KIEL
107 Mosquitoes. 2 aircraft lost.
The local diarist recorded details of this raid. The sirens did not sound until after the first bombs had exploded. The worst damage was in the Elmschenhagen suburb, 'but', he wrote plaintively, 'there are new ruins all over the town. It is no longer possible to spot which damage is new. One sometimes asks oneself whether there are any intact houses left.' 50 people were killed.
Minor Operations: 16 Mosquitoes to Eggebek airfield near Flensburg, 3 R.C.M. sorties, 16 Mosquito patrols, 20 Lancasters of 6 Group minelaying in the Kattegat. No aircraft lost.
---
BREMEN
767 aircraft - 651 Lancasters, 100 Halifaxes, 16 Mosquitoes - of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups. 2 Lancasters lost.
This raid was part of the preparation for the attack by the British XXX Corps on Bremen. The bombing was on the south-eastern suburbs of the city, where the ground troops would attack 2 days later. The raid was hampered by cloud and by smoke and dust from bombing as the raid progressed. The Master Bomber ordered the raid to stop after 195 Lancasters had bombed. The whole of 1 and 4 Groups returned home without attacking.
The Bremen city officials were, amazingly, still recording the effects of the raid in great detail, even though the city would be in British hands within 5 days and the intervening period would be filled with a continuous artillery bombardment, fighter-bomber attacks and the British assault! 3,664 houses were carefully listed under 5 categories of air-raid damage from 'destroyed' to 'broken windows'. 'At least 172 civilians' were killed, of whom 26 died in a concrete shelter whose side was blown in by a heavy bomb exploding just outside. There are, unfortunately, no notes on casualties to the German troops or on the effect upon their defences but Bremen soon fell after 3 days of ground attack, with 6,000 German troops surrendering. It was the first major German port to be captured.
---
MINOR OPERATIONS
40 Mosquitoes to Bremen and 11 to Kiel, 56 R.C.M. sorties, 39 Mosquito patrols. No aircraft lost.
