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Posts tagged with Wellington

  1. The First Raids On Berlin

    2023-08-30 18:02:00 UTC

    ‘Our numbers were small and there is no claim that much damage… resulted from our bombing but it’s very likely these raids had a consequential effect; triggering a most profound change of strategy by the enemy.’ Photo: 115 Squadron Association/ Scottish Saltire Aircrew Association. On the 83rd anniversary of…

  2. Razzles - Firing the Grunewald Forest

    2023-06-26 09:02:00 UTC

    ‘R.A.F. Fires German Forests’ – The New York Times, September 5, 1940 – Photo: John Frost newspapers. In the late summer of 1940, while the Battle of Britain was raging overhead, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command Air Marshal Charles Portal directed a new strategy to his squadrons. So,…

  3. August summary - The early days

    2023-01-09 13:54:00 UTC

    ‘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…

  4. Four in a row: 31 August 1940

    2022-07-01 16:48:00 UTC

    ‘R.A.F. planes renew attack on Berlin… …Sirens Sound in Capital After Heavy Bombing of Previous Night.’ – The New York Times, Sunday, September 1, 1940 – Photo: Fotosearch/Getty Images. Following the attacks made on three previous nights, the British air bombing offensive didn’t stop: on the last night of the…

  5. British third raid on Berlin

    2022-04-03 14:56:00 UTC

    ‘Two nights later we returned to Berlin… …to be met by numerous searchlights and well directed and intensive flak. The raids must have destroyed the myth of German invincibility, thus causing considerable anger to Hitler and Goering who had boasted that such raids would never happen.’ – Squadron Leader Andrew…

  6. Britische Luftangriffe über Berlin

    2021-05-14 15:59:00 UTC

    ‘Ten killed in Berlin raid’. ‘Berlin gets a taste of bombs… …British bombers took a toll of ten killed and about thirty wounded in a workers’ section less than two miles from the Government offices in Wilhelmstraße. All the casualties were civilians. Preliminary reports gave no word of death or…

  7. Bombing raid on Berlin

    2021-05-02 18:01:00 UTC

    ‘Aircraft drawn from two R.A.F. squadrons made a special attack on an objective only four miles from the centre of Berlin early yesterday morning’. – Daily Herald, Friday, August, 30, 1940 – Photo: © IWM CH 10246. As we have seen in previous posts, the first bombing on Berlin by…

  8. “Back from Berlin”

    2019-05-02 20:04:32 UTC

    ‘The sporadic raiding of London towards the end of August was promptly answered by us in a retaliatory attack on Berlin. The War Cabinet were much in the mood to hit back, to raise the stakes, and to defy the enemy. I was sure they were right…’ – Winston S…

  9. The first one: August 25th, 1940

    2019-05-01 17:50:00 UTC

    ‘They had bombed London, whether on purpose or not, and the British people and London especially should know that we could hit back. It would be good for the morale of us all’. – Winston S Churchill –  Photo: © IWM (H-3514). The prelude: LondonDuring the early…

  10. ‘Cookie’ delivery to Berlin

    2019-03-11 17:17:00 UTC

    26 million of German people lost their homes during the war, just in Berlin 600,000 apartments were destroyed, half of all houses were damaged and around a third uninhabitable, as much as 16 km² of the city was simply rubble. When the war came to an end in May 1945…

  11. Bombensturm! (Part IV)

    2019-02-05 20:18:00 UTC

    HC Bombs: [RAF ground crew push a 4,000-lb blast-bomb towards the bomb-bay of a Vickers Wellington of No 75 (NZ) Squadron at RAF Feltwell in May, 1942.] Photo: Imperial War Museums © IWM (TR 11). The strategic method to destroy German cities employed by Bomber Command in area bombings was…

  12. The RAF strikes the Opera

    2019-01-08 19:26:00 UTC

    9 / 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…

  13. Bombensturm!

    2018-03-18 20:20:39 UTC

    When British Bomber Command went to war in 1939 it found itself equipped with a very limited and inadequate arsenal of bombs. General Purpose GP Bombs: The high explosive GP (general purpose) bombs, developed from 1935, were the initial arsenal Bomber Command had to carry destruction to Third Reich soil…
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