Editing RAF Bomber Command (section)

==Strategic bombing 1942–1945==
{{Main|Strategic bombing during World War II}}
[[File:RAF Master Slave Bombing Photo.jpg|thumb|Photograph taken during a typical RAF night attack with [[Avro Lancaster]]s far below]]
[[File:British WW2 bombers comparison.png|thumb|Diagram comparing the contemporary RAF four-engined heavies: the [[Short Stirling]] (yellow), the [[Avro Lancaster]] (blue) and the [[Handley Page Halifax]] (pink)]]
In 1941, the [[Butt Report]] revealed the extent of bombing inaccuracy: Churchill noted that "this is a very serious paper and seems to require urgent attention".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/raf_bc/ |access-date=2008-07-03 |title=Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command 1939–1945 |last=Davis |first=Rob |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615144021/http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/raf_bc/ |archive-date=15 June 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The [[Area bombing directive|Area Bombing Directive]] of 14 February 1942 ordered Bomber Command to target German industrial areas and the "morale of...the industrial workers". The directive also reversed the order of the previous year instructing Bomber Command to conserve its forces; this resulted in a large campaign of [[area bombardment]] against the Ruhr area. Professor [[Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell|Frederick Lindemann]]'s [[De-housing|"de-housing" paper]] of March identified the expected effectiveness of attacks on residential and general industrial areas of cities. The [[aerial bombing of cities]] such as the [[Operation Millennium]] raid on [[Bombing of Cologne in World War II|Cologne]] continued throughout the rest of the war, culminating in the controversial [[bombing of Dresden]] in 1945.{{sfn|Taylor|2005|pp=277–288}}

[[File:Wesel 1945.jpg|thumb|97 percent of [[Wesel]] was destroyed before it was taken by Allied troops.]]
In 1942, the main workhorse-aircraft of the later part of the war came into service: the four-engined heavies. The [[Handley-Page Halifax|Halifax]] and [[Avro Lancaster|Lancaster]] made up the backbone of the Command; they had a longer range, higher speed and much greater bomb load than earlier aircraft. The older four-engined [[Short Stirling]] and twin-engined [[Vickers Wellington]] bombers were not taken out of service, but moved to less demanding tasks such as mine-laying. The classic aircraft of the Pathfinders, the [[de Havilland Mosquito]], also made its appearance. By 25 July 1943, the Bomber Command headquarters had come to occupy "a substantial set of red brick buildings, hidden in the middle of a forest on top of a hill in the English county of Buckinghamshire".<ref>[http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17724/page5/ Part I: A Failure of Intelligence] Technology Review, 1 November 2006 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302153101/http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17724/page5/ |date=2 March 2012 }}</ref>

An offensive against the [[Rhine-Ruhr]] area ("Happy Valley" to aircrew) began on the night of 5/6 March 1943, with the first raid of the [[Battle of the Ruhr]] on Essen.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.historisches-centrum.de/index.php?id=414 |access-date=2008-07-03 |title=Battle of the Ruhr 1939–1945 |last=Blank |first=Ralf }}</ref><ref name=diary>{{cite Q |Q131336096 |mode=cs1 |access-date=2024-11-27 }}</ref> The bombers [[Bombing of Essen in World War II|destroyed]] {{convert|160|acre|ha}} of the city and hit 53 Krupps buildings. The [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II#Operation Gomorrah|Battle of Hamburg]] in mid-1943 was one of the most successful Bomber Command operations, although Harris' extension of the offensive into the [[Battle of Berlin (air)|Battle of Berlin]] failed to destroy the capital and cost his force more than 1,000 crews in the winter of 1943–44.  In August 1943, [[Bombing of Peenemünde in World War II|Operation Hydra]], the bombing of the [[Peenemünde]] [[V-2 rocket]] facility opened the secondary [[Operation Crossbow]] campaign against long-range weapons.{{sfn|Mets|1997| p=239}}

By April 1944, Harris was forced to reduce his strategic offensive as the bomber force was directed (much to his annoyance) to tactical and [[Transport Plan|transport]] targets in France in support of the [[invasion of Normandy]]. The transport offensive proved highly effective. By late 1944, bombing such as [[Operation Hurricane (1944)|Operation Hurricane]] (to demonstrate the capabilities of the combined British and US bomber forces), competed against the [[Defense of the Reich|German defences]]. Bomber Command was now capable of putting 1,000 aircraft over a target without extraordinary efforts. Within 24 hours of Operation Hurricane, the RAF dropped about {{convert|10,000|t|e6lb|order=flip|abbr=off}} of bombs on [[Bombing of Duisburg in World War II|Duisburg]] and [[Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II|Brunswick]], the greatest bomb load dropped in a day during the Second World War.{{sfn|Prescher|1955|pp=90–91}}

[[Bombing of Wesel in World War II|Wesel]] in the Rhineland, bombed on 16, 17, 18 and 19 February, was bombed again on 23 March, leaving the city "97 percent destroyed".  The last raid on Berlin took place on the night of 21/22 April, when 76 Mosquitos made six attacks just before Soviet forces entered the city centre. By this point, most RAF bombing operations were for the purpose of providing tactical support. The last major strategic raid was the destruction of the oil refinery at [[Vallø (Tønsberg)]] in southern Norway by 107 Lancasters, on the night of 25/26 April 1945.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/31312|title=Vallo-Taneberg oil refinery|publisher=IBCC Digital Archive|access-date=20 November 2024}}</ref>

Once the surrender of Germany had occurred, plans were made to send a "Very Long Range Bomber Force" known as [[Tiger Force (air)|Tiger Force]] to participate in the Pacific war against Japan. Made up of about 30 [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] heavy bomber squadrons, a reduction of the original plan of about 1,000 aircraft, the British bombing component was intended to be based on [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]]. Bomber Command groups were re-organised for [[Operation Downfall]] but the [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria]] and the [[Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] occurred before the force had been transferred to the Pacific.{{sfn|Giangreco|2009|p=xvi}}

In Europe Bomber Command's final operation was to fly released Allied prisoners of war home to Britain in [[Operation Exodus (WWII operation)|Operation Exodus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/archive-exhibitions/freedom-liberty/the-long-trip-home.aspx|title=The long trip home|publisher=RAF Museum|access-date=20 May 2016}}</ref>