Re: making a Documentary about Falmouth bombing, Help!
There was a display about the raid (mainly photos IIRC) at the Pendennis Castle museum when I visited a couple of years ago.
The Falmouth raid wasn't the last attack on England but it was the last in the "Operation Steinbock" series, when the targets switched to ports where the Invasion forces were assembling. 104 bombers raided Portsmouth on 22/23 May 1944, losing ten. Five nights later, a smaller operation was mounted against Weymouth and to mine the adjacent waters; on the 28/29th a similar attack was made against Torquay while the next night’s target was Falmouth with a diversionary assault on Portsmouth.
Ulf Balke, "Der Luftkrieg in Europa, die Operativen Einsätze des Kampfgeschwaders 2 im zweiten Weltkrieg: Teil 2)" (Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz, Germany, 1990) ISBN 3-7637-5884-4 says that 51 aircraft were dispatched; 30 bombed Falmouth with just under 30 metric tons of bombs; 2 bombed St Austell (secondary target); the rest sowed BM 1000 sea mines off the port. Damage was done at Silley, Cox & Co.; in the docks; and the oil installation, where tanks No. 28 & 31 were burned out.
Last edited by Nick Beale; 14th December 2010 at 10:04.
Reason: typo
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