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Bomber Command raid - night of 22/23 August 1943

Solingen · Germany

The story

LEVERKUSEN
462 aircraft - 257 Lancasters, 192 Halifaxes, 13 Mosquitoes. 3 Lancasters and 2 Halifaxes lost, 1.1 percent of the force.
The I.G. Farben factory at Leverkusen was chosen as the aiming point for this raid and it was hoped that some of the bombs would hit this important place. But the raid was not successful. There was thick cloud over the target area and there was a partial failure of the Oboe signals. Bombs fell over a wide area; at least 12 other towns in and near the Ruhr recorded bomb damage. DÜSSELDORF was the hardest hit of these other places; 132 buildings were destroyed and 644 seriously damaged. Solingen reported 40 people killed and 65 injured.
Only a few bombs fell in Leverkusen, where 4 people were killed. The I.G. Farben factory received only superficial damage, in the acid department; 5 Germans were injured in the factory and 1 foreign worker was killed.
Minor Operations: 12 Mosquitoes to the Ruhr and 6 to Hamburg, 47 aircraft minelaying in the Frisians and off Texel, 7 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.

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