Operation Hydra (1943)
Royal Air Force bombing operation during World War II / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Operation Hydra was an attack by RAF Bomber Command on a German scientific research centre at Peenemünde on the night of 17/18 August 1943. Group Captain John Searby, commanding officer of No. 83 Squadron RAF, commanded the operation, the first time that Bomber Command used a master bomber to direct the attack of the main force. Hydra began the Crossbow campaign against the German V-weapon programme.[2] The British lost 215 aircrew and 40 bombers, and killed several hundred enslaved workers in the nearby Trassenheide forced labour camp. The Luftwaffe lost twelve night-fighters and about 170 German civilians were killed, including two V-2 rocket scientists. The Germans had already started to disperse the manufacturing of the V-2 in 1942, for example to Raderach [de] near Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.[3]
Operation Hydra | |||||||
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Part of Operation Crossbow | |||||||
British plan for the Peenemünde raid | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
(5, 6, 8 groups) RAF Fighter Command | Luftwaffe | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
John Searby (Master Bomber) |
Josef Kammhuber Hubert Weise | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Hydra: 596 aircraft dispatched, 560 bombed 324 Avro Lancaster, 218 Handley Page Halifax, 54 Short Stirling 1,924 long tons (1,955 t) bombs (1,795 long tons (1,824 t) dropped), 85 per cent HE Whitebait: 8 Mosquitos Intruders: 28 Mosquitos, 10 Beaufighters | Hydra: 35 night fighters inc. 2 Bf 109 c. 30 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
290: 245 killed, 45 POW Hydra: 23 Lancasters, 15 Halifaxes, 2 Stirlings |
12 aircrew killed, 12 aircraft lost: 8 Bf 110, 1 Do 217, 2 Fw 190, 1 Bf 109 c. 180 Germans, 500–732 slave workers 3 men and 1 convict labourer (by a bomb on Berlin)[1] |