Bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II information
Allied bombing campaign against Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, Germany
The Wilhelmshaven World War II bombings by the Allies of World War II destroyed targets at Wilhelmshaven in Germany. From spring 1943 until November 1943 slave labourers of the SS-Baubrigade II from the Neuengamme concentration camp were transferred to Wilhelmshaven to clear up after air raids.[1]
Wilhelmshaven World War II bombings
Date
Mission
4 September 1939
First RAF Bomber Command raid of World War II. Ten Bristol Blenheims of No. 110 and No. 107 Squadrons attacked units of the German fleet at low altitude, losing seven aircraft without achieving any significantly damaging hits.[2][3]
18 December 1939
Battle of the Heligoland Bight. The first combat success of radar used a German "experimental Freya radar" to detect unescorted RAF bombers approaching the German Bight en route to Wilhelmshaven. As the bombers approached their targets, they were ordered to withhold attack on targets docked or in the harbour so as to avoid civilian casualties. German fighters inflicted heavy casualties on them as they headed home, destroying 12 of the 22 Vickers Wellingtons.[4][5]
8 July 1941
No. 90 Squadron RAF bombed the city in the first daylight attack by Fortress Is. Three bombers carrying two tons of bombs each bombed from an altitude too high for German interceptors to reach but only one was able to drop on the target.[6]
28–29 December 1941
217 sorties by RAF Bomber Command; Wilhelmshaven, Hüls, and Emden were the main targets.[7]
27 January 1943
VIII Bomber Command Mission Number 31 was the first daylight bombing mission flown by the Eighth Air Force against the German homeland, led by the 306th Bomb Group (H) with Brig. Gen. Frank A. Armstrong in command. 55 bombers dropped 137 tons of bombs on warehouses and industrial plants, losing three aircraft.[8]
11–12 February 1943
220 sorties were flown by 177 aircraft, comprising 129 Lancasters, 40 Halifaxes and eight Stirlings from RAF Bomber Command, targeting the major Kriegsmarine bases around Wilhelmshaven. The naval arsenal, including ammunition, mine and torpedo stores, at Mariensel exploded, destroying approximately 50 hectares (120 acres). This represented the first successful use of "blind-bombing", i.e. radar targeting using the H2S system. Three aircraft were lost.[9][10]
26 February 1943
On the second Wilhelmshaven bombing mission by 8AF, footage for the documentary film Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress was filmed from the B-17 Flying Fortress Jersey Bounce of the 91st Bombardment Group.[11]
22 March 1943
Attack by six groups of B-17s and B-24 Liberators on U-boat yards.[12]
21 May 1943
Severe German fighter reaction against 77 B-17s resulted in the loss of ten per cent of the bomber force.[13]
11 June 1943
252 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yard at Wilhelmshaven and the Cuxhaven port area. Eight of the 218 that reach the target are lost. The raid on Wilhelmshaven demonstrated the difficulty of operating beyond range of fighters escort as enemy fighters attacks prevent accurate bombing of the target.[14][15]
26 July 1943
Wilhelmshaven bombed as a target of opportunity by the 94th Bomb Group.[16]
3 November 1943
21 groups totaling 539 aircraft attacked the Wilhelmshaven harbor.[17]
3 February 1944
Major attack by 609 B-17s on the port area of Wilhelmshaven.[18]
3 March 1944
91 B-17s of the 1st Bomb Division bombed the city as a target of opportunity when bad weather forced the rest of the 760-bomber mission force to turn back from the first attack on Berlin.[19]
27 August 1944
Wilhelmshaven again bombed as a target of opportunity, by 34 B-17s originally sent to Berlin.[20]
27–28 February 1945
Night mission by 8AF and RAF Pathfinder Force (PFF). 23 of 26 B-24s bombed Wilhelmshaven oil storage facilities.[21]
30 March 1945
8AF Mission 918. 358 B-24s of the 2d Air Division completed the final mission against Wilhelmshaven by the Eighth Air Force. In 12 attacks on the city, 2,141 bombers of the Eighth dropped 5,327.5 tons of bombs and had 46 bombers shot down.[22]
^List of working locations SS-Baubrigade II by the Memorial Neuengamme
^Richards, Denis (1953). The RAF 1939-1945, Vol. I "The Fight at Odds", pp. 38-40. ASIN B0013K4ZDE.
