6 Group Unavailable
302 aircraft - 1 56 Lancasters, 86 Hali faxes, 60 Stirlings. 17 aircraft - 7 Lancasters, 6 Halifaxes, 4 Stirlings - lost, y6 per cent of the force.
The Pathfinders experienced difficulty in producing concentrated marking be¬cause individual parts of the extensive built-up city area of Berlin could not be distinguished on the H2S screens. Bombing photographs showed that the attack was spread over more than IOO square miles with the main emphasis in the south-west of the city. However, because larger numbers of aircraft were now being used and because those aircraft were now carrying a greater average bomb load, the proportion of the force which did hit Berlin caused more damage than any previous raid to this target. This type of result- with significant damage still being caused by only partially successful attacks - was becoming a regular feature of Bomber Command raids.
Much damage was caused in the south and west of Berlin. 22 acres of workshops were burnt out at the railway repair works at Tempelhof and 20 factories were badly damaged and 875 buildings -mostly houses -were destroyed. 191 people were killed.
Some bombs hit the Telefunken works at which the H2S set taken from the Stirling shot down near Rotterdam was being reassembled. The set was completely destroyed in the bombing but a Halifax of 35 Squadron with an almost intact set crashed in Holland on this night and the Germans were able to resume their research into H2S immediately.
.source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
419 Moose Squadron (Moosa Aswayita). Halifax aircraft DT 641 was shot down in the sea during a trip to Berlin, Germany. Sergeants A.D. Cherkinsky, J. Kowalski, A.L. Bateman, and FS W.G. Francis and FS A.T. Woodhouse were killed. Two of the crew, not Canadians, missing believed killed. Sgt. J.N. Gray (RAF) and F/O. A.J. Herriott D.F.M. (RAF) were also killed
Bomber Command Museum Monthly ORB
