Whirlwind: Battle of the Ruhr 1943 – S1/E8: Failure Above the Clouds

On March 5th 1943, the first raid in what would become known as the Battle of the Ruhr occurred as over 400 bombers attacked Essen, home to the massive Krupp’s Works. It was the start of what RAF Bomber Command’s commander, Arthur Harris, described as his “Main Offensive”, which would continue until March 1944 when the bombing effort was increasingly directed at pre-invasion targets in occupied France. Supported by new electronic bombing and navigation aids and new tactics by the young Pathfinder force, Bomber Command was able for the first time to consistently hit and damage major German cities. The result was unprecedented death and destruction across Germany, as Arthur Harris pursued his goals of destroying German morale, destroying German towns, and destroying German industry.

This series aims to animate and show how each raid was planned and unfolded during the “Battle of the Ruhr”. While there are many books on RAF Bomber Command, there is little showing how these raids actually worked, or how the German night fighter defense responded. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and it is simply beyond the realm of words to explain what must be seen. This series seeks to fill that gap as much as possible, to present a visual history of the actual bombing campaign that is missing from the literature and media on Bomber Command.

The morality aspect of the bombing campaign against German cities will not be touched on in this series, simply because it has been done elsewhere and this series could never properly address it in the time constraints that exist. Books hundreds of pages long cover the topic, and do it better than this series ever could.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro
00:10 – Skymarking
01:47 – The approaching threats to Bomber Command
04:14 – Why Bomb Duisburg?
05:11 – Weather, Aircraft Numbers, Flight Path, Pathfinder Marking Plan
09:17 – Bombing Plan, Leaflets
10:30 – Flight to Duisburg
11:28 – Bombing of Duisburg
14:01 – Flight Back to England
15:09 – The Airman by George Eades
16:19 – Aftermath – Deaths, Damage, Analysis, Losses, Reaction
18:37 – Sgt Eric Hall

By March 26th Harris feels he can wait no longer it has now been two weeks since bomber command has last struck Germany giving the Germans time to rest their defenses and bring their War Industry back online with the moon entering its waxing crescent phase the next 2 to 3 weeks we’ll see increasingly

Dark Nights ideal lunar conditions to hide British bombers from German night Fighters despite almost solid cloud cover forecasted over much of Germany tonight Harris decides to commit his Force to carry out an OBO Sky marking raid on Aur City Sky marking the only means so far available to bomber command to Mark a

Cloud cover Target Sky marking has only been carried out a handful of times by bomber command since OBO and H2S have come online earlier this year with the target area completely covered by clouds colored parachute flares will be laid above the aiming Point by Pathfinder aircraft upon which the main Force

Bombers will conduct bomb runs however these colored parachute flares are vulnerable to being blown off Target by the heavy winds present at higher altitudes resulting in the bombing drifting away from the intended aiming Point as the main Force bombers aim at this moving Target so far bomber command

Has little evidence with which to judge the accuracy of Sky marking raids as this type of pathfind of marking is only employed when the target area is completely Cloud covered bombing photos taken by attacking aircraft have rarely show in any ground detail that would allow bomber command to plot where the

Bombs have actually Fallen well it is expected the accuracy of OBO is such that the sky markers will initially be placed quite accurately over the aiming point the overall accuracy of the raid due to the drift of these flares may be poor despite this bomber command decides

To gamble on this method of pathf finding for tonight a decision which reflects growing concerns that the window of opportunity to wreck the RAR industrial cities may be closing OB the only truly effective blind bombing a bomber command has available to it has been in use on a

Limited scale since January and it’s believe that only a few months of use remain before the Germans will learn how to jam it H2S though effectively unjam is of limited use over the RAR as the closeness of cities and builtup areas in the RAR Valley makes identifying individual cities or aiming points

Extremely difficult for H2S operators OBO is the only effective bombing a to attack the rure with and once jammed the effectiveness of bomber commands attacks on the region will drop significantly compounding the technical perils are seasonal ones the tilt of the earth and its rotation around the sun which gives

The planet its various seasons will soon begin to significantly impact bomber command’s nocturnal operations the shortening of night as summer approaches will increasingly limit the number of hours of Darkness bomber command will have available to operate Within by June the nights will be so short that British

Bombers will only be able to reach Targets in Western Germany while remaining under the cover of Darkness with a number of possible targets available to bomber command reduced to such a small geographical area Germany will be able to concentrate large numbers of flak and night fighter units in Western Germany making the defenses

