6 Group Unavailable
764 aircraft - 469 Lancasters, 234 Halifaxes, 50 Stirlings, 11 Mosquitoes. This was the greatest force sent to Berlin so far but it was also the last raid in which Stirlings were sent to Germany. Bad weather again kept most of the German fighters on the ground and the bomber force was able to take a relatively 'straight in, straight out' route to the target without suffering undue loss. 26 aircraft - II Lancasters, ro Halifaxes, 5 Stirlings - were lost, 3·4 per cent of the force.
Berlin was again completely cloud-covered and returning crews could only esti¬mate that the marking and bombing were believed to be accurate. In fact, this was the most effective raid on Berlin of the war, A vast area of destruction stretched from the central districts westwards across the mainly residential areas of Tiergarten and Charlottenburg to the separate suburb city of Spandau. Because of the dry weather conditions, several 'firestorm' areas were reported and a German plane next day measured the height of the smoke cloud as 6,000 metres (nearly 19,000 ft).
It is impossible to give anything like full details of the damage or to separate completely details from this raid and a smaller one on the next night. At least 3,000 houses and 23 industrial premises were completely destroyed, with several thousands of other buildings damaged. It was estimated that 175,000 people were bombed out. More than 50,000 soldiers were brought in to help from garrisons up to roo km distant; these were equivalent to nearly 3 army divisions taken from their normal duties. Interesting entries among the lists of buildings destroyed or severely damaged are: the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche (the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which is now, half ruined, half restored, a major attraction in West Berlin), the Charlottenburg Castle, the Berlin Zoo, much of the Unter den Linden, the British, French, Italian and Japanese embassies, the Ministry of Weapons and Munitions, the Waffen S.S. Administrative College, the barracks of the Imperial Guard at Span¬dau and, among many industrial premises, 5 factories of the Siemens electrical group and "the Alkett tank works which had recently moved from the Ruhr.
source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
It is difficult to give exact casualty figures: an estimated 2,000 people were killed, including 500 in a large· shelter in Wilmersdorf which received a direct hit, and ro5 people were killed in another shelter which was next to the Neukoln gasworks, where there was a huge explosion.
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