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General Review.

AIR SITUATION.

32. Operations of the Home Commands were again severely restricted by unfavourable weather conditions. The main feature of the week's operations was a further successful night bombing attack on the naval port of Wilhelmshaven. Enemy attacks on this country were not on a big scale and occurred on only three nights during the week.

Three heavy attacks were made on Malta mainly by German aircraft, upon which our fighters inflicted heavy losses.

In Libya our aircraft continued their offensive operations and co-operated with the ground forces in the capture of Tobruk.

Operational aircraft casualties and extracts from recent Raid Assessment Reports are given in Appendices VI and VII.

Germany and Occupied Territory.

33. Bomber Command flew only 14 day and 131 night sorties, due to the very unfavourable wintry weather conditions which prevailed almost throughout the week.

34. On the night of the 16th/17th January a heavy attack was made on the naval port at Wilhelmshaven for the second night in succession, the preceding attack having been reported in last week's Résumé. Nearly fifty aircraft bombed the objective and huge fires were reported at the Railway Station, and in oil cisterns on the north bank of Hipper Hafen. Many bombs were not seen to burst owing to the general conflagration. Other bombers attacked oil targets and the docks at Emden and Rotterdam with good results.

35. Twenty-nine aircraft attacked industrial targets at Dusseldorf on the night of the 22nd 23rd January. Although heavy cloud made it very difficult to locate the target, a number of fires were started within the area. A single aircraft bombed the wharves at the Inland Port of Duisburg-Ruhrort and a very large fire resulted.

36. Blenheims of Fighter Command have carried out offensive night patrols over Northern France. During these operations aerodromes were attacked and one enemy aircraft probably shot down.

37.

Offensive day patrols by our fighters over Belgium and France have continued. They were made at very low heights and determined attacks were carried out on a variety of opportunity targets, including enemy fighters on the ground, M.T. echelons and A.A. positions.

United Kingdom.

38.

The scale of effort of the German Air Force against Great Britain was again light and the policy of consolidation continued. During daylight some reconnaissance activity was evident, particularly in connection with our shipping and convoys. A few attacks were carried out in the Thames Estuary and also by long-range aircraft operating over the Atlantic. Penetrations inland were mostly by single aircraft and were not numerous, bombs being dropped on various parts of the country without great effect. Our fighters endeavoured on all possible occasions to intercept these raiders, but weather conditions were generally unfavourable and only four enemy aircraft were destroyed, although others sustained serious damage.

39. Night raids by long-range bombers were concentrated on the Bristol, Swansea and Southampton areas, but the scale of operations was not heavy. No attempt at concentrating the attack on successive nights against the same target was evident, and on four nights either no attack was made or the number of aircraft employed was negligible. A.A. fire accounted for seven of the enemy raiders, five of which were destroyed on the night of the attack on Southampton. 40. Fighter Command flew 314 patrols, involving 675 sorties by day and 161 sorties by night. These totals are a considerable decrease on the previous week.

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