Attacks on the Dortmund-Ems-Canal

[FrankieS]

28 September 1942 6 Wellingtons to Lingen, on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Only 1 aircraft bombed ships, but
missed. 1 Wellington lost.

22 October 1942 22 Wellingtons on cloud-cover raids to Essen, the Ruhr and the Dortmund-Ems Canal at
Lingen. 13 aircraft bombed estimated positions through cloud. One of the Wellington's came down low and machine-gunned a train near Lingen, setting some of the carriages alight. No
aircraft were lost.

14/15 September 1943 8 Lancasters of 617 Squadron set out with the new 12,000lb bomb (not the 12,000lb Tallboy
'earthquake' bomb developed later) to attack the banks of the Dortmund-Ems Canal near
Ladbergen. While the force was over the North Sea, however, a weather reconnaissance
Mosquito reported that there was fog in the target area and the Lancasters were recalled.

15/16 September 1943 8 Lancasters of 617 Squadron took off to carry out the postponed raid on the Dortmund-Ems
Canal but the area was misty and 5 aircraft were lost, including those of Pilot Officer LG
Knight, another of the Dams Raid survivors, and the new squadron commander, Squadron
Leader G Holden. These heavy losses, and the losses of the Dams Raid, confirmed that
low-level attacks on German targets, even when away from major defended areas, were not
viable with heavy bombers and this type of operation was not repeated

9/10 August 1944 16 Mosquitos minelaying in
the Dortmund-Ems Canal.

23/24 September 1944 136 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitos of No 5 Group to bomb the banks of the 2 parallel branches
of the Dortmund-Ems canal at a point near Ladbergen, north of Münster, where the level of the
canal water was well above the level of the surrounding land. Despite the presence of 7/10ths
cloud in the target area, breaches were made in the banks of both branches of the canal and a
6-mile stretch of it was drained. Most of this damage was caused by 2 direct hits by 12,000lb
Tallboy bombs dropped by aircraft of No 617 Squadron at the opening of the raid. 14
Lancasters - more than 10 per cent of the Lancaster force - were lost.

4/5 November 1944 Dortmund-Ems Canal: 174 Lancasters and 2 Mosquitos of No 5 Group. 3 Lancasters lost. The
Germans had partly repaired the section of the canal north of Münster after the No 5 Group
raid in September, so this further attack was required. The banks of both branches of the
canal were again breached and water drained off, leaving barges stranded and the canal
unusable. A report from Speer to Hitler, dated 11 November 1944, was captured at the end of
the war and described how the bombing of the canal was preventing smelting coke from the
Ruhr mines reaching 3 important steelworks - 2 near Brunswick and 1 at Osnabrück. In his
post-war interrogation, Speer stated that these raids on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, together
with attacks on the German railway system, produced more serious setbacks to the German
war industry at this time than any other type of bombing.

6/7 November 1944 235 Lancasters and 7 Mosquitos of No 5 Group attempted to cut the Mittelland Canal at its
junction with the Dortmund-Ems Canal at Gravenhorst. The marking force experienced great
difficulty in finding the target. The crew of a low-flying Mosquito - pilot: Flight Lieutenant LCE
De Vigne; navigator: Australian Squadron Leader FW Boyle, No 627 Squadron - found the
canal and dropped their marker with such accuracy that it fell into the water and was
extinguished. Only 31 aircraft bombed, before the Master Bomber ordered the raid to be
abandoned. 10 Lancasters were lost.


21/22 November 1944 This was a night of mainly good visibility in which Bomber Command operations were
directed strictly according to priorities given in recent directives. Dortmund-Ems Canal: 123 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitos of No 5 Group. No aircraft lost. The
canal near Ladbergen was attacked, some of the Lancasters coming down to 4,000ft to get
beneath the cloud. A breach was made in the only branch of the aqueduct here which had
been repaired since the last raid and the water once again drained out of the canal.

7/8 February 1945 177 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitos of No 5 Group attacked the Dortmund-Ems Canal section
near Ladbergen with delayed-action bombs. Later photographs showed that the banks had
not been damaged; the bombs had fallen into nearby fields. 3 Lancasters were lost.

3/4 March 1945 212 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitos of No 5 Group attacked the Ladbergen aqueduct on the
Dortmund-Ems Canal, breached it in 2 places and put it completely out of action. 7 Lancasters
lost.