Re: RAF groundcrew numbers.
 

Thanks, SimonE.
The difference between your 14,000 BC aircrew and my 19,000 probably reflects the number in training, mostly in Canada, and not yet part of BC.

And thanks, alieneyes1 for providing the correct date for Nightbombers as being end 1944. The crews were far more relaxed than they would have been a year earlier, since the Luftwaffe had by then been destroyed. But even with no aerial opposition, as has been pointed out on another thread, BC never went back to Berlin with the heavies. Its defeat in 1943 had acted as effective aversion therapy. I wonder then why the chosen subject of Nightbombers was Berlin rather than an actual target. It's disappointing to find the film is not a real but still a fictional depiction reminiscent of the downright untruthful "Target For Tonight". The RAF has always had problems telling the truth even to itself in an internal film for its eyes only.
Tony

Re: RAF groundcrew numbers.
 

Re: 'Nightbombers' - from memory, the briefing segment was filmed in early March 1945 (source: Jones, W. E. 'BOMBER INTELLIGENCE - 103, 150, 166, 170 Squadrons Operations and Techniques '42 - '45': an autobiography by the Intelligence Officer who appears in the film), while the footage of Lancasters shown over the target with flares going down was filmed in B&W over Pforzheim on 23-24 February 1945, being colourised for the Nightbombers movie.

'Nightbombers' was just a movie to document the activities of Bomber Command in colour, no more and no less, and as to the Luftwaffe having been "destroyed," I will simply point out that a couple of weeks before the briefing was filmed, Bomber Command, for example, lost 45 aircraft one night when the Luftwaffe sortied 170 night fighters and claimed 65 bombers shot down, while a few nights after the briefing was filmed Bomber Command would lose another 49 aircraft, with 60 German night fighters being sortied, and then two nights after that another 40 aircraft were lost, with 121 German night fighters being sortied.

With respect, please check facts before issuing generalised statements.


Cheers

Rod

Re: RAF groundcrew numbers.
 

You object to my 'generalised statements' made without checking the facts.
Here are three 'generalised statements' taken randomly from Webster & Frankland, which can surely truthfully be said to imply that the Luftwaffe was destroyed towards the end of 1944;
1. "Thus in the last and utterly crushing Battle of the Ruhr between the beginning of October and the end of December 1944, some 14,254 sorties were despatched, 60,830 tons of bombs were dropped and only 136 bombers failed to return. This was a missing rate of less than one per cent of the despatched sorties". VolIII, page 184.
2. "in February and March it was comparatively easy to pursue the offensive to its logical conclusion, for there was hardly any resistance by the Luftwaffe." Page 235.
3. "Thus, the Allied air fleets, except on rare occasions, had almost complete air ascendency both by day and night...". page 238.

As for Nightbombers, the DVD blurb states this: "In the winter of 1943-44 RAF Bomber Command was sending massive raids almost every night into the heart of Germany. This is the story of one of them, an attack on Berlin, probably the most heavily defended target of them all and one which made terrible demands on the courage of the aircrew....................One must imagine that they were terrified much of the time, but there is very little signs of doubt or anxiety on the brave faces in Iliffe Cozen's film. Although certain scenes had to be re-created for technical reasons, the raid is a real one and there are no actors".
Your information reveals that this blurb is not true, because the film was shot in March 1945, By then, according to Webster & Frankland, the Luftwaffe was putting up "hardly any resistance", so there was no longer any reason why the crews should have been "terrified much of the time".

Nightbombers is unique. It was not filmed for public release, but used internally for training. As such I would have thought it would need to be accurate. I therefore have difficulty understanding your statement that "Nightbombers was just a movie to document the activities of Bomber Command in colour, no more, no less". Are you saying accuracy was unimportant? I would appreciate a fuller explanation of your meaning.

Thank you for the reference to the autobiography
Tony