WW2 RAF Nickel Raids

The Early War Raids by the RAF

Whitley Bomber, Image via Wikipedia Public Domain

In the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Air Force launched several raids against Germany to drop leaflets over German Cities in an attempt to urge the German population to abandon the war.

The code name for these operations was “Nickel”.

These operations were carried out by RAF Bomber Command and were basically the first of many offensive operations they carried out. These “Nickel” operations were far from easy. The aircrews had to endure the harsh winter conditions on operations that had little strategic affect on the war, but provided important insights in the total inaccuracy of the navigation ability of RAF crews in the beginning of the war.

RAF Ground crew loading leaflets into a Whitley Bomber. image via Wikipedia Public Domain

First Nickel raid 2/3 September 1939

In the night of 2/3 September a total of 5.4 million leaflets were dropped by Armstrong Whitworth Whitley aircraft from 51 and 58 RAF squadrons over Hamburg, Bremen and the Ruhr Area. By the end of September, the RAF had dropped around 18 million leaflets over Germany.

In the night of 12/13 January 1940, a Whitley of 77 Squadron dropped leaflets over Prague and Vienna…