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[Rods2]

It was a large raid on Nuremberg by 700 bombers with 106 lost mainly through enemy fighter action where it was a clear, cloudless, moonlit night on the journey there and back. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2592084/Still-insult-sacrifice-Exactly-70-years-ago-RAF-suffered-worst-night-losing-106-bombers-545-men-raid-Nuremberg-So-going-unmarked.html

[05omegav6]

Another example of getting the 6 Ps arse backwards 

RIP

[Entwood]

A blatant fund-raising article, typical of the fail ....

I always thought it was a newspapers job to REPORT the news... not to attempt to MAKE it ..

[biggriffin]

this raid went wrong due to bad metrological advice,as the bombers crossed holland they were illuminated by a full moon and clear skys, they asked for an abort but as you can guess the answer, so the night fighters and ack ack had perfectally illuminated targets. hence the outcome.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Yes, this was a particularly bad night for Bomber Command, the worst they suffered, but just part of a costly campaign that overall cost 55,573 members of that Command, and another 80,000 with the US 8th Air Force.

For me it is not one night in isolation that should be remembered. It is the sacrifice overall as part of this total war, when over 50% of bomber air crews never returned out of 110,000 employed by the RAF. That is what we remember, the overall loss to achieve war gains still debated by historians.

This is how the nation can now remember them:

http://www.rafbf.org/1794/bomber-command-memorial.html

[BazaJT]

The memorial to the bomber boys was well overdue.For far too long they have been ignored even vilified for the bombing campaign against Germany.Yes you can argue that some targets should never have been chosen,however tough decisions had to be made and hindsight is a wonderful thing!I think they were heroes all.

[Rods2]

I agree with the benefit of hindsight things would not have been done as they were. There was still the notion of breaking the enemy's morale through bombing where we now know the opposite is true, trauma caused to groups of people, so they have shared bad experiences, brings them closer together so they provide mutual support to each other.

The US daylight bombing was more successful at hitting vital industrial targets but at a very high cost through attrition, until long range escorts were available, especially the Mustang, which was the best fighter of WWII and by the eventual winning of air superiority. The British used wooden wonder, the Mosquito light bomber, for daylight raids where it was fast enough to allude German fighters.

617 squadron should not only be remembered for attacking the dams, but also their precision bombing techniques using Tallboy and Grandslam bombs, which were used to sink the Tirpitz, destroy U-boat pens, and vital bridges, tunnels and other targets in the run up to D-Day.

It was also a tremendous area of technological with Gee and H2S radar and evolving techniques to improve accuracy like the formation of the Pathfinder squadrons.

Until 1943 in Africa and Italy and 1944 in France, this was the only method we had to regularly attack and disrupt the enemy on a daily basis.

Personally, I think a group of people that went into battle like this night after night with a 50%+ attrition rate, deserve the utmost respect and should be remembered and honoured, regardless of any flawed tactics by politicians and their superior officers.