Campbell 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 www.biquge.info of the operation.

On October 13, Potter submitted a detailed battle plan to Campbell, who was even more determined to act, and immediately 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.

Campbell almost went crazy when he heard 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, Campbell hurried around to find available bombers and crew members, and even the bombers, instructors and cadets of the Mobilization Flight Training Command participated.

Although Campbell didn't want the inexperienced "rookies" to participate, he had no choice. After a few days of hard work, Campbell finally scraped together an additional 356 bombers, including some bombers and crew members who had not been returned to the Coastal Defense Command.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed. However, God seemed to be deliberately trying to make things difficult for Campbell, and the skies in Western Europe were cloudy and rainy for many days, and the operation had to be postponed.

It was only on October 16 that the weather gradually improved. The British Meteorological Officer reported to the impatient Campbell that the first target, Hamburg, was still covered in thick clouds, but the second target, Cologne, had cleared. Campbell immediately ordered the abandonment of Hamburg and the attack on 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, tasked with suppressing the German night fighter base near Cologne.

The pilots were told that as soon as the group flew over Western Europe, they began to look for the Rhine, using it as a guide to fly to Cologne.

In order to avoid the loss of a large number of his own bombers, Campbell chose the time at night, so that the bomber group would be greatly reduced by the rate of anti-aircraft fire.

In addition, the ability of aircraft to fight at night at this time is very average, even if it is Germany, there will not be more than two-thirds of the aircraft that fight at night, because it is necessary to install an aircraft with airborne radar to have 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.

Campbell'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 duration of 110 minutes, and the bombing method was to drop a large number of incendiary bombs within a mile south and north of the new market, turning the place 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 perimeter of the industrial zone of Nel to take into action aircraft from night fighters of about three hundred fighters.

Based on 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 sent to death.

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 airborne 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 fought with the Allies as quickly as they reported to their superiors, and fighting at night was not as convenient as fighting during the day, and it took at least three times as long to shoot down an enemy plane as it did during the day. When the Luftwaffe and Allied fighters strangled each other, 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, and the German air defense forces rushed into battle, shooting 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.) )