Airspeed
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I've nearly finished reading this book, and I'm afraid that the Pathfinders, who had mythical god-like status in my mind for decades, lost a lot of their rating.
Having been shown a scale model of the target, and given a clear full moon night on which to attack, and bombing from 8,000 ft instead of the usual much greater altitude, I would have expected accuracy.
As it turned out, the "Master Bomber", stationed to watch and issue instructions, had to tell crews to ignore the falsely placed markers, and call for replacement markers. Without going into all the detail, the RAF lost more experienced aircrew - 290- than there were people killed on the ground -178- and that included the deaths in the forced labour camp, which was 2 miles from the target, and severely bombed by accident. Many bombs fell into the nearby forest, and into the sea.
Damage to the V2 rocket manufacturing buildings was minimal, and the RAF lost 48 out of 596 bombers. These losses would have been far greater, had the Germans not been tricked into concentrating their night fighters over Berlin at the time.
Furthermore, the Germans got to work early, painting "damage" on the roofs of the main buildings, digging false bomb craters, and blowing up insignificant structures before the RAF sent reconnaissance aircraft over after daylight.
I did not enjoy reading this book.
Having been shown a scale model of the target, and given a clear full moon night on which to attack, and bombing from 8,000 ft instead of the usual much greater altitude, I would have expected accuracy.
As it turned out, the "Master Bomber", stationed to watch and issue instructions, had to tell crews to ignore the falsely placed markers, and call for replacement markers. Without going into all the detail, the RAF lost more experienced aircrew - 290- than there were people killed on the ground -178- and that included the deaths in the forced labour camp, which was 2 miles from the target, and severely bombed by accident. Many bombs fell into the nearby forest, and into the sea.
Damage to the V2 rocket manufacturing buildings was minimal, and the RAF lost 48 out of 596 bombers. These losses would have been far greater, had the Germans not been tricked into concentrating their night fighters over Berlin at the time.
Furthermore, the Germans got to work early, painting "damage" on the roofs of the main buildings, digging false bomb craters, and blowing up insignificant structures before the RAF sent reconnaissance aircraft over after daylight.
I did not enjoy reading this book.
