I wonder if you could help me find out what type of German Bombers were used to bomb Hinckley in Leicestershire on the night of 16th May 1941 and early hours of 17th May 1941.
The research I have done so far has unearthed that a large German formation was heading towards Birmingham, but some of the bombers had a navigation issue which led them to bomb Nuneaton, I am presuming that Hinckley was bombed as a result of just getting rid of some bombs (
any way of confirming this?) that had not been used as the bombs landed on housing.
I am guessing that the bombers assigned to ‘Luftflotte 3’ would have flown from The Netherlands, as Belgium and Northern France seem to me too far away to bomb Birmingham.
The questions I have are:
- What bombers were used?
- What squadron would they be from?
- Where did they fly from on 16th May 1941?, the time would be great?
- How many bombers would have been on this raid?
- What flight path would they have used to fly to Birmingham? Some of the bombers got the navigation wrong and ended up bombing Nuneaton.
- Would there have been any fighters (bf109, bf110) escorting them and how far would they escort them to?
- Is it common practice to get rid of any remaining bombs? And why would they have any spare bombs.
Sorry about all the questions, I suppose if the flights were logged it would answer some of the questions.