Short questions about WWII (maybe a good sticky thread?!)

[KnightMove]

Hi all,

I suggest a new sticky thread (I think it might come in handy): If someone has a question about WWII requiring a short, rather simple answer, he might pose it in here - similar to the quiz thread, but you don't know the answer yourself. I think this is more practical than to split the forum up into too many short question threads.

My first question is:
How many (small) air raids on Berlin did the RAF undertake, before Hitler and Göring decided to bomb London instead of British aircraft infrastructure?

[Onthefield]

From what I've heard, correct me if I'm wrong is that Hitler did not even mean to bomb London at all but a Nazi bomber was flying in bad weather and thought he was over the drop zone and emptied his cargo bay. When Britian heard of this they bombed Berlin and then civilian bombing began, more of a competition then strategic.

[Friedrich]

The first bombing of berlin by Hampden bombers of the RAF happened on August 25th 1940; the Berlin outskirt of Ruhleben was bombed. After that, another three attacks came. The last, on September 3rd. The next day, Hitler made his famous speech about "the English cities being destroyed" and gabe the peoper orders to the OKL (High Command of the Luftwaffe).

[Martin Bull]

Answer to the first question is twice ; 25/26 August and 28/29 August. Hitler gave carte blanche for bombing London on August 30th.

The 25/26 August raid was in response to the events of the night of 24/25 August when a small force of Heinkel IIIs from KG1 attempted to bomb the Thameshaven oil terminal. This is very close London, and the results were predictable.....

[Friedrich]

I think Martin is right. My source should be taking the dates as different attacks. Even one attack the same night can be considered that the attack happened in two different days...

Actually, it was only TWO He-111 the ones which got lost in the British fog and after one hour without finding their mates nor finding where they were, they decided to low the weight of the planes and went back home... What they didn't know is that they low the weight of the planes ON London...

[KnightMove]

Anyway nobody can blame Churchill. Attacking Berlin was the only counter-offensive that made any sense.

The first to bomb Berlin were the French by the way, just for propaganda as a retaliation.

[Friedrich]

The first to bomb Berlin were the French by the way, just for propaganda as a retaliation.

Does anyone has more information about this?

[KnightMove]

I'm not at home right now to check names in the book, but after the first bombs on Paris a few French aircraft made a long trip around Denmark to bomb Berlin. There damage was so minimal that it is not even reported, but without a doubt they were the first Allied airoplanes to drop bombs on Berlin.

I'll give further info when at home.

[KnightMove]

It was one single plane, a Farman 223.4...

"In the mid-afternoon of June 7th, the Jules Verne (as this plane was named) took off with Captain (or Lieutenant) Dailliere as pilot ... Their route took them northward to the English Channel, and then north-eastward to Denmark, near where, over the Schleswig island of Sylt, they encountered their first heavy AA fire. They continued into the Baltic Sea, from which they entered Germany and approached Berlin... He then dropped his bomb load over some factories in Berlin's north end."

http://blinkynet.net/spag/verne.html

[ 21. October 2003, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: KnightMove ]

[T. A. Gardner]

The aircraft mentioned above, of Groupment de Bombardement 15 delivered about 150 tons of bombs on nightly raids into Germany during the period 1 June to 15 June when they were flown to North Africa. The unit had 6 NC 223.3 and about 30 F 222.1 and 222.2 bombers.

[Martin Bull]

( Can I just say that even in the 1940's there wasn't much 'British Fog' in August....I think the bombers were fooled by the hansom cabs and fumes from Sherlock Holmes' pipe... [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

[Friedrich]

Well, clouds then! The point is that the weather was terrible and they got lost! Stop bothering, Martin! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Martin Bull]

Actually, the weather over both day and night of 24th/25th August was very clear ( see ' The Blitz - Then & Now ' by Winston G Ramsey ).

You can't blame the 'British weather' - they just got lost !