11 Blenheims lost out of a force of 42 ordered to attack Bridges near Maastricht, Hasselt and Tongres to stop advancing enemy troops. AASF aircraft continue to suffer alarming losses. Six Battles from No 12 Squadron are detailed to attack the vital bridges in the Maastricht area still standing after the previous day's failed attempts to destroy them. One of the aircraft went unserviceable prior...
This raid took place over a completely cloud-covered target but accurate Oboe skymarking enabled the all Lancaster/Halifax Main Force to cause severe damage to the centre of Bochum. 14 Lancasters and 10 Halifaxes lost, 4.8 per cent of the force.
72 aircraft - 29 Lancasters, 22 Halifaxes, 21 Stirlings - were dispatched on an interesting raid. All the aircraft were provided by No 8 Group and it was really a mass H2S trial. 33 of the aircraft carried markers or flares, the remaining aircraft acting as the bombing force, although the marker aircraft also bombed. The marking and bombing were very accurate and the whole raid lasted less than...
783 aircraft - 326 Lancasters, 202 Halifaxes, 143 Wellingtons, 99 Stirlings, 13 Mosquitos. The Pathfinder marking plan proceeded excellently until an Oboe Mosquito inadvertently released a load of target indicators 14 miles north-east of the target area. This caused part of the Main Force to waste its bombs on open country. But the main bombing caused extensive damage in the centre of Düsseldor...
335 aircraft - 170 Lancasters, 103 Halifaxes, 62 Stirlings - to Nuremberg. 8 aircraft - 4 Stirlings, 2 Halifaxes, 2 Lancasters - lost, 2.4 per cent of the force.
This distant raid had to be marked by a combination of H2S and visual means. The Pathfinders had no moon to help them and, although there was no cloud, they found that haze prevented accurate visual identification of the...
170 Lancasters and 17 Halifaxes repeated the raid on Berlin. The weather was better than on the previous night but the Pathfinders were again unable to mark the centre of the city and again the bombing fell mainly in the southern areas. The Bomber Command report stated that the Daimler-Benz factory was hit, either during this night or during the raid of the previous night, but this is not confi...
Wilhelmshaven. This was an interesting and important raid by 177 aircraft - 129 Lancasters, 40 Halifaxes and 8 Stirlings. The Pathfinders found that the Wilhelmshaven area was completely covered by cloud and they had to employ their least reliable marking method, skymarking by parachute flares using H2S. The marking was carried out with great accuracy and the Main Force bombing was very effecti...
1940 Maginot line forts and bunkers implementation sector by sector (exception for Sarre sector still incomplete).
All names are in French.
Updated: 08.24.06
Updated: 08.03.06
Updated: 20.04.06
Updated: 22.08.06
Updated: 05.09.06
Updated: 12.10.06 This is a fully reorganized file to allow permanent external update without reloading the KMZ each time.
The Admiralty and Commander-in-Chief had decided that the Fleet Air Arm should attack Tirpitz early in April, as soon as the aircraft carrier Victorious had completed her post-refit trials and the date of 4th April was chosen. The attacking force was to be under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Moore and the aircraft carried out practice attacks against targets in Loch Eriboll. The attack ...
201 aircraft - 190 Lancasters, 11 Halifaxes - from the Pathfinders and Nos 1, 4 and 5 Groups were dispatched to Berlin the first attack on the city for 14 months. It marked the first use of proper 'target indicators' and the use of an all 4-engined bombing force. Stirlings were withdrawn from an original plan so that only the higher-flying Lancasters and Halifaxes would participate. Most of the...
This aerial photo of Stalag VIIA and Moosburg in Bavaria was taken by a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft.
Stalag VIIA was a disaster. It was a nest of small compounds separated by barbed wire fences enclosing old, dilapidated barracks crammed closely together. Reportedly, the camp had been built to hold 14,000 French prisoners. In the end, 130,000 POWs of all nationalities and ranks ...
18 Bostons bombed St-Malo docks and 6 Venturas bombed naval installations at Den Helder. The Den Helder bombing was particularly accurate and serious damage was caused to a torpedo workshop and other buildings. No aircraft lost.
139 aircraft of 5 types. 5 aircraft - 3 Wellingtons, 1 Lancaster, 1 Stirling - lost, 3.6 per cent of the force.
111 crews reported accurate bombing. Osnabrück recorded a sharp attack on the north and north-western parts of the town with 77 houses and 4 military buildings destroyed and 125 other buildings seriously damaged, including the town's main hospital, a paper-mill and a copper-wir...
The Renault factory, in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt just west of the centre of Paris, was making an estimated 18,000 lorries a year for the German forces. 235 aircraft - 89 Wellingtons, 48 Hampdens, 29 Stirlings, 26 Manchesters, 23 Whitleys, 20 Halifaxes - were dispatched in 3 waves, the crews of the leading wave being selected for their experience. The plan called for the massed use of fl...
