The story
HAMBURG
148 aircraft - 135 Lancasters, 7 Stirlings, 6 Halifaxes - or 1, 5 and 8 Groups carried out the first H2S attack of the war, with Pathfinder Stirlings and Halifaxes using the new device to mark the target. 5 Lancasters were lost, 34 percent of the force.
Although H2S would later become a more effective device, its use was not successful on this night even though Hamburg, close to a coastline and on a prominent river, was the best type of H2S target. Bombing was scattered over a wide area and the local historian, Hans Brunswig, commenting on the R.A.F. figure of 315 tons of bombs dropped in the Hamburg area, suggests that most of the bombs must have fallen in the River Elbe or in the surrounding marshes. However, 119 fires - 71 large - were started; 58 people were killed and 164 injured. The only incident mentioned by Brunswig is the destruction of a railway bridge, which blocked the entire Hamburg network for 2 days.
Minor Operations: 4 Mosquitoes to targets in the Ruhr, 17 aircraft minelaying off St-Nazaire and in the Frisians. No losses.
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