Intruder Operations....

[Lucky13]

In the RAF Bomber Command Diaries book, I've read that the Handley Page Hampden, was sometimes used for intruder operations, which I didn't know, also to fight off any Luftwaffe intruders...
How successful was, if it was successful, the Hampden at these missions?

 

[mhuxt]

I didn't know Hampdens had been on Intruder Ops - learn something new every day...

 

[Lucky13]

True indeed!

 

[Lucky13]

Also noticed that the Hampdens were used for.....hang on....searchlight suppression, which is another new one for me!

 

[Airframes]

I'm thinking the 'Intruder' ops must have been early ops - perhaps not 'true' Intruder operations as they became to be thought of. Certainly, they were used for early 'Gardening' ops, sowing mines in estuaries, and inland water ways and canals.

 

[davebender]

Couldn't have been too busy after June 1941. Luftwaffe intruders over Britain didn't amount to a hill of beans after Operation Barbarossa began.

 

[rochie]

interestingly Guy Gibson says they thought of themselves as pure fighters when returning from a bombing mission whilst flying a Hampden !

 

[mhuxt]

interestingly Guy Gibson says they thought of themselves as pure fighters when returning from a bombing mission whilst flying a Hampden !

He also spent some time on a night-fighter squadron, 29 I think, can't remember if Beaus or Blenheims. He ended up with three kills, so I suppose it was Beaufighters.

 

[Airframes]

Yep, it was Beaus- got a pic of his aircraft somewhere.
And by June '41, the Hampden was certainly showing it's weaknesses as a bomber, never mind a night fighter, and there were better night fighters around to take care of intruders, which, even after Barbarossa, continued to bomb Britain throughout WW2.

 

[mhuxt]

Cheers, thanks for that.

I suppose there must have been some kind of bureaucratic wrestling match over who was responsible for Intruders, BC or FC. There were certainly some Fighter Command Hurris over the continent looking for trouble from very early days, quite successfully in some cases. I believe Karel Kuttelwascher got most (all?) his kills in a black-painted Hurri.

 

[Lucky13]

As it says in the book, dropping bombs close to the searlights and use the machineguns....

 

[Lucky13]

15/16 March 1942,

3 Blenheims on intruder flights to Dutch airfields. Schiphol airfield was attacked. No losses...

 

[Maximowitz]

Couldn't have been too busy after June 1941. Luftwaffe intruders over Britain didn't amount to a hill of beans after Operation Barbarossa began.

Or before. Despite the best efforts of NJG2.

 

[davebender]

From fall 1940 through May 1941 Germany conducted large scale night attacks on Port of London and Port of Liverpool. That sort of precludes the need for night intruder operations.

 

[mhuxt]

Au contraire, mon vieux. The presence of large numbers of bombers either taking off heavily laden with bombs and fuel, or returning to base with tired crews, is an Intruder's dream. The LW's (Hitler's?) failure to exploit those opportunities against Bomber Command is yet another great stuff-up.

 

[davebender]

Bombers taking off don't matter if they aren't hitting anything of importance and RAF Bomber Command wasn't during the first half of WWII. So Germany decided their light bombers could do more good on the Russian front. If RAF Bomber Command had been inflicting more damage the German decision might have been different.

 

[mhuxt]

Bombers taking off don't matter if they aren't hitting anything of importance and RAF Bomber Command wasn't during the first half of WWII. So Germany decided their light bombers could do more good on the Russian front. If RAF Bomber Command had been inflicting more damage the German decision might have been different.

I was speaking in terms of RAF intruders over LW fields during the night blitz.

 

[Lucky13]

Again....

25/26 June 1942;

56 aircraft of No. 2 Group - 31 Blenheims, 21 Bostons and 4 Mosquitoes - were dispatched to attack and harrass 13 German airfields. 15 of the Blenheims were lent by Army Co-Operation Command and were operating under Bomber Command orders. The Boston and Mosquito sorties were the first Intruder flights by those aircraft types. Most of the Intruders bombed or machine-gunned the airfields to which they were allocated but there were no encounters with German aircraft. 2 of the Army Co-Operation Blenheims, attacking St. Trond and Venlo airfields, were lost.

Target on the night of 25/26 of June was Bremen.

 

[Lucky13]

More....

23/24 July 1942;

Target; Duisburg

8 Blenheims as Intruders, 2 lost.

Same again on the 25/26 July...

21 Blenheims as Intruders, 3 lost.

 

[Juha]

From fall 1940 through May 1941 Germany conducted large scale night attacks on Port of London and Port of Liverpool. That sort of precludes the need for night intruder operations.

Port of London? Simply London is more truthful description of the area hit by many LW attacks during that period.