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Which 2 MWiF counters were the first British bombers to attack Germany in WWII?

(must identify both aircraft)

first British bombers to attack Germany in WWII

They are Blenheims & Wellingtons.

3 September, the Blenheim of Flying Officer McPherson (N6215) is the first to cross the German border on a reco mission, but it did not attack. 9 Wellingtons & 18 Hampdens also sortied to attack German warships, but made no contacts.

Night of 3/4 September : Whitleys of 51 & 58 Sdq drop leaflets to Hamburg, Bremen and 9 cities on the Ruhr, but this is not an attack neither.

4 September is the real first attack, with 15 Blenheims of Squadron 107 sortied to attack German warships in Wilhelmshaven harbor. The pocket Battleship Admiral Scheer and the Cruiser Emden were hit. One blenheim even crashed on the Emden (I'd say that the Emden took an Abort & failed the save, and the Ad Scheer took an Abort and saved).
14 Wellingtons also attacked ships at Brunsbüttel in the mouth of the Kiel canal with little to no results. Bomb were even dropped on a Danish town of Esbjerg 110 km north of Brunsbüttel killing 2 people there.
30 sorties, 7 aircrafts lost.

All these facts are from Martin Middlebrook & Chris Everitt "the Bomber Command War Diaries" book (ISBN 1-85780-033-8).

heeey 2 in one day??

Give the man another cigar... I shall have to make these more difficult.


The twin 1,050hp engined Vickers Wellington Mk.I entered service with the RAF in October 1938. It carried a 2,000kg bomb load and was armed with four 7.9mm machine guns equally divided between the power operated nose and tail turrets (although this was increased in the Mk.IC by adding a hand operated gun on each beam). Its geodesic “lattice-work” frame was difficult to build but gave the Wellington the ability to absorb immense damage with little effect on performance. On September 4th 1939, nine Wellingtons and ten Blenheims attacked German shipping at Brunsbuttel in the first British bombing attack of the war.

only 76 units to go...