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Bomber Command raid - night of 28/29 June 1944

Metz · France

The story

RAILWAYS
202 Halifaxes of 4 and 6 Groups with 28 Pathfinder Lancasters attacked yards at Blainville and Metz. Both targets were hit. 20 aircraft were lost, 11 Halifaxes of 4 Group and 1 Lancaster from the Blainville raid and 7 Halifaxes of 6 Group and 1 Lancaster from Metz. The combined loss rate was 8.7 percent.
Minor Operations: 33 Mosquitoes to Saarbrcken and 10 to Scholven/Buer oil plant, 21 R.C.M. sorties, 35 Mosquito patrols, 8 Halifaxes and 4 Stirlings minelaying off Lorient and St-Malo. No aircraft lost.

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FLYING-BOMB SITES
286 Lancasters and 19 Mosquitoes of 1, 5 and 8 Groups attacked 2 flying-bomb launching sites and a store. There was partial cloud cover over all the targets; some bombing was accurate but some was scattered. 5 aircraft - 3 Lancasters and 2 Mosquitoes - lost, including the aircraft of the Master Bomber on the raid to the Siracourt site, Flight Lieutenant S. E. C. Clarke of 7 Squadron, but Clarke survived.
2 Mosquitoes carried out Ranger patrols and 1 shot up an E-boat while flying back to England. No aircraft lost.

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MINOR OPERATIONS
2 Fortresses on R.C.M. sorties, 14 Mosquitoes on flying-bomb patrols, 8 Stirlings minelaying off Biscay coasts, 16 aircraft on Resistance operations. 1 Mosquito shot down a flying bomb, probably the first 100 Group Mosquito success against the flying bombs. No Bomber Command aircraft lost.

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