On This Day ... in 1933 & Others
In German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote, enabling it to join with the Nationalists to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag
1943: Bomber Command began what Sir Arthur Harris called "The Battle of the Ruhr", with a sustained series of attacks on the German industrial heartland.
The first attack was on Essen, home of the Krupps armaments complex and much other heavy industry. 442 aircraft were sent against the city, one of the aircraft clocking up Bomber Command's 100,000th sortie of the war. Essen was always one of Bomber Command's most difficult targets, since it was very heavily defended, and usually hidden under a heavy industrial haze. On this occasion, however, the new Oboe precision bombing system, fitted to Pathfinder Mosquitoes, allowed the target to be marked accurately, and 160 acres were destroyed, with heavy damage caused to the Krupps works.
1945: Rifleman Bhanbhagta Gurung of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles successfully hunted down a Japanese sniper who had kept his section under fire at Snowdon East in Burma. He then went forward alone and killed the defenders in four enemy positions, including a machine-gun team in a bunker. Supported now by three other Gurkhas, he defended the captured bunker against a Japanese counter-attack, driving the enemy back with very heavy losses. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Comments
Only the RAF could call 160 acres "precision" LOL
Posted by: stuart | March 6, 2006 3:15 AM
Go Gurung Gurkha! :-)
Posted by: DirtCrashr | March 5, 2008 5:56 PM
"Only the RAF could call 160 acres "precision" LOL"
Well if the target area was 160 acres in extent that's quite precise enough. I'm sure Bomber Command's 55,000 killed in action will be LOLing at your crass remark.
Posted by: Gallimaufry | March 5, 2008 7:25 PM
442 aircraft divided by 160 acres equals 2.7 something aircraft per acre. Sounds pretty precise to me. The Krupps works exceeded 200 acres.
Please join me in drinking a toast to the memory of Patrick T. McCarthy, Sr, of Pasadena CA and Calgary AB, the recently deceased father of a friend of mine. Pat Sr flew one of the pathfinder planes for that Essen raid.
Have a look at http://sippicancottage.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-father-asks-for-nothing.html, for a tribute to another of the real heroes slowly leaving us. Then drink a toast to that man too, and the many others.
Posted by: Fred Z | March 5, 2009 12:14 AM
My father mentioned the other day that he did two 1000 bomber raids in a day. I did not believe him so I checked his log book. Sure enough they had taken part in two one thousand bomber raids on the same target in twenty four hours. I'll pass Stuart's comments on to the old man. His crew were actually quite proud of their accuracy. The bomb sight used to film the bombs as they fell which demonstrated delivery and accuracy. I'll pass Stuart's otiose insights on to him. I'm sure my father won't give a stuff. He always told me as a child that as far as he was concerned they were fighting the forces of evil the best they could. They were all volunteers in the most dangerous arm of the armed services.
Posted by: bill | March 5, 2009 12:30 PM