
Minor Operations: 54 Mosquitoes to Hagen and 12 to Bielefeld and Hamm (the figure was not subdivided), 47 R.C.M. sorties, 60 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.
Total effort for the night: 1,000 sorties, 14 aircraft (1.4 percent) lost.
