Operation Hurricane was a 24-hour bombing operation to "demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre" (in the directive to Harris ACO
RAF Bomber Command)
[Bishop p. 334.] and "cause mass panic and
in the Ruhr, disrupt frontline communications and demonstrate the futility of resistance" (in the words of the Official RAF History).
[
During the day of 14 October 1944, 957 RAF Bomber Command aircraft dropped of high explosive and of incendiaries on ]Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
.[ Also during the day, USAAF ]VIII Bomber Command
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of ...
Mission 677 made PFF attacks on Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
marshaling yards at Gereon
Saint Gereon of Cologne (french: Géréon), who may have been a soldier, was martyred at Cologne by beheading, probably in the early 4th century.
History
According to the Roman Martyrology, "In Cologne in Germany, the Saints Gereon and his compa ...
, Gremberg, and Eifelter; as well as Euskirchen
Euskirchen (; Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted to ...
.[McKillop October 1944] A second RAF raid on Duisburg during the night of in two waves about two hours apart dropped a further 4,040 tonnes of high explosive and 500 tonnes of incendiaries. In some cases RAF crews flew both the daylight and night-time raids; a total of nearly eleven hours flying time in During the same night the RAF also bombed Brunswick ( de , Braunschweig), destroying the town centre.
Nearly fifty Mosquitos carried out nuisance raids and from No. 100 Group targeted German night fighter
A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...
operations.
In RAF Bomber Command had flown losing dropping approximately of bombs and killing over in Duisburg alone.
Notes
References
* Bishop, Patrick (2007). ''Bomber Boys: Fighting back 1940 — 1945'', Harper Press, 2007,
* McKillop, Jack.
U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II
Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection of the United States
!--Retrieved 2009-04-02-->
* Staff
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurricane, Operation
1944 in Germany
World War II strategic bombing of Germany
Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom
Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United States