**This topic is under investigation, information is welcome!**
The planned mission for this night was a blind bombing attack on Essen.
During World War II, the industrial town of Essen, was a target of Allied strategic bombing. The Krupp factory was an important industrial target, Essen was a “primary target” designated for area bombing by the February 1942 British Area bombing directive. As part of the campaign in 1943 known as the Battle of the Ruhr, Essen was a regular target. The Germans built large-scale night-time decoys like the Krupp decoy site (German: Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage) which was a copy of the Krupp steel works in Essen. During World War II, it was designed to divert Allied airstrikes from the actual production site of the arms factory. In the period 1939 to 1945 the Royal Air Force (RAF) dropped a total of 36,429 long tons of bombs on Essen. (Source Wikipedia)
The mission details from the 100 Squadron Operational Record Books are saying the following:
“May 27/28th. For a blind bombing attack on Essen, 22 crew detailed. The was considerable doubt as to what cloud cover would be found over the Ruhr, and in the event , it proved wise to lay on sky-marking as no crews observed any ground detail, and though the cloud was thin in layers, it would probably have spoilt ground marking. Photographs showed fire tracks through cloud in some cases. Flak was moderate to intense, but fighters very active, and eight were seen, though no combats took place. Our a/c were on in the third, ninth and tenth waves of 50 or so a/c each, and the general impression was that something was burning very well. For sky-marking the results, short of absolute proof, seemed good.
Detailed 22; took off 22; primary 20; abortive 1; missing 1; HE dropped 35 tons; incendiaries 34 tons;”
Detail from the 100 Squadron Operational Record Books about the mission that the ED821 and all others planes flew that night.
Detail from the 100 Squadron Operational Record Books about the crews details of the ED821 