wuzak
Captain
The Official History of the RAAF describes which of its squadrons (460, 462, 463, 466 and 467) participated on which raids in the Oil Campaign in this chapter:
http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1070709--1-.PDF
This section caught my attention:
Apart from these main-force attacks, Mosquito aircraft of the Path-finder Group made six small-scale raids in June 1944. Four of these attacks, totalling only 80 sorties, were against the Scholven-Buer installations, while the other two, totalling 82 sorties, were directed to the Meerbeck works of Rheinpreussen, a typical Fischer-Tropsch plant about three miles north-west of Homberg . For the comparative outlay these small raids were far more effective than the main efforts, especially against the "thin-skinned" Fischer-Tropsch target. This was the result of the superior tactical freedom of the Mosquito in bad weather and also because each aircraft could be controlled by Oboe, and thus even when bombing blind a greater theoretical concentration of bomb pattern was possible. Only two R.A.A.F. pilots, Flight Lieutenant Molony of No. 105 and Flight Lieutenant Grant of No. 109, both experienced second tour men, have been identified in the first two attacks against Meerbeck, but, as this plant will henceforth be used as the yardstick of Bomber Command efficiency against this type of target, the raids warrant some analysis.
Meerbeck occupied an area of about 100 acres of which one-third was occupied by essential process structures and the remainder open ground, transport and supply facilities. It was defended in June by nearly 100 guns, was well camouflaged and had a decoy plant about three miles away. Previously the main plant had never been bombed but the decoy plant had been successful on several occasions in attracting bombs during raids in the Homberg area . On 25th-26th June, however, the Mosquitos did hit the main works although, of 44 tons of bombs dropped, only a ton and a half fell inside the plant perimeter. Even so the sulphide-removal sections, gas-holder, cracking section and many pipe-lines were damaged. This raid alone cut the daily production at Meerbeck of 175 tons by two-thirds. The second raid on 30th June-1st July employed heavier individual bombs, but of 55 tons dropped only six and a half fell on the plant. This was sufficient to cause severe damage to gas-holders and a compressed-air main which put the whole installation temporarily out of action.
These show low success rates of hitting the target (3.4% on the first raid and 11.8% on the second). From teh account it seems that the first raid was probably with 500lb bombs - meaning that 6 bombs hit (assuming short tons), whereas the second raid is likely to have used either 4000lb or 1000lb bombs, or a combination. If it were 1000lb bombs that would be 13 hits from 55 aircraft whch knocked the plant out.