227 Lancaster's and 8 Mosquitoes of 1 and 8 groups.
The target was the railway yards; these were bombed but the surrounding built up area also suffered severely in what was virtually and area attack.
This was the only major Bomber Command raid of the war on Hildesheim and the post-war British survey found that 263 acres, 70 per cent of the town had been destroyed. The local report states that the inner town suffered the most damage. The Cathedral, most of the churches and many historic buildings were destroyed.
A total of 3,302 blocks of flats (containing more that 10,000 apartments) were destroyed of seriously damaged.
Reasons of lost were unknown. Only W/O Reed was buried in the Hooton War Cemetery, rest of crew rest in the Rheinberg War Cemetery
