So Best Beloved was moved to do some web searching and see exactly what else was going on over Germany on that date ...
And, wow. From the Bomber Command history page, we learn that on 25 April 1944 Germany was attacked by ...
- Karlsruhe: 369 Lancasters, 259 Halifaxes, 9 Mosquitos. 11 Lancasters and 8 Halifaxes lost.
- Munich: 244 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos. 9 Lancasters lost.
- 165 aircraft carried out a diversionary sweep over the North Sea to a point 75 miles off the German coast. 2 Wellingtons lost.
- 23 Mosquitos bombed Düsseldorf.
- 6 Lancasters dropped flares and target indicators over Milan as a diversion for the Munich raid
- 4 Stirlings to Chambly railway depot, 18 Halifaxes minelaying off Channel ports and in the Frisians, 7 aircraft on Resistance operations. No aircraft lost.
- Total effort for the night: 1,160 sorties, 30 aircraft lost.
It is interesting that Milan was considered a diversion for a Munich raid.
ReplyDeleteI have consulted the map, but they do seem to be 493km (google maps) apart and Switzerland is in the way.
It is amazing how an RAF strategist's mind works.
A good point - but they are about equidistant from, say, Kent, where many bomber fields were located. On my (27 year old) school atlas, they are the two points at either end of the narrow base of a tall, steep isoceles triangle. A large bomber force crossing the English Channel could equally have been headed for either.
ReplyDeletemy gosh. we were bombing the poop out of them.
ReplyDelete