Hi All, Im putting together the war time expereinces of a relative of mine who was in 227 Sqn. He took part in over 25 raids before being shot down. Does anyone know if there are any maps that exist showing the routes that the the main Bomber stream took over Germany to thier targets. I would very much like to plot these routes for the raids that my relative took part in. Any ideas or info would be much appreciated. thanks so much for any responses. Thanks Kiwiazza.
Depends on what scale you are looking for. In his books on the Hamburg (1943) and Berlin raids (1943/44), Martin Middlebrook certainly shows routes, but the scale means that they lack detail.
(Kiwiazza @ Oct 31 2005, 05:26 PM) [post=40866]Quoted post[/post]</div><div class='quotemain'> Hi All, Im putting together the war time expereinces of a relative of mine who was in 227 Sqn. He took part in over 25 raids before being shot down. Does anyone know if there are any maps that exist showing the routes that the the main Bomber stream took over Germany to thier targets. I would very much like to plot these routes for the raids that my relative took part in. Any ideas or info would be much appreciated. thanks so much for any responses. Thanks Kiwiazza. [/b] The flightpaths were worked out on an individual operation basis. The national archieve would have the nav logs which would be of use.
I 2nd Morse on that. Flight plans were specific to each mission and planned to the minute and sometimes to the second. They greatly varried to confuse fighter and flak batteries and also sometimes had false groups which were acting as decoys as to draw enemy fighters away from the main force.
Hi all, Thanks for repsonses so far. Im not really looking for anything in huge detail, Just a basic ruote that the bomber stream would hve taken. As I understand it and Im no expert, but Bombers from all squadrons converged and they formed a stream that may be say 10 - 15 kilometres long, they then all arrived at the trget at a certain time and flew back home. All Im really wanting is a basic outline. As far as scale is concerned, a map which would fit on an A4 size paper which would show England and Germany and the route. Any Ideas anyone ?? Thanks and best regards kiwiazza..
As Morse says, each operation had its own routes planned for both legs of the journey. This means that there was no basic route. It is correct that for each operation there would be a designated meeting point where bombers converged to form the stream, but this also changed with each operation. Sometimes, pathfinder aircraft dropped route markers along the way, but these were arguably also an assistance to German fighters once the "Wild Boar" tactics were introduced by the Luftwaffe. Finally, a proportion of the aircraft, notably some of those flown by the least experience crew, would be off course and the proportion could be very high in adverse weather. Examples would be one of the Hamburg raids where an unexpected severe thunder storm was found and one of the Berlin raids where the bomber stream encountered the jetstream.
</div><div class='quotemain'>in excess of 100 RAF a/c shot down and written off Gnomey [/b] thats true
(morse1001 @ Nov 2 2005, 07:04 AM) [post=40963]</div><div class='quotemain'>in excess of 100 RAF a/c shot down and written off Gnomey [/b] thats true [/b]Around 10% of the attacking force then. Not at all a good night for the RAF heavies.
</div><div class='quotemain'>Around 10% of the attacking force then. Not at all a good night for the RAF heavies. [/b] it shows that the germans could still pull out all the stops, even at such a late stage.
it was 97 aircraft out of an attacking force of 779. The main reason was that planners had underestimated the German Reaction
over 100 mate and in fact with CAT E it was something in the neighborhood of 107 RAF heavies out of action
(Erich @ Nov 5 2005, 04:40 PM) [post=41121]over 100 mate and in fact with CAT E it was something in the neighborhood of 107 RAF heavies out of action [/b] I was basing it on the number of aircraft shot down.
Here's some I found on the web. They requested they not be copied so am posting the links. http://www.bomber-command.de/430904.HTM http://www.bomber-command.de/430824.HTM http://www.bomber-command.de/430824.HTM