There even more formidable than they already are perhaps even worse will be the period of time between May and July when an increasing amount of sunlight will reach and be reflected off the upper atmosphere at night the result of the Earth’s Northern pole increasingly tilting towards the Sun as the planet

Moves through its phases of orbit this brightening of the night sky will create the conditions of an astronomical Twilight with the result being that British bombers will be silhouetted against the bright and night sky for attacking German night Fighters night bomber losses have constantly peaked during the summer months and a sustained

Bombing campaign against the heavily defended RAR valley during this period will be bloody thus bomber command is under pressure to attack whenever possible now while OBO remains unjammed while the knights remain long and dark while the the moonless periods are occurring even if that means carrying

Out sky marking raids if there is one consolation for bomber command tonight is that the thick low Cloud forecasted over lift waterer airfields tonight should ground many of the German night Fighters dubur will be attacked tonight sitting at the Junctions of the rivers Ry and rur and in the Central and

Western concentration of the rur industrial area duberg is the largest and most important Inland water Harbor in Europe with its extensive rail Network and dock facilities duborg is the entry point of millions of tons of raw material that feeds the RAR Industries as well as the export point

For millions of tons of coal that sustains German Industries and power generation on top of that duburg is a major producer of coke for steel production a center of liquid fuel production steel and non-f feros metal production and various engineering Works producing Machine Tools weapons of war

Gun barrels and more the destruction of dubor would thus impact not just War Industries within a [ __ ] the distribution of raw materials throughout the r Valley as a result dubor is ranked alongside Essen as one of the vital R cities bomber command Must Destroy 1010 Cloud are forecasted over the entirety

Of the route with moderate icing between 6,000 and 15,000 ft and Cloud tops reaching as high as 20,000 ft over the RAR itself layers of clouds at several levels with solid thundery Cloud extending up to 27,000 ft Maybe encountered though a half moon will be present tonight which could illuminate

British bombers it will remain hidden below the Horizon until 15 minutes after midnight as a result The Raid has been timed tonight so that the moonrise will occur just as the bombers are landing back at their bases in England across England the crews of 460 wellingtons Halifax’s and lancasters gather for

Tonight’s briefings absent tonight are the Sterling bombers of three Group which cannot climb to altitudes High Enough To Fly Above the Clouds and spot the sky mark ERS among the crew selected tonight is Ron Reed who learns to his horror that he’s been tasked to conduct special reconnaissance during the raid a

Task which will require him to circle the target area and observe the results of the bombing it’s an unpopular Duty as few Crews want to stay over a heavily defended Target any longer than is necessary wherever you hung around in the rear you were over another town and

The defenses embraced both they were Fierce everywhere and growing more so once again we were in the first first wave after the Pathfinders so we could expect the same warm reception we got in Essen I decided that we should go in even a little more behind our own wave

To be able to assess what had gone before this would take us around the course over and through the target when hopefully the guns and Fighters were still busy with the Keen Pilots pressing in on the front we would follow in the relative calm behind slip through quietly if possible and

Observe also on the raid to tonight is Sergeant Hall and his crew from 426 Thunderbird Squadron who now having completed several M Lane sorties are deemed ready for operations over Germany Sergeant Hall and his crew face steep odds of completing their tour in just two months of operations 426 Squadron

Has lost almost oneir of its air crew on operations including the squadron’s original commanding officer among the surviving original members of 426 Squadron is Sergeant John mcgavic now on his 16th operation he will be flying alongside Sergeant Hall and 15 other wellingtons from the Squadron tonight

Settling in the crews are briefed on the details of tonight’s attack the flight path chosen for tonight will see British bombers Rendevous off the Dutch Coast near banan where they will form into a bomber stream heading Southwest to the German border before ultimately turning South to approach duborg from the north

Northwest mosquito Pathfinder aircraft will drop red warning flares 7 miles Northeast of VI to Aid in that navigation as well as to provide a 5minute warning to the main Force bombers 6 miles north of dubor the mosquitoes will drop green flares signaling a 2.5 minute warning to the

Bombers over the target itself OBO mosquitoes will drop release Point flares a mixture of normal 4.5 in white reconnaissance flares which will burn for 4 minutes and red sky marking Target flares which will burn for 2.5 minutes and eject small green burning Stars a shortage of obal ground stations and

