The

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

strategic bombing campaign against Germany was waged by

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

for five years. The vast majority of these sorties were flown at night. After suffering heavy losses attempting daylight bombing raids over the Heligoland islands in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and over

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

during the first half of 1940, Bomber Command had largely withdrawn its aircraft from daylight attacks. Bomber Command, however, was still willing to risk aircraft to attack targets in daylight on occasion. These were usually targets that required highly precise delivery of bombs, such as warships or small factories. Industries located in occupied territories were another group of targets that required a high degree of accuracy when attacked to avoid casualties among the civilians of the occupied country. In addition, after winning the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Britai ...

went over onto the offensive. Fighter Command conducted provocative missions in what they termed the "Circus" operations. These missions were various fighter sweeps over northern France and Belgium conducted to engage the Luftwaffe. The Ramrod type raid was a Circus offensive operation where a small number of bombers were escorted to a target with a very large fighter escort. Bomber Command supported the effort by assigning

No. 2 Group No. 2 Group is a Group (military aviation unit)#United Kingdom, group of the Royal Air Force which was first activated in 1918, served from 1918–20, from 1936 through the Second World War to 1947, from 1948 to 1958, from 1993 to 1996, was react ...

to work with Fighter Command. No. 2 Group squadrons were equipped with faster, more manoeuvrable

medium bomber A medium bomber is a military bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft designed to operate with medium-sized Aerial bomb, bombloads over medium Range (aeronautics), range distances; the name serves to distinguish this type from larger heavy bombe ...

s, and as a group it was set apart for conducting daylight raids against near targets. Except for occasional diversionary efforts, No. 2 Group did not participate in the Bomber Offensive over Germany.

Missions

After the Allied invasion of the continent Allied control of the airspace over Europe was widespread, and daylight raids became much more common for Bomber Command crews. These later missions are not included in the above list.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Air Force daylight raids, 1940-1944 Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom