Farthest Raid

How far was the farthest raid into Germany during the war?

Dear Boon,

On June 2, 1917, William Bishop, in 60 th squadron Nieuport 1566 got as far as Adlersdorf near Berlin and bombed the fighter competitions being held there. In the process, he was able to shoot down three Albatrosses trying to take off and intercept him.
On his way back, he sraffed several troop columns, blew up several bridges and ammunition dumps which left by his account 14,366 Germans confirmed dead.
Low on fuel, he managed to shoot down a Gotha bomber and another unidentified enemy
two seater before returning to his own base badly shot about!
For this he was awarded the VC. Wasn't he?
Hope this helped.

VBR

FokkDR1

[Frank_Olynyk]

According to the Bishop entry in Above the Trenches, his combat was in the Estourmel area. I haven't checked my maps, but this sounds like a French name. I doubt very much that a Nieuport scout had the legs to fly to Berlin and back. Anybody know what the distance between Paris and Berlin is? A scout probably had an endurance of about two hours.

Frank.

[rammjaeger]

I can only add little remarks.

1. He left 14,366 Russians dead because he was observed to pass Warschau and Kiev (which he mistook for Berlin-Adlershof) before.

2. In 1918 British Bombers attacked German towns like Koblenz, Freiburg, Mannheim, Köln, Essen, Hamburg and Munich. So I think you can choose. It depends on the route and the used airfields for start and landing. A major attack against Berlin with gas bombs was planned for 1919 but the end of war prevented that.

Actually, Hannes, the RAF apparently had a pair of Handley Page V/1500s bombed up, fueled and ready to depart from south Britain for Berlin on 10 November 1918. The mission was postponed, and then canceled the next day.