Equipment however limits the number of OBO equipped mosquitoes that can be controlled throughout the raid tonight so only nine OBO mosquitoes will be present as a result two mosquitoes will Mark the target every 10 minutes with the first two dropping their Sky marker flares at 2130 and 2133 hours

Respectively followed by the next two mosquitoes dropping their flares at 2140 and 2143 hours and so on no four engine Pathfinder aircraft will be employed tonight to back up the Oba mosquito Sky marking with additional Sky markers as the sky markers dropped by the mosquitoes will invariably be

Blown off Target by the wind any backers up aircraft aiming at these drifting Sky markers will merely reinforce this error and drop their own Sky markers downwind of the actual aiming point the main Force aircraft did begin bombing at 2134 hours with the lancasters of five group heading the attack followed by the

Wellingtons of four and six group then Halifax’s of four group and wellingtons of one group and and then finally the landcasters are three in one group taking up the rear in order to reduce scattered bombing due to lateness or failure of obop Pathfinder aircraft no bombs are to be dropped between 21 40

Hours if no flares are seen aircraft arriving after all the Pathfinder flares have burnt out are to bomb on the greatest concentration of fires they can see through the clouds No M Lane missions are ordered tonight though five people groups from 91 group will drop propaganda leaflets over France in an

Effort to give the fresh Crews some operational experience before they join their squadrons with briefings completed Crews head out to prepare for tonight’s operation as the sun sets in the west search lights at various air bases in England form cones indicating the height of the cloud base for departing aircraft

As British bombers line up on the tarmac engines Roar and the bombers roll down the runway heading for Germany arriving off the Dutch Coast the British bombers encounter 1010 cloud with Cloud tops rising from 14,000 to 18,000 ft German search light batteries at the coast are unable to illuminate British

Bombers through the thick Cloud however radar directed flag batteries hid an inbound Lancaster which crashes into the sea low-level Cloud over most German night fighter Airfield and the dark moonless night badly hampers the German night fighter response tonight though British bombers report two attacks and 14 approaches on route to the Target a

Rear Gunner on a 403 Squadron Halifax near Vis engages a ju88 night fighter which is seen by the crew to peel off with one engine on fire before diving into the clouds north of duborg the red and green warning Sky markers from the first obal mosquito goes down on time

Guiding the bombers to the Target arriving over dubor the bombers encounter solid cloud cover with tops up to 14,000 ft the Pathfinder plan immediately begins to falter as no Sky markers fall over the target area for the first 11 minutes of the raid as a result many of the arriving bomber Crews

Decide to drop their bombs based on their estimated time of arrival over the target area the first Sky markers are finally dropped over the target area at 2141 hours followed by another set at 2148 hours however OBO equipment failure on Pathfinder mosquitoes and unexpected jamming of OBO signals prevent six of

The OBO mosquito Crews from dropping Sky markers over the aiming Point as a result only four obal mosquitoes lay Sky markers over dubor between 2141 and 2209 hours resulting in large gaps where no pathfind or Sky markers are visible instead German decoy flares fired from the ground fill these gaps fooling many

Of the bomber Crews who consequently drop their bombs far away from the aiming Point arriving at 2150 hours Ron Reed brings his Halifax over duborg ahead of him a bomber comes under attack by radar directed Flack while another bomber duel with the German KN fighter slipping in behind re drops his bombs at

2156 hours and then begins to circle the target area as part of his special wrecky duties to read it is clear the attack is failing over the target we could see little on the ground and I couldn’t say much in my wrecky report I wasn’t very enthusiastic about what I saw I was

Right the Pathfinders had gone arai and the raid was scattered arriving just behind Reed is Sergeant mcgavic and his Willington crew from 426 Squadron who also notes the scattered bombing there was 1010 cloud cover over the target area and we released our bombs on Pathfinder flares at 2158 hours

From 19,000 500 ft the results could not be observed through the clouds the target markers and bombing appear to be very erratic as the last bombers arrive over the target the remaining Pathfinder Sky marker flares begin to burn out with no target indicators to aim at Crews Dro

Their bombs on the glow of fires visible through the clouds during the raid a four engine bomber likely a Halifax is seen to catch fire over dubor and plummets To The Ground by 2235 hour hours the last British bombers fly away returning to England the anemic German night fighter response continues

With British bombers claiming only two attacks and six approaches By Night Fighters during the return Journey a Wellington of 166 Squadron is repeatedly attacked by an unidentified night Fighter the enemy aircraft was first CED on the port quarter 1500 ft up at approximately 1,000 yd range and carried

