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Posts tagged with Blitz
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August summary - The early days
09 Jan 2023‘In case there is an attack on the centre of Government in London, it seems very important to return the compliment the next day upon in Berlin. I understand you will have by the end of this month a respectable party of Stirlings ready. Perhaps the nights are not…
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The RAF strikes the Opera
08 Jan 20199 / 10 APRIL 1941 On that night, Wednesday, RAF Bomber Command launched an operation against ‘the Big City’. The mixed attacking force comprised 80 bombers - 36 Wellingtons, 24 Hampdens, 17 Whitleys and 3 of the new Short Stirling heavy bomber. This was the first raid on…
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Bombensturm! (Part III)
12 Jun 2018MC Bombs: [Armourers from No 97 Squadron preparing MC-bombs on their trolleys to be loaded onto a Lancaster bomber on July 1943 at RAF Waddington.]
The limited and inadequate arsenal of bombs composed of the high explosive GP (general purpose) bombs (10-15% detonation failure rate) made British Bomber Command to…
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Bombensturm! (Part II)
03 May 2018The Incendiary Bombs [Haus Vaterland (“Fatherland House”) burns following a night raid on 22/23 November 1943 by British RAF bombers. The building was a pleasure palace on the southwest side of Potsdamer Platz. At left, a S-Bahn signal post.]
[Photo: Ullsteinbild / Archiv Golejewski.] Incendiaries (IB), usually small-sized…
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Feuer!
23 Apr 2018Fire, as Bomber Command well knew, was the biggest destroyer of property
On 23 September 1941, Britain’s Air Staff produced a report detailing the effectiveness of German incendiary attacks on Britain and recommending that fire be a central feature of Bomber Command attacks. The key lesson to be…