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3

General Review.

AIR SITUATION.

34. In the Metropolitan area our operations as well as those of the enemy were on a small scale because of bad weather.

In Africa, our aircraft again co-operated very closely with our ground forces and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.

The enemy made a heavy attack on Malta.

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

Germany and Occupied Territory.

35. Weather conditions were again unfavourable. Bomber Command flew 38 sorties by day and 187 by night (155 on the 4th/5th) and Coastal Command 19 by day and 25 by night.

36. Five offensive day patrols were carried out over France and Belgium by our fighters, which sometimes escorted formations of bombers. Attacks were made on several objectives including docks and shipping at Boulogne. Several enemy aircraft were encountered, five of which were destroyed and one damaged. Our losses were ten aircraft destroyed or missing. Daylight attacks on enemy aerodromes included a very successful attack on St. Omer.

37. The naval dockyard at Brest was attacked on four successive nights. The attack on the night of the 4th/5th February by 24 Wellingtons was particularly heavy, 23 tons of high explosive bombs and 600 incendiaries being dropped; results could not be accurately observed. Other targets attacked on the 4th/5th included the docks at Cherbourg, where several direct hits were scored on shipping and on the shipbuilding yard, the Merignac aerodrome near Bordeaux where bombs fell near the hangars, and the industrial area of Dusseldorf on which 24 Wellingtons dropped 17 tons of bombs and 1,600 incendiaries. Several aerodromes in occupied territory and the Channel ports were also effectively bombed during the week.

United Kingdom.

38. The enemy was more active by day than he was in the previous week. Most of the aircraft were engaged on coastal reconnaissances, but others, taking advantage of low cloud conditions, flew inland and bombed places in the London area, in the Home Counties and in East Anglia. On five nights there was little or no enemy activity, but on the nights of the 4th/5th and 5th/6th February there were attacks by about 100 and by about 60 enemy aircraft respectively, the former not being directed against any particular area and the latter against South-East England. Fighter Command flew 404 patrols involving 1,385 sorties by day and 88 patrols involving 95 sorties by night; nine enemy aircraft were destroyed by day, and one at night.

Coastal Reconnaissance, Patrols and Minelaying.

39. The activities of the Coastal Command were again restricted because of adverse weather conditions, but 164 patrols involving 376 sorties were flown including 221 convoy escorts. A number of photographic reconnaissances of several ports extending from Bergen to Bordeaux were also flown. Our aircraft successfully laid mines off St. Nazaire, Lorient and Brest.

40. There was hardly any minelaying by enemy aircraft on the first five nights of the week, but on the remaining nights they were unusually active, 176 aircraft being engaged. Enemy coastal activity was again relatively small, but the long-range unit maintained operations over the Atlantic.

Egypt and Libya.

41. Our bomber aircraft have continued to carry out heavy attacks on enemy aerodromes, especially at Barce and Castel Benito (Tripoli), on which 10 tons and 12 tons of bombs were dropped respectively. Considerable damage was done

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