Cologne

22 April 1942 — Cologne

Date
22 April 1942
Target
Cologne, Germany
Force dispatched
69 aircraft
Aircraft lost
2

Narrative

This was an experiment as much as a raid. A force of 69 aircraft — 64 Wellingtons and five Stirlings — was sent against Cologne with every crew ordered to bomb blind on Gee alone, releasing on the navigation aid’s timed fixes rather than on anything seen on the ground. The point was to test how accurately a whole force could attack through cloud or haze using radar navigation by itself, a question that mattered enormously for a Command that flew most of its operations in conditions where the target was invisible. Two Wellingtons were lost. The blind-bombing trial was inconclusive in its results over Cologne, but the willingness to fly such tests reflected how seriously Bomber Command was now pursuing the technical means to bomb what it could not see — work that led on to Oboe and H2S within the year.

Sortie details (which aircraft from which squadron, which crew flew, the outcome) will populate this page once the TNA AIR 27 squadron-diary importer arrives.

The fallen

94 airmen in this archive died on 22 April 1942 or the day that followed. For a raid of this kind these are overwhelmingly the night's losses, though a death-date match is not by itself proof an individual flew this operation.

See all 94 who died on 22 April →

Source: Wikipedia — Bombing of Cologne in World War II →