As I mentioned in an earlier post when my father went missing my mother kept a diary. In it she recorded what was happening to her in and around Grantham and also news of the war. After listening to the B.B.C. she would note what raids had taken place and the total of aircraft losses. What intrigues me is how accurate these reports are when compared with the listings in Middelbrook's and Everitt's "The Bomber Command War Diaries." It seems odd to me that the B.B.C. would do this. Reporting heavy losses I would have thought been a detriment to civilian moral and also a great help to the enemy in accessing his tactics. Listed below are some examples and also "The Bomber Command War Diaries" recordings of losses. Friday, November 19th 1943 Our planes bombed Berlin and Ludwigshaven - we lost thirty-two. According to radio the biggest force ever sent. BCWD 32 aircraft lost. Saturday, November 20th 1943 Our bombers raided Leverkeusen north of Cologne - lost five. BCWD 4 Halifaxes and 1 Stirling lost. Tuesday November 23rd 1943 Berlin received its heaviest raid of the war last night; we lost twenty-six aircraft. BCWD 26 aircraft lost. Wednesday November 24th 1943 Berlin raided again. Twenty aircraft lost. BCWD 20 Aircraft all Lancasters lost. Thursday November 25th Mosquitoes attacked Berlin, one lost. BCWD 1 Mosquito lost. Friday December 3rd 1943 Vic would have been thirty-three today. Went along to see Shirley again, I’m afraid she will be many years getting over the shock. Our planes raided Berlin - forty-one lost - more sorrow for someone. BCWD records losses at 40 Saturday December 4th 1943 Our bombes raided Leipzig - twenty-three lost. BCWD reports losses of 24. And so it goes on. I find it amazing just how accurate the reports given out by the B.B.C. just a few hours after the raids. I have edited each of my mothers diary entries taking out the parts that are not pertinent to the point I am making. Eventually she reaches a point after D Day where air activity is so intense she is unable to keep up. Monday July 24th 1944 Practically an impossibility to give you reports of air activities as bomber command carries out both day and night offensives. Chief targets at present are the flying bomb sites.
There were several reasons why it was deemed appropriate to admit ones losses as accuratelly as possible. It was found that during the BoB, the Americans started querying the claims made by the RAF, especially as they contradicted the German's admitted losses. Though this was dismissed by the British, it did lead to them becoming more stringent in condirming the claims. This in turn lead to them also admitting their own losses, especially when they went on the offensive over Europe, where in many cases the evidence of crashes were evident anyway. Another reasons was that so men disappearing, and not contacting their loved ones would caused a social stir, and would have been picked up by the newspapers (which had a remarkable degree of freedom on what they reported). So the casualties had to be accounted for. So, I think by the last two years of the war, most losses were admitted, except on special missions.
Here is a photo of the BoB kill/loss reports from Aug 1940 Kyt was right that there were changes made after the "morale" based reports of the BoB. I recall also that the change was pushed for by the flyers and the growing accountability by the integration of the US forces.