Out his attack from this position our rear Gunner gave orders to his Pilot to carry out a diving turn to port and opened fire at 600 yds range managing to get in three fairly long bursts the night fighter broke away down and underneath the Wellington at 300 yd

Range the enemy aircraft was next seen on the port quarter up from where he made his second attack the rear Gunner of our aircraft again told his Pilot to complete a diving turn to port and the fighter overshot and was not seen again crossing the Dutch Coast a Wellington of

429 Squadron is shot down by Coastal Flack however it will not be the final loss for the night if I should die don’t think of me at all unless World weary you prefer like me to waste your life against life’s ocean wall and spend your freedom

Crying to be free think then this May how many building white throats call in England’s woods and how from every tree blanch Blossom dangles and young girls are all in love and green corn Slants above the sea I never asked for life nor thanked who gave me unconsoled to The Angry

Years in sacrifice my soul not framed a slave climbed to the clouds and with those other Brave welcomed the bullets that bide all fears the last long dive to death and this our grave the Airmen by George Templeton eids killed in action on the duber raid March 26th 1943 the attack on dubor is a failure though this is not immediately clear to bomber command of the 455 main Force bombers dispatched to dubor some 386 report having attacked the primary area however as none of the bombing photos taken by the main Force bombers show anything but Cloud there is little

Evidence as to where most of the bombs fell it’s not until April 5th when photographic reconnaissance photos are processed that the results of the raid are known for sure little new damage is found in dubor suggesting the bombing fell into the open Countryside and towns and Villages outside the city at the

Thisen located to the north of dbook two large buildings in the northeast corner of the works are destroyed by high explosives and fire post-war investigation will show that the damage reduced steel production by 7,500 tons or some 2.5% of the planned output for March the failure of the Pathfinder plan

Is quickly identified as a main culprit for the failed attack on dbook in particular the unexpected jamming of OBO signals and other equipment failures prevented six of the nine OBO mosquitoes from dropping their Sky markers over the target area resulting in large gaps where no target markers were present

Instead the gaps were filled by German decoy flares which successfully Drew many of the bombers away from dubber to drop their bombs elsewhere the jamming of OBO in particular is a major cause of alarm within bomber command however the jamming was only partial limited to OBO signals operating in the 228 Mega cycle

Range an investigation has begun immediately to identify the source of the the jamming to determine whether it is the Germans or some other source if there’s one consolation for bomber command it’s that the loss rate for this failed raid is extremely low overall just six aircraft and crew

Failed return from the raid representing a loss rate of 1.3% of the attacking Force the German defenses hampered by the thick cloud and Dark moonless Night fail to inflict any significant losses on bomber command thus the bomber Force remains intact and ready to strike again yet while the loss of six bombers barely

Impacts bomber command it’s a different story for the families of the men aboard Sergeant Eric Hall and his crew flying their first operation over Germany failed to return from the DU Burke raade when their aircraft crashes into the North Sea despite successfully sending out a distress call which was

Triangulated By Radio Direction stations in England no trace of Sergeant Hall and his crew are ever found by the boats and aircraft of the search and rescue group sent to look for them Eric’s sister Mary takes his loss especially hard already half orphan due to the untimely death of

Their mother just before the War Began Eric’s loss comes just a few days after the death of a friend also flying with the Royal Air Force writing to her now only surviving brother rege dear rege I simply do not know how to write to you by the time you get this he will

Have had the cable giving you the Dreadful news about Eric there is nothing I can tell you much beyond what was in the cable regret to inform you that your son Sergeant Eric Hull is missing from air operations on the night of March 26th we had a letter from Eric on Friday

Written on Wednesday he said he’d been out the previous night and was on duty again that night he said he had only 6 hours sleep and was feeling buggered when he was over on leave he told us that one fellow had been sent out five nights running and was lost on the fifth

Night it is she a murder I never liked the sound of his Squadron it was a newly formed one and the co was very keen to get it a good name then of course he had a big shock this week when I had to wire him telling him that Ralph had been

Killed on Monday I wish to God I hadn’t but it was a special request from Ralph’s grandmother she wanted Eric to come over to act as a bearer at the funeral re I simply cannot be brave about this I am just broken up Poor Dad but he’s trying to Bear up really well

There is a slender chance of course that Eric may have bailed out but I cannot feel much hope I’m going to ask one of the aunts to come over it is more than we can bear on our own Mary