The first 1,000-bomber air raid strikes Cologne
On this day · 30 May 1942
On the night of May 30, 1942, the RAF scraped together more than a thousand aircraft to overwhelm a single German city in 90 minutes.
On the night of May 30–31, 1942, RAF Bomber Command launched Operation Millennium, the first raid in which more than 1,000 aircraft attacked a single target. Its chief, Air Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris, had only about 400 front-line bombers to hand, so he pressed training and second-line crews into service to reach the symbolic figure. Roughly 1,047 bombers set out for Cologne, on the Rhine.
The raid introduced the “bomber stream”: a dense, timed procession funneled along one route to swamp German radar and night-fighter defenses, a tactic that shaped Bomber Command operations for years.
All the aircraft passed over the city inside a single 90-minute window.
Thousands of fires gutted homes, factories and offices, leaving tens of thousands homeless. The RAF lost 41 aircraft, about 3.9% of the force—heavy, but judged acceptable for a operation meant as much for propaganda and morale as for destruction.
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