Bomber Command raid - night of 2/3 March 1943

MINELAYING
60 aircraft to coastal areas between Texel and the River Gironde. 2 Wellingtons and 1 Lancaster lost.
6 Mosquitoes to the Ruhr without loss. The aircraft which bombed Essen scored direct hits in the middle of the main Krupps factory.

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10 Mosquitoes of 139 Squadron carried out a long-range raid on the important molybdenum mine at Knaben in Norway. The target was successfully bombed but 1 Mosquito was shot down by FW 190s.

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HAMBURG
417 aircraft - 149 Lancasters, 123 Wellingtons, 83 Halifaxes, 62 Stirlings. 10 aircraft - 4 Lancasters, 2 Wellingtons, 2 Halifaxes, 2 Stirlings - lost, 2.4 percent of the force.
Visibility was clear over the target but the Pathfinders made a mistake, possibly thinking that the H2S indications of mudbanks in the Elbe which had been uncovered by the low tides were sections of the Hamburg docks. Most of the Main Force bombing thus fell 13 miles downstream from the centre of Hamburg, around the small town of Wedel. Even so, a proportion of the bombing force did hit Hamburg which suffered 27 people killed and 95 injured and whose fire brigade had to put out 100 fires before devoting all its energies to helping the town of Wedel, which suffered so heavily. The damage at Wedel included a large naval-clothing store burnt out as well as several important industrial concerns destroyed in Wedel's harbour area and this illustrated another Bomber Command view: that bombing could usually be useful even if the wrong target was hit.
Minor Operations: 5 Mosquitoes to the Ruhr, with more direct hits on Krupps, 14 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians, 5 O.T.U. sorties. 1 Stirling minelayer lost.
Total effort for the night: 441 sorties, 11 aircraft (2.5 percent) lost.