Life was hard 60 years back

Sixty years back the war had been running for around 1,000 days (US cousins please note). This means that Bomber Command had had plenty of opportunity for practice at dropping stuff on German towns.

Last night (11/12 March 1942) the Lancaster went off on its first vist to the Fatherland, an ominous portent of what was to follow.

But it certainly wasn’t all beer and skittles.

The target was Essen, deep in the Ruhr.

126 aircraft set out. 2 Lancasters tagging on to 56 Wellingtons, 43 Hampdens, 13 Manchesters and 12 Stirlings.

The weather was cr*p and only 62 aircraft claimed to have bombed the target, with 35 dropping on ‘alternative targets’ (I think this is a euphemism for “Europe”)

The net result, as far as Essen was concerned was that TWO bombs hit a railway line – the sole strategic success of the night. ONE civilian house was destroyed and a further TWO damaged.

The Nazi war machine found itself 5 people down at the end of raid, presumably civilians, plus an unfortunate Pole who they killed with one of their own flak shells on its way back down to earth.

I haven’t time to do an exact count, but if you assume that about 700 airmen were involved, they were each responsible for killing 0.7% of a German.

And of course, there was a cost.

1 Wellington, 2 Hampdens and a Stirling failed to return. 20 men?

It never ceases to amaze me just how brave the bomber crews were, facing death night after night. And, in retrospect, for how little result until the technology of killing gave them the tools to do the job better.

Moggy