THE NIGHT OF THE 30-31 May 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of the first RAF 1,000 bomber raid against targets in Germany.
In order to meet the number of aircraft to be sent, planes were begged from as many units as possible – including operational training units – with just 678 aircraft being front line bombers of all different shapes, sizes and capacities.
Eventually 1,047 aircraft would take off on the raid – more than 2.5 times the number of the previous biggest raid.
Of the aircraft that took off 868 claimed to have bombed the target releasing 1,455 tons of bombs (60% incendiary bombs). As was the norm at this period of the war only around two-thirds of the bombs landed in the city.
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