[Horst Weber]

Good afternoon DIRKIO !

Since I made the same researches for a specific region in Germany some years ago, I hope I can give you some advices (you may probably know them anyway).
Very good sources are:
- The Bomber Command War Diaries by Martin Middlebrook and C. Everitt
- The Mighty Eight War Diary by Roger A. Freeman
- Air War Europa Chronology by Eric Hammel
These books are day-by-day accounts of the RAF Bomber Command, 8th (U.S.) Air Force and the last book includes aditionnally the operations of the 15th AF and the "little" Air Forces like 9th AF and 12th AF in Western Europe and the Mediteranian.

The first books give a day by day account, including target, no. of operational a/c for the mission, the number of losses and the bomb-tonnage. Those books are very good primary sources, to start researches to a specific area.

The eight books "RAF Bomber COMMAND LOSSES" by Bill Chorley are a very good source, to exclude (or include) a/c crashes in the area of interest at days, when BC bombed Mannheim. Unfortunately, such a comlete work in book-form for the 8th AF as well as for the 9th and eventually for the 12th AF is not available (as my knowledge).

A very good aid are the "Kriegstagebuch Luftgaukomando VII", There are a number of issues existing of KTB VII, München, in BA-MA in Freiburg. The LGK VII covered the Mannheim area from 1937 up to September 1944. Then the responsibilities went over to LGK V, Stuttgart. Those sources, together with (eventually) still existing Luftgau-Nachrichtenregiment-KTB's for the area in question are extremely helpful.

Hope this helps !

Horst Weber