^Holmes, Richard (May 2015). World War II: The Definitive Visual History from Blitzkrieg to the Atom Bomb. DK. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-4654-3602-3.
^Galland, Adolf (1968) [1954]. The First and the Last: The Rise and Fall of the German Fighter Forces, 1938-1945. Ninth Printing - paperbound. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 20, 105.
^Richards, p. 45
^Bowman, Martin W.A. (2014). Daylight Bombing Operations 1939-1942. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Books Ltds. p. 145. ISBN 978-1783831777.
^"Campaign Diary". Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary. UK Crown. Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
^Freeman, Roger A. (1990) [1981]. The Mighty Eighth War Diary. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International. p. 35. ISBN 0-87938-495-6.
^"SHATTERING BLOW BY THE R.A.F." The Age (Melbourne). 22 February 1943. p. 1.
^Chris Everitt & Martin Middlebrook, 2014, The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book, Barnsley, Pen and Sword, p. 117.
^Freeman, p. 40
^Freeman, p. 47
^Freeman, p. 62
^McKillop, Jack. "8th Air Force 1944 Chronicles". Archived from the original on September 12, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
^Freeman, p. 65
^Freeman, p. 79
^Freeman, p. 133
^Freeman, p. 174
^Freeman, p. 192
^Freeman, p. 334
^Freeman, p. 451
^Freeman, p. 476
and 26 Related for: Bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II information
The Allied bombingof Hamburg during WorldWarII included numerous attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre...
The bombingof Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during...
The bombingof Kobe inWorldWarII on March 16 and 17, 1945, was part of the strategic bombing campaign waged by the United States against military and...
World War. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch army to surrender. Bombing began...
of Cologne was bombedin 262 separate air raids by the Allies during WorldWarII, all by the Royal Air Force (RAF). A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs...
Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second WorldWar. It was bombed by the RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and...
(1983) "Bombing Policy in the Rome and Pre-Normandy Invasion Aerial Campaigns ofWorldWarII: Bridge-Bombing Strategy Vindicated – and Railyard-Bombing Strategy...
The Bombingof Tokyo (東京大空襲, Tōkyōdaikūshū) was a series ofbombing air raids launched by the United States Army Air Forces during WorldWarII. The raids...
The bombingof Warsaw inWorldWarII started with the aerial bombing campaign of Warsaw by the German Luftwaffe during the siege of Warsaw in the invasion...
During WorldWarII, the Estonian capital Tallinn suffered from many instances of aerial bombing by the Soviet air force and the German Luftwaffe. The...
the Second WorldWar, Dublin was first bombed early on the morning of 2 January 1941, when German bombs were dropped on the Terenure area of south Dublin...
The Bombingof Nagoya inWorldWarII by the United States Army Air Forces took place as part of the air raids on Japan during the closing months of the...
center in Italy, and the country's second largest city, Milan was subjected to heavy bombing during WorldWarII, being the most bombed city in Northern...
The bombingof Zadar during the Second WorldWar by the Allies lasted from November 1943 to October 1944. Although other large cities in Italy were also...
During WorldWarII, the industrial town of Essen, was a target of Allied strategic bombing. The Krupp steelworks was an important industrial target, Essen...
State of Oldenburg. During WorldWarII (1939–1945), Wilhelmshaven served as the main base of the Kriegsmarine. Allied bombing destroyed two thirds of the...
The Italian bombingof Mandatory Palestine inWorldWarII was part of an effort by the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) to strike at the United...
Bulgarian capital of Sofia suffered a series of Allied bombing raids during WorldWarII, from mid 1941 to early 1944. Bulgaria declared war on the United...
The Kassel WorldWarIIbombings were a set of Allied strategic bombing attacks which took place from February 1942 to March 1945. In a single deadliest...