Air Operations, CBI

7th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack the airfield at Myitkyina but it now appears abandoned.

Air Operations, Europe

• Bomber Command sends more that 1,000 bombers to raid Cologne. A total of 1,046 aircraft, 602 Wellingtons, 88 Stirlings, 28 Whitleys, 46 Manchesters, 131 Halifaxes and 79 Hampdens, plus 50 aircraft attacking German fighter bases take off from 52 fields in Britain. Included in the total are 101 planes with Polish crews and 367 bomber/trainers. The operation begins at 10:30p.m. The first to take off are the Stirlings of XV Group from the airfield at Wyton in Huntingdonshire. The bombs start dropping on Cologne just after midnight. This enormous effort has only been made possible by scraping together every plane from operational squadrons and training units. The planes from the training units are flown by pupils and instructors. 898 actually attack Cologne dropping 1,455 tons of bombs, two-thirds of which are incendiaries. The raid is a considerable military and propaganda success. Only 41 of the 1,046 bombers are lost, mostly shot down by German night-fighters. This total includes 29 Wellingtons, 4 Manchesters, 3 Halifaxes, 2 Stirlings, 1 Hampden, 1 Lancaster and 1 Whitley. It is a terrifying experience for the city's inhabitants, hundreds of whom are unable to get out of the cellars. Raging fires devastate the city center, and the whole of Cologne is enveloped in a cloud of dense, acrid smoke. Around 2,500 separate fires are started with 1,700 of them considered major conflagrations. The crews returning home could see Cologne burning from 150 miles away. The damage is tremendous: half the city's power supply is eliminated, 368 industrial plants are hit, 13,000 houses are destroyed, 6,000 seriously damaged and more than 59,000 people are left homeless. 486 people are killed and 5,027 are wounded.
• In support operations, 49 Blenheims and 7 Havocs of Fighter Command attempt to attack German night-fighter fields along the bomber route. No particular success is recorded by these attacks and 2 Blenheims are lost.

  The First 1,000 Bomber Raid by the RAF

  The first 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF was codenamed Operation Millennium, Cologne was chosen as the target and the raid took place on the night of 30/31 May 1942. The Thousand bomber raid was launched for several reasons: It was expected that the devastation from such raids might be enough to knock Germany out of the war or at least severely damage German morale. The raids were useful propaganda for the Allies and particularly for Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, and the concept of a Strategic Bombing Offensive. Bomber Command’s poor performance in bombing accuracy during 1941 had led to calls for the force to be split up and diverted to other urgent theatres i.e. Battle of the Atlantic. A headline-grabbing heavy raid on Germany was a way for Bomber Command AOC Arthur “Bomber” Harris to demonstrate to the War Cabinet that given the investment in numbers and technology Bomber Command could make a vital contribution to victory. At this stage of the war RAF Bomber Command only had a regular front line strength of around 400 aircraft, and were in the process of transitioning from the twin engined medium bombers of the pre-war years to the newer more effective four-engined ‘heavies’. By using bombers and men from Operational Training Units (OTU’s), 250 from RAF Coastal Command and from Flying Training Command, Harris could easily make up the 1,000 aircraft. However, just before the raid took place, the Royal Navy refused to allow the Coastal Command aircraft to take part in the raid. The Admiralty perceived the propaganda justifications too weak an argument against the real and pressing threat of the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. Harris scrambled around and, by crewing 49 more aircraft with pupil pilots and instructors, 1,047 bombers eventually took part in the raid, two and a half times more than any previous raid by the RAF. In addition to the bombers attacking Cologne, 113 other aircraft on “Intruder” raids harassed German night-fighter airfields. Cologne was not the first choice of target – that was Hamburg – but poor weather shifted the choice to Cologne, the secondary target.

• Prior to this historic raid, Air Marshal Harris sends a message to all Bomber Command stations: 'Press home your attack. . . with the utmost determination. . . if you individually succeed the most shattering and devastating blow will have been delivered against the very vitals of the enemy. Let him have it - right on the chin!'
• Hermann Göring noted in his diary about the bombing of Cologne: 'Of course, the effects of aerial warfare are terrible if one looks at individual cases. But we have to accept them.'

Aftermath of the 1,000 Bomber Raid

Battle of the Atlantic

The unarmed US freighter Alcoa Shipper (5491t), en route to New York from Trinidad, is torpedoed and sunk by U-404 losing three men in the initial explosion. The ship sinks so fast there is no time to launch lifeboats with four more of the crew going down with the ship. There are 25 survivors.

Eastern Front

Special announcement from Hitler's HQ claims the great battle around Kharkov is ended and that the German and Axis forces had transformed their defense against a strong enemy into a proud victory of annihilation and that the Luftwaffe has driven the enemy out of the air.

The Germans counterattack along the Volkhov, isolating the 2nd Shock Army. Vlassov's men have been fighting in virtual encirclement for nearly three months. 9 divisions and 6 brigades have been cut off, all short of food and ammunition. Repeated attacks by the 59th and 52nd Armies fail to break through and create an escape corridor for the 2nd Shock.

Indian Ocean

(29th?)During the night Japanese midget submarines torpedo the battleship Ramillies and a tanker in Diego Suarez harbor, Madagascar.

North Africa

Rommel gives up the idea of advancing northward and pulls all his tanks back into the 'Cauldron' - a tight defensive semicircle backing on to the minefields in an area south of Sidi Muftah and west of Bir el Harmat, thus turning the flanks of the British minefields. At the same time he works to eliminate 150th Brigade and free his supply lines. He also expects the 8th Army to counterattack at any moment, but the attack does not come. RAF activity increases. The German Gen Ludwig Crüwell, in command of the Italian infantry in the Gazala area, is taken prisoner.

Gen Ritchie decides to counterattack the next day, but at the request of his commanders in the field, postpones the attack for 24 hours. The 1st Arm Brigade, which has just arrived in Libya, is sent to plug the gaps.[MORE]

Pacific

• Rear-Adm Fletcher's command leaves Pearl Harbor for Midway to prepare a trap for the Japanese fleet.
• A second Japanese squadron, with 2 aircraft carriers, 2 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 3 transports, sails from Japan for the Aleutians. The task here will be to land small contingents of troops there and to be a diversion to draw the Americans off from Midway and attract them into Arctic waters.
• 4 Japanese submarines arrive to patrol off Pearl Harbor but too late to intercept the American carriers. 2 more carry supplies to the French Frigate Shoals to help set up a seaplane base to supplement the Japanese reconnaissance but they find the Americans there first.
• The US submarine Pompano (SS-181) sinks the Japanese army transport Atsuta Maru (8523t) in the East China Sea east of Okinawa and survives a counterattack by the victim's escort.

Soviet Union, Home Front

The Central Staff of the USSR Partisan Movement is set up in Moscow to direct partisan operations behind German lines.