Bombs drop from a Lancaster bomber during a daylight operation on Cologne, Germany, 2 March 1945. Two months before Germany's surrender many of these final Bomber Command operations, in daylight with fighter escort, were mounted in support of the ground forces of the advancing British and American armies. In February 1945 Australian newspapers carried many reports of the heavy fighting as the Americans advanced into Germany towards Cologne, and by 1 March they were within 12 kilometres of the city. Ahead of the American assault on Cologne, the first major German conurbation to fall to the western Allies, Bomber Command sent 858 aircraft on 2 March 1945, including twenty-two Lancasters from No. 460 Squadron RAAF and fourteen Halifaxes from No. 466 Squadron RAAF. While bombs were dropped generally in the city centre, the aim was to prevent enemy forces from retreating across the Rhine bridges. It was the 262nd raid which the city had suffered since 12 May 1940, during which time the population of the city had fallen considerably. A local German researcher later wrote of this final raid 'Das war das Ende von Köln' (That was the end of Cologne), and the Americans entered the city four days later. [Middlebrook and Everitt, The Bomber Command war diaries, p. 673; AWM SUK13909]
Copyright expired - public domain