16th May 1943: at 21:39 hrs. the first Formation of 617 Squadron ["Dambusters"] took off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire......

[bear66]

The US daytime raids were generally no more effective as the RAF night bombing.

They tried to target military installations rather than carpet bomb an industrial area with the aim of 'dehousing' the workforce if factories and communication hubs were missed, but for the first two years of the war only 16% of their bombs landed within a kilometre of the target, due to the high altitude and brutal combat conditions they operated in.

The RAF developed better night sights and pathfinder radar techniques and then became more accurate until the Americans caught up in 1945. The Tallboy and Earthquake bombs were dropped with incredible precision remember.

Looks like a few of their bombs missed the Ulzen marshalling yards photo above, but most hit the target. There was a Jewish work gang on the same marshalling yard; they were given virtually no food and the Brits did their best to get some of their rations across to them; the bombing and the subsequent work detail may have saved their lives.

 

[WoodallServices]

The synthetic oil plant at nearby Monowitz was bombed four times in 1944.

 

[Soutra]

The RAF developed better night sights and pathfinder radar techniques and then became more accurate until the Americans caught up in 1945. The Tallboy and Earthquake bombs were dropped with incredible precision remember.

Yes, but that was much later in the war when there were fewer Luftwaffe defenders, reduced flak, more daylight raids and a clearer run for Pathfinders. If you look at the missions to destroy the Bielefeld viaduct, the RAF started trying to destroy it in October 1940 and finally managed it in February 1945. In the meantime the RAF and USAAF managed to flatten most of the local towns, churn up farmland for miles around and hit lots of other valueless buildings.

This pic shows the area round about the viaduct after its destruction. It is miraculous that there were this many near misses. One raid in 1944 reckoned they'd hit the Bielefeld viaduct pretty hard, but they'd managed to hit Osnabruck instead. It's nearly 40 miles away. The USAAF bombing was generally a bit more accurate because they tended to bomb in daylight rather than night, and they had the Nordern bombsight, easily the best device at the time. But it was pretty marginal, and bombing in the 1940s was at best an exercise like throwing mud at a wall.

 

[Lefty]

Yes, but that was much later in the war when there were fewer Luftwaffe defenders, reduced flak, more daylight raids and a clearer run for Pathfinders. If you look at the missions to destroy the Bielefeld viaduct, the RAF started trying to destroy it in October 1940 and finally managed it in February 1945. In the meantime the RAF and USAAF managed to flatten most of the local towns, churn up farmland for miles around and hit lots of other valueless buildings.

This pic shows the area round about the viaduct after its destruction. It is miraculous that there were this many near misses. One raid in 1944 reckoned they'd hit the Bielefeld viaduct pretty hard, but they'd managed to hit Osnabruck instead. It's nearly 40 miles away.

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Yes, our night bombing accuracy improved before the Americans daytime bombing did, but this was the last 18 months of the war.

Before that, when your precision bombing strategy is reliant on technology that isn't very precise under combat conditions, what is more effective? That or carpet bombing a general area?

 

[Soutra]

Yes, our night bombing accuracy improved before the Americans daytime bombing did, but this was the last 18 months of the war.

Before that, when your precision bombing strategy is reliant on technology that isn't very precise under combat conditions, what is more effective? That or carpet bombing a general area?

Excellent question. I don't know, and people have been debating it for 76 years without consensus. I think it's safe to say that there was no hope whatsoever of successfully bombing railway lines leading to concentration camps. If aircrew were to be put in peril bombing heavily defended targets in Eastern Germany, then there has to be some realistic hope of success.