Twelfth operation Giesen
Title
Twelfth operation Giesen
Description
A handwritten note giving a brief description of the operation and a relevant newspaper cutting titled '3,200 planes hit Reich'.
Language
Type
Format
One handwritten note and a newspaper cutting on an album page
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
PPopeKMJ18010058
Transcription
3,200 planes hit Reich
More than 3,200 U.S. planes in addition to British planes “in strength” pounded the Reich yesterday, in what was probably the greatest heavy-bomber offensive since D-Day.
The heaviest blows were struck in a three-target attack by about 1,600 Fortresses and Liberators-the largest force of heavy bombers, British or American, ever assembled for a single mission.
They left England in a stream of formations 300 miles long.
The great force, screened by more than 800 Mustangs and Thunderbolts-altogether 16,800 airmen took part-was dispatched against three vital base-to-front rail hubs in Germany-Frankfurt, Hanau and [underlined] Giessen. [/underlined]
Twelve bombers and two fighters are missing.
In the morning Lancasters and Mosquito bombers, with Spitfires and Mustangs as escort, went to the Rhur. They showered great bomb loads on the marshalling yard and a benzol plant at Osterfield, and more benzol plants at Melerich and Buckhavsen.
In the early afternoon another huge procession thundered out over the South-East coast.
None of our fighters, and only one of the bombers, is missing.
From Italy the 15th Air Force sent about 850 planes to bomb the Mossbierbaum Refinery, north-west of Vienna the South ordnance and freight yards in Vienna and the railyards at Graz, in Southern Austria.
The Germans admit that “the heart of Vienna” was bombed and that “a number of cities in south-western Germany were hard hit.”
During the night and early yesterday Tokio and several regions of the Japanese mainland were bombed by American planes, say Tokio reports.
{underlined]
Twelth [sic] Operation
GIESSON [sic]
Wednesday Night. December 6th 1944.
Airborne 6hr 45mins
[/underlined]
More than 3,200 U.S. planes in addition to British planes “in strength” pounded the Reich yesterday, in what was probably the greatest heavy-bomber offensive since D-Day.
The heaviest blows were struck in a three-target attack by about 1,600 Fortresses and Liberators-the largest force of heavy bombers, British or American, ever assembled for a single mission.
They left England in a stream of formations 300 miles long.
The great force, screened by more than 800 Mustangs and Thunderbolts-altogether 16,800 airmen took part-was dispatched against three vital base-to-front rail hubs in Germany-Frankfurt, Hanau and [underlined] Giessen. [/underlined]
Twelve bombers and two fighters are missing.
In the morning Lancasters and Mosquito bombers, with Spitfires and Mustangs as escort, went to the Rhur. They showered great bomb loads on the marshalling yard and a benzol plant at Osterfield, and more benzol plants at Melerich and Buckhavsen.
In the early afternoon another huge procession thundered out over the South-East coast.
None of our fighters, and only one of the bombers, is missing.
From Italy the 15th Air Force sent about 850 planes to bomb the Mossbierbaum Refinery, north-west of Vienna the South ordnance and freight yards in Vienna and the railyards at Graz, in Southern Austria.
The Germans admit that “the heart of Vienna” was bombed and that “a number of cities in south-western Germany were hard hit.”
During the night and early yesterday Tokio and several regions of the Japanese mainland were bombed by American planes, say Tokio reports.
{underlined]
Twelth [sic] Operation
GIESSON [sic]
Wednesday Night. December 6th 1944.
Airborne 6hr 45mins
[/underlined]
Collection
Citation
“Twelfth operation Giesen ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 22, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9403.
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