1000 Bomber Raid!

[ojays]

Just watched this on one of our local ww11 nostalgia sites.

Thought it might be of interest.

Gregg

[tr1ckey66]

Really interesting film.

Paul

[stona]

An interesting raid for those interested in the history.

Bomber Command despatched 960 aircraft. 472 Wellingtons, 124 Halifaxes, 96 Lancasters, 69 Stirlings, 51 Blenheims, 50 Hampdens, 50 Whitleys, 24 Bostons, 20 Manchesters and 4 Mosquitos. It never again sent such a motley array of bombers, it was really scraping the barrel for operational aircraft.

Churchill himself intervened and insisted that Coastal Command participated in this raid. It sent a further 102 aircraft, Hudsons and Wellingtons. This effort is classed as a separate raid, not under Bomber Command control. A further 5 aircraft were provided by Army Co-Operation Command and carried out Intruder operations I think.

The total aircraft despatched was therefor 1,067, more than for the earlier Cologne raid.

Of this force 696 Bomber Command aircraft claimed to have bombed Bremen.

As 1,000 raids had gone so far it was not as successful as that on Cologne but better than that on Essen.

According to German records 572 houses were destroyed and 6,108 damaged. 85 people were killed, 497 injured and 2,378 bombed out. All 142 aircraft of 5 Group were to attack the Focke-Wulf factory. One assembly shop was destroyed and seventeen other buildings damaged, six seriously. The impact on Focke-Wulf production was minimal.

The senior air raid official in Bremen estimated that only 80 aircraft had attacked the city.

RAF claims of 1,000 bomber raids were considered propaganda and a means of explaining the heavy losses. The Germans claimed 52 bombers shot down. RAF losses were in fact 48 bombers of Bomber Command, 2 Intruders attacking St Trond and Venlo (Blenheims from Army Co-Operation Command) and 5 aircraft from Coastal Command giving a total loss of 55 aircraft.

Bomber Command was still a blunt tool. The technology that would enable it in the future and in the right conditions to inflict devastating raids on Germany was just starting to become available, as were the aircraft, principally the Lancaster, to carry them out.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Just imagine the logistical nightmare to get enough bombs, "go-juice" ,ammo and even things like rat-pack for the "1000" planes all in on day!

Theuns

[stona]

Just imagine the logistical nightmare to get enough bombs, "go-juice" ,ammo and even things like rat-pack for the "1000" planes all in on day!Theuns

Imagine trying to coordinate the raid itself with so many different types with different cruising speeds at different altitudes. A window of 65 minutes was allowed for the various formations to attack their disparate targets in and around Bremen.

The 1,000 bomber raids were really a means by which Harris, who was appointed C-in-C of Bomber Command in February 1942, could impress himself and his methods on his new command. In a perverse way the Germans were correct to assume that the 1,000 bomber claim was propaganda, although 1,000 aircraft did fly on the raid.

The fact that the man in charge of Bremen's air raid defences underestimated the number of attacking aircraft by nearly 900 gives a clue as to how ineffective the bombing was at this time in the war. Bomber Command lost far more expensively trained and well educated airmen bombing Bremen than it killed civilians (or anyone else) on the ground, never mind the cost of the 55 aircraft lost. Bomber Command could not achieve the concentration of bombing needed in either space or time to achieve the results that Harris was looking for. That would change and the devastation of Germany's cities would be pursued with a ruthless determination for the rest of the war.

Steve

[Guest]

Anyone interested should read the book "The Red Line". About just such a raid and a book you really cannot put down.

[stona]

Anyone interested should read the book "The Red Line". About just such a raid and a book you really cannot put down.

On the same subject, same raid, Martin Middlebrook's 'The Nuremberg Raid 30-31 March 1944' is a must read for anybody interested.

It gives an insight not just into Bomber Command's operations that night but also those of the Germans, particularly the Luftwaffe's night fighter force (Nachjagd).

By this time the tactics and technology used by Bomber Command were being honed to enable it to deal some devastating blows, but when things went wrong, as they did on this night, the losses could be appalling.

Cheers

Steve