6 Group Unavailable
GELSENKIRCHEN
473 aircraft - 214 Lancasters, 134 Halifaxes, 73 Stirlings, 40 Wellingtons, 12 Mos?quitoes. This was the first raid to Gelsenkirchen since 1941, when it had been one of Bomber Command's regular 'oil targets', although, being in the middle of the Ruhr, this town had often been hit when other targets were attacked. 30 aircraft - 13 Lancasters, 7 Halifaxes, 6 Stirlings, 4 Wellingtons - were lost, 6?3 per cent of the force.
The target was obscured by cloud and the Oboe Mosquitoes, for once, failed to produce regular and accurate marking since 5 of the 12 Oboe aircraft found that their equipment was unserviceable. The raid was not a success. Diisseldorf reports 24 buildings destroyed and 3,285 damaged but 2,937 of these suffered only superficial blast damage. 20 industrial premises were hit and 4 of them suffered total production loss but no large fires were involved and the loss in production lasted for no longer than 2 weeks. 16 people were killed.
Bombs probably fell on many other Ruhr towns. Solingen, nearly 30 miles from Gelsenkirchen, recorded 21 people killed and 58 injured on this night.source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
Lancaster W4827 was shot down by night fighter pilot Oberfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Scherfling of the 10./NJG 1, flying a Bf 110 G-4 from Bergen airfield.source: Aviation Safety Network
