Wreckage of U-Boats—German submarines—under construction at the Blohm and Voss yards in Hamburg, photographed on 5 May 1945, the day after all enemy forces in north-western Germany and Denmark had surrendered to General Bernard Montgomery. Towards the end of the war highly technologically advanced German submarines, such as the Type XXI, were under construction, which led to raids on yards like Blohm and Voss. On 8 March 1945, 312 bombers, which included eleven Halifaxes from No. 466 Squadron RAAF, attacked the yards, but the bombing was not accurate enough to do much damage. On 25 March, 496 bombers returned to Blohm and Voss, among them thirteen Lancasters from No. 460 Squadron RAAF. The target was cloud covered and bomb damage was spread across a wide area of south Hamburg. A final operation against the U-Boats took place on 8–9 April, the last raid on Hamburg in the war, when twelve Halifaxes of No. 466 Squadron flew there in a force of 440 bombers. Cloud again covered the target, but it is thought that some bombs hit Blohm and Voss. No. 466 Squadron suffered its last loss of the war over enemy territory that night, when the Halifax piloted by RAAF Pilot Officer 'Rusty' Forrest was shot down by a German night fighter. Forrest and his navigator, RAF Sergeant 'Bert' Frankal, died but the rest of the crew survived. [AWM UK2847]
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