Now the only question left is to determine the target of the air strike. Harris wanted to bomb Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, and Eisenhower wanted to bomb Essen, the industrial center. But the experts of the Operations Research Laboratory considered Essen not a good target, since the entire city was shrouded in smoke from numerous factories, and it was difficult for bombers to aim at night at night.

They saw Cologne in the Ruhr industrial region as an ideal target because of its relative proximity to Britain and ease of bomber flights. More importantly, Cologne is a major railway junction in Germany, and if it were destroyed, the ability to transport goods within Germany would be severely damaged. Harris listened to the experts' advice and relayed it to Eisenhower, who no longer insisted on his opinion. In this way, the specific bombing target will be chosen between Hamburg and Cologne, depending on the weather conditions at the time of the operation.

On October 13, Potter submitted a detailed battle plan to Harris, who was even more determined to act, and immediately decided to set the date for the operation on the night of October 15. But the Admiralty suddenly refused to participate in the air raids at this time, on the grounds that they had to deal with rampant German submarines.

Harris almost went crazy at hearing the news, which meant that the total number of bombers at his disposal would drop to 1,500. To avoid the abortion of the plan, Harris hurried around to find available bombers and crew members, and even the bombers, instructors and cadets of the Mobilization Flight Training Command participated.

Although Harris doesn't want the inexperienced "rookies" to participate, he has no choice. The emperor lived up to his heart, after a few days of hard work. Harris finally scraped together another 356 bombers, including some of the bombers and crew members that were not returned to the Coast Defense Command.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed. However, God seemed to be deliberately trying to make things difficult for Harris, and the skies in Western Europe were cloudy and rainy for many days, so the operation had to be postponed. It was only on October 16 that the weather gradually improved. The British Meteorological Officer reported to Harris, who couldn't wait, that the first target was still covered in thick clouds over Hamburg, but the second target had cleared over Cologne. Harris immediately ordered to abandon Hamburg and attack Cologne instead.

At 10:30 p.m. on October 16, 1,856 bombers took off from 103 airfields throughout France. Also taking off at the same time were 2113 fighters. The task was to suppress the German night fighter base near Cologne. The pilots were told. As soon as the fleet flew over Western Europe, it began to look for the Rhine and fly to Cologne with it as a guide.

In order to avoid the loss of a large number of his own bombers, Harris chose the time at night. As a result, the rate of anti-aircraft fire on bomber groups will be significantly reduced. The other is the plane at this time. The ability to fight at night is very mediocre. Even Germany does not have more than two-thirds of its aircraft fighting at night, because it is necessary to add planes with on-board radar. It has the ability to fight at night.

With so many Allied aircraft, basically equipped with radar, they can barely fight at night. The quality of the Allied pilots was not as high as that of the German army, but they had a large number of aircraft, and the Allies were not afraid to fight with Germany.

Harris's first strike wave was the best-equipped 1st and 3rd Groups, consisting of 490 Wellington and 188 Stirling bombers, all equipped with advanced GEE navigation equipment, which bombed the specific target of the new market in Cologne's Old Town, with a 110-minute air strike, by dropping a large number of incendiary bombs within a mile north and south of the new market, turning the area into a "torch" as a landmark for subsequent bombers.

The second attack wave was the 4th and 10th Groups, which included 431 "Halifax", 90 "Wellington", 70 "Wheatley", 73 "Lancaster", 46 "Manchester", 34 "Hampton" bombers, which were tasked with bombing the center of Cologne.

The third attack wave was the 5th and 6th Groups, which included 303 "Wellington", 21 "Wheatley", and 410 "Hampton" bombers, which were tasked with carrying out supplementary bombing.

When the first wave of planes flew over the Maginot Line, they were detected by German air defense radars, and the Germans only found small groups of planes in four rows, which the Allies had previously carried out air raids.

At this time, the German Air Defense Command made the most lethal judgment, this was a conventional Allied air raid, the scale was within 200 aircraft, and the radar at this time only had this resolution. The Luftwaffe Air Defense Command immediately ordered two airfields located around the industrial area of Nell to take into action aircraft from night fighters of about three hundred fighters.

According to past experience, the German Air Defense Command believed that more than 300 advanced BF190 fighters were enough to deal with the 200 Allied bombers that were killed by the Allied forces. However, the Allied planes used the stream formation. To put it simply, the Allied planes were in a row of four, and the planes behind all followed the planes in front of them, rolling forward like a stream.

The two sides met on the outskirts of the Ruhr industrial area, and it seems that the German air defense command was still half a beat slower. The radars of both sides detected each other almost at the same time, and the German planes immediately pounced, but they were greeted not by bombers who were slaughtered, but by 500 fighters escorted by the Allies.

The Luftwaffe was quickly reporting to its superiors while fighting with the Allies, and fighting at night was not as convenient as fighting during the day, and it took at least three hundred times to shoot down an enemy plane. Just as the Luftwaffe and Allied fighters were strangling, the first wave of Allied bombers immediately accelerated towards Cologne.

At 00:47 on October 31, when the first wave of bombers flew over Cologne, the crew members clearly identified the target area with the help of moonlight. Cologne's air defense forces were a beat slower to react, and by the time the air raid sirens sounded, the British bomber group had already begun to drop bombs. In 110 minutes, thousands of incendiary bombs rained down! The old town of Cologne began to burn. German air defense forces rushed into battle and shot down only 14 bombers.

The Germans immediately took off several thousand planes, but it was too late, because the Ruhr industrial area was not far from the Maginot Line, and the Allied bombers reached the target in a very short time.

Under the light of the fire, the bomber groups of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th British Brigades that flew in after them easily found their target area and dropped bombs. The bombardment was so terrifying that when the last British plane returned, the burning flames of Cologne could be seen from 160 kilometers away, and the smoke soared to an altitude of 4,600 meters.

Allied air force pilots had never seen such smoke, and many had trouble calming their hearts for a long time. In this air raid, two-thirds of the bombs dropped by British bombers were incendiary bombs. A total of 2.43 square kilometers of Cologne were bombed (including 1.2 square kilometers in the city center), and of the non-residential buildings, 3,300 were completely destroyed, 2,090 were severely damaged and 7,420 were slightly damaged. Of the residential buildings, 13,010 were destroyed, 6,360 were severely damaged and 22,270 were slightly damaged. In the airstrikes, 469 people were killed, 10,027 were injured and 410132 were left homeless. After the air raids, about 1.1 million of the nearly 700,000 citizens of Cologne fled the city. (To be continued......)