On this day...1943:"Bomber
Command returned from an
overnight raid on Hamburg, Germany's most important port, having lost only
twelve aircraft from a force of 791 bombers; the raid, the start of the Battle
of Hamburg, had marked the first use by the RAF of Window : vast quantities of aluminium foil
strips, backed with paper and blackened so as not to shine in searchlight
beams, had been dropped by the bombers. The foil strips had been cut to the
correct length to act as dipole reflectors for the German radar wavelengths as
they slowly fluttered to earth. The result was unprecedented confusion in the
Luftwaffe's air defence system, as radar screens were swamped by a mass of
returns. The raid inflicted heavy damage on the city. Target-markers dropped by
the Pathfinders were sufficiently accurate to allow 2,284 tons (2,320.6 metric
tons) of bombs to fall on the centre and north-west suburbs of the city in 50
minutes. However, a far more devastating raid was to follow a couple of days
later.
Keen to exploit the advantages of Window before the Luftwaffe learnt to cope
with it, the evening of 25 July saw Bomber Command set out for another high
priority target, Essen,
home to the vast Krupps armament complex. The Krupps works received its most
damaging attack of the war; indeed, Dr Gustav Krupp was so horrified by the
state of the factory the next morning that he
suffered a stroke.(A INDIRECT HIT, ON A PRIME TARGET!)