RAF Bombing of Berlin: British Bombers Break-Up Nazi Broadcast

On the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s ascension to power, January 30, 1943, the British Royal Air Force sent three twin-engine bombers on the RAF’s first ever daylight bombing raid over Berlin, with the intention of disrupting Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering’s pep talk to a war-weary German public.

At 11:00 in the morning, when Goering was scheduled to address a parade from the Air Ministry Building, three de Havilland Mosquito bombers, known affectionately by the Brits as the Mossy or the Wooden Wonder, flew a daring, low-altitude bombing raid over Central Berlin, prompting one eyewitness to later report that Goering was “boiling with rage and humiliation,” since the successful mission completely discredited Goering’s claim to the German people that enemy aircraft would never fly over the Reich.

To further the hurt, during the afternoon of the same day, three more Mosquito bombers from the 139th Squadron bombed Berlin’s largest indoor sports arena where Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was scheduled to address the day-long celebration of the Nazi’s rise to power. Of the six Mossies flying over Germany that day, 105th Squadron leader D.F. Darling and his navigator William Wright were shot down near Altengrabow, Germany, taking the lives of both brave men.

After the humiliating attacks, Goering would say:

“It makes me furious when I see the mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminum better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again.”