Pölitz

21 December 1944 — Pölitz

Date
21 December 1944
Target
Pölitz, Germany
Force dispatched
208 aircraft

Narrative

The synthetic-oil plant at Pölitz, near Stettin on the Baltic, was one of Germany’s most important fuel producers and a prime target of the Allied oil offensive. On the night of 21/22 December 1944 No. 5 Group sent 207 Lancasters and a single Mosquito against it. The attack was pressed home accurately despite the bitter cold and the long distance, and Pölitz — already damaged by earlier raids — was so badly hit that synthetic-fuel production there was effectively ended. The oil campaign, of which this was one of Bomber Command’s most successful single contributions, did more than almost anything else to paralyse the German war machine in the last months of the war.

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

38 airmen in this archive died on 21 December 1944 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 38 who died on 21 December →

Source: IWM — Pölitz, the bombing raid on 21st/22nd December 1944 →