Night bombers interception in Western Europe in 1944

Keith Willshaw wrote:

"WalterM140" wrote in message
...

snip

The British had to suspend their night ops over Germany. That's not well
known
because they were put onto invasion targets in the same time frame.

Probably because its untrue

The simple fact is that during March 1944 bomber command flew a total
of 9031 sorties with a loss rate of under 4%. Nuremburg was indeed a
disaster
but an isolated one. The following month the number of sorties was HIGHER
and losses were around 2.6%.

Raids on Germany occurred on almost every night with raids being made on
Berlin , Hanover, Osnabruck, Dusseldorf, Kiel and Cologne.

To be sure, deep penetration raids much beyond the Ruhr would have been stopped
in April for the next several months in any case, because the nights were
getting too short to allow them. Post-invasion the situation changed. With
total allied air superiority by day, and allied fighters (and ground troops)
well forward on the continent (from September 1944), it was possible to go
deeper on shorter nights, at least for targets in southern Germany, because the
bombers had to spend far less time over enemy territory. And the nights were
getting longer again, in any case.

Examples include :-

Cologne - raided on 20th by 357 Lancasters and 22 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3, 6
and 8 Groups. 4 Lancasters lost. This concentrated attack fell into areas of
Cologne which were north and west of the city centre and partly industrial
in nature. 192 industrial premises suffered various degrees of damage,
together with 725 buildings described as 'dwelling-houses with commercial
premises attached'. 7 railway stations or yards were also severely damaged

Dusseldorf - heavily hit on the 22nd by 596 aircraft - 323 Lancasters, 254
Halifaxes, 19 Mosquitos - of all groups except No 5. 29 aircraft - 16
Halifaxes and 13 Lancasters - lost, 4.9 percent of the force. 2,150 tons of
bombs were dropped in this heavy attack on a German city which caused much
destruction. The attack fell mostly in the northern districts of Düsseldorf.
Widespread damage was caused. On the same evening 238 Lancasters and 17
Mosquitos of No 5 Group and 10 Lancasters of No 1 Group were despatched to
Brunswick. Few German fighters were attracted to this raid and only 4
Lancasters were lost, 1.5 per cent of the force

Karlsruhe - 24 April was attacked by 637 aircraft - 369 Lancasters, 259
Halifaxes, 9 Mosquitos of all groups except No 5 Group. 19 aircraft - 11
Lancasters, 8 Halifaxes - lost, 3.0 per cent of the force

Essen - 26 April was bombed by 493 aircraft 342 Lancasters, 133 Halifaxes,
18 Mosquitos.
7 aircraft - 6 Lancasters, 1 Halifax were lost, 1.4 per cent of the force.

Which perfectly illustrates that most of the raids were to the Ruhr or similar
distances, only Karslruhe being somewhat beyond that, on the line Kiel -
Hannover - Karlsruhe. And Karlsruhe is very close to the French border, where
shot down aircrew, at least, had some chance of evading.

Guy