January 1945

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The RAF is now heavily involved in attacks against fuel and oil facilities.

 

1st and 2nd Jan 105 Halifaxes of No 4 Group and 18 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos of No 8 Group attempted to bomb a benzol plant at Dortmund but the attack was scattered and the plant was not hit. No aircraft lost.

 

3rd Jan 99 Lancasters of No 3 Group made G-H attacks through cloud on the Benzol plants at Dortmund and Castrop-Rauxel. Bombing appeared to be accurate at both targets. 1 Lancaster lost from the Dortmund raid.

 

12th/13th Jan 11 Mosquitos to Bochum and 9 to Recklinghausen, both forces to bomb synthetic-benzol plants

 

13th/14th Jan Politz: 218 Lancasters and 7 Mosquitos of No 5 Group attacked this oil plant, near Stettin. 2 Lancasters lost. This raid had been planned as a blind-bombing attack but, because the weather conditions were better than forecast, low-level marking was carried out and very accurate bombing followed. Bomber Command, on the basis of photographic reconnaissance, states that the oil plant was 'reduced to a shambles'.

 

14th 15th Jan 573 Lancasters and 14 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 5. 6 and 8 Groups carried out two attacks, 3 hours apart, on the synthetic oil plant at Leuna. The attacks caused severe damage throughout the plant. Albert Speer, in his post-war interrogations, stated that this was one of a group of most damaging raids on the synthetic-oil industry carried out during this period. 10 Lancasters lost.

 

Same night 115 aircraft - 100 Halifaxes, 12 Mosquitos, 3 Lancasters - of Nos 4 and 8 Groups attempted to bomb a Luftwaffe fuel-storage depot at Dülmen, near Münster, but most of the bombing fell in open country south and south-east of the target. Only slight damage was caused to the fuel dump. 1 Halifax lost.

 

15th Jan 82 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked a benzol plant at Recklinghausen. The bombing appeared to be excellent. No aircraft lost.

 

63 Lancasters of No 3 Group carried out a G-H raid through thick cloud on the Robert Muser benzol plant at Bochum. No results known. No aircraft lost.

 

16th/17th Jan Zeitz: 328 Lancasters of Nos 1, 6 and 8 Groups. 10 Lancasters lost, 3.0 per cent of the force. The target was the Braunkohle-Benzin synthetic-oil plant near Leipzig. Much damage was caused to the northern half of the plant.

 

231 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitos of Nos 1 and No 5 Groups attacked a synthetic-oil plant at Brüx in Western Czechoslovakia. The raid was a complete success. Speer also mentioned this raid as causing a particularly severe setback to oil production. 1 Lancaster lost.

 

138 Lancasters of No 3 Group attacked the benzol plant at Wanne-Eickel. No results known. 1 Lancaster lost.

 

17th/18th Jan

20 Mosquitos to Magdeburg, 8 to Ruthen oil-storage depot and 3 each to Cologne, Frankfurt, Koblenz and Mannheim.

 

18th/19th Jan 56 Mosquitos to Sterkrade oil refinery, and 7 to Ruthen oil depot. 1 Mosquito from the Sterkrade raid crashed in Belgium.

 

During January the Wellington Bomber flew its last bomber command mission of the war on the night of 7th/8th Jan.

 

The operation was flown by Flying Officer BH Stevens and his crew of No 192 Squadron. The Wellington was on an RCM flight over the North Sea 'to investigate enemy beam signals connected with the launching of flying bombs and believed to emanate from marker buoys'. Bad weather over the North Sea caused the flight to be curtailed but the Wellington landed safely, the last of more than 47,000 sorties carried out by this type of aircraft in Bomber Command.

 

RCM= Radio Counter Measures, we now call it Electronic Warfare.

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22/23 January 1945

Duisburg: 286 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3 and 8 Groups. 2 Lancasters lost. This raid was intended for the benzol plant in the Bruckhausen district of Duisburg. This target was identified visually by moonlight and much damage was inflicted on it. Further bombing also hit the nearby Thyssen steelworks, either by misidentification or by a simple spread of the bombing. Duisburg's local report assumed that the steelworks were the primary target and stated that 500 high explosive bombs fell on the Thyssen premises.

 

26/27 January 1945

8 Mosquitos bombed the Castrop-Rauxel synthetic-oil refinery without loss.

 

31 January/1 February 1945

8 Mosquitos to the Hansa benzol plant at Dortmund and 6 Mosquitos to Duisburg. 1 aircraft from the Dortmund raid crashed in Holland.