At the end of an hours attack great fires were blazing in the refinery area and could be seen by the last of the raiding crews for 20 minutes" after they turned on their 500-mile fight back. Dresden itself was bombed for the first time, the attacks lasting from 9.15 until nearly 11 pin. water and electricity installations were bombed and large fré& started on one of the city's main railway junctions. The raiders which flew to the north-east of Germany were hampered by a cloud and intense darkness. A large railway junction near Danzig was definitely identified and attacked.
Operations over north-west Germany included a prolonged attack by a strong force of heavy bombers on an important oil refinery at Gelsenkitchen. The raid began at 3.15 a.m. and lasted unti] shortly after 5 p.m. The refinery was hit repeatedly. One pilot reported 19 separate explosion following a stick of heavy calibre bombs which fell across the target. Other aircraft attacked a dockside and oil storage tanks at Bremen and started a large fire on the wharves at the Rhine port of Duisburgruhrort.
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