1000 bomber raid Cologne - bomb damage assessment?

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wokelly
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1000 bomber raid Cologne - bomb damage assessment?

Post by wokelly »

Hi all. I'm looking for any information on the distribution of bomb damage done to Cologne after the 1000 bomber raid of May 1942. I have a hobby channel where I've been animating RAF bombing raids, and generally I've been able to find enough info in the night bombing reports to plot the general progress of the bombing for the Ruhr battles in 1943 (example here https://youtu.be/36zEfZCXfQQ?t=163)

The Cologne raid which I'm doing a video on however is however proving challenging. The Night Bombing report for the Cologne raid(via lancasterbomber.net) has some verbal descriptions of the scale of the damage (600 acres destroyed, 60% of bombs/incendiaries spread "more or less evenly" over an area 3 miles radius from the "Neuarkt" (central aiming point)), but no plotting of aerial photos or anything to indicate concentrations. There is some other stuff I have found in contemporary articles which state some particular ares of devastation were around the Cathedral. On the whole though pretty much everything I have found is verbal in nature, which leaves it up to the imagination to guess where the damage was done. That makes it tricky to animate without making some big assumptions.

Does anyone know of, or possess, any resources that illustrate the actual concentration of damage or areas affected? I've seen RAF bombing maps floating around online showing burnt down or uninhabitable parts of cities after raids, but I've found nothing like that for Cologne in the aftermath of the May 1942 raid.
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