Ruhr Campaign (5 March – 10 July 1943) [entry point]

Ruhr Campaign (5 March – 10 July 1943) [entry point]

Between 5th March and 10th July 1943 Bomber Command carried out a sustained series of attacks on the industrial Ruhr region of Germany. Eleven cities were targeted and subjected to a total of 24 major and four smaller attacks as detailed below:

Operation	Start Date	End Date
Essen	5 March 1943	6 March 1943
Essen	12 March 1943	13 March 1943
Duisburg	26 March 1943	27 March 1943
Bochum	29 March 1943	30 March 1943
Essen	3 April 1943	4 April 1943
Duisburg	8 April 1943	9 April 1943
Duisburg	9 April 1943	10 April 1943
Duisburg	26 April 1943	27 April 1943
Essen	30 April 1943	1 May 1943
Dortmund	4 May 1943	5 May 1943
Duisburg	12 May 1943	13 May 1943
Bochum	13 May 1943	14 May 1943
Dortmund	23 May 1943	24 May 1943
Düsseldorf	25 May 1943	26 May 2025
Essen	27 May 1943	28 May 1943
Wuppertal	29 May 1943	30 May 1943
Düsseldorf	11 June 1943	12 June 1943
Bochum	12 June 1943	13 June 1943
Oberhausen	14 June 1943	15 June 1943
Cologne	16 June 1943	17 June 1943
Krefeld	21 June 1943	22 June 1943
Mulheim	22 June 1943	23 June 1943
Wuppertal	24 June 1943	25 June 1943
Gelsenkirchen	25 June 1943	26 June 1943
Cologne	28 June 1943	29 June 1943
Cologne	3 July 1943	4 July 1943
Cologne	8 July 1943	9 July 1943
Gelsenkirchen	9 July 1943	10 July 1943

Sixteen major operations against non-Ruhr targets were also carried out during this period. Aircraft used in the campaign were Lancasters, Halifaxes, Stirlings, Wellingtons and Mosquitos. At this stage of the war Bomber Command was benefiting from an increased number of four-engined aircraft, use of Oboe blind bombing technology and increasing effectiveness of the Pathfinders using target indicators. A total of 13,689 aircraft were dispatched to Ruhr targets during the campaign of which 652 or 4.8% were lost. Some attacks were highly effective causing severe and extensive damage but others resulted in only scattered bombing due to technical or weather related problems. During the campaign approximately 17,500 people on the ground were killed, tens of thousands of houses destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were bombed out as well as damage caused to the industrial capacity of the Ruhr.

Refinements:   

Artwork                            Text
Map                                Text. Correspondence
Map. Navigation chart and log      Text. Diary
Moving image                       Text. Log book and record book
Photograph                         Text. Memoir
Physical object                    Text. Personal research
Physical object. Clothing          Text. Poetry
Physical object. Decoration        Text. Service material
Sound                              Text. Training material
Technical aid


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• Not all Archive items can accurately be linked to a specific date and place: see the timelines or the map. Coverage may be excellent for some operations and minimal for others. However, new items are added each week so check this page regularly.
• Entries are based on Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book 1939-1945 by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, supplemented by IBCC Digital Archive research.