A Siren Tour was a night-time mission by the

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...

, mostly in northern

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, involving three or four two-engined fast bomber aircraft, to set the German air-raid sirens off in the middle of the night, so waking up the whole German town at three o'clock in the morning. The purpose was to cause nuisance, and

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...

History

The raids were carried out by RAF bases in Cambridgeshire and

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...

, from the Light Night Striking Force. These were small bombing raids, often in the middle of the night, to get the population in the German town out of bed, on the sound of a Fliegeralarm, to intentionally upset the nocturnal rhythm by

false alarm A false alarm, also called a nuisance alarm, is the deceptive or erroneous report of an emergency, causing unnecessary panic and/or bringing resources (such as emergency services) to a place where they are not needed. False alarms may occur with ...

s of the German factory workers;

night shift The shift plan, rota or roster (esp. British) is the central component of a schedule (workplace), shift schedule in shift work. The schedule includes considerations of shift overlap, shift change times and alignment with the clock, vacation, train ...

workers would have to go to the shelters, and day shift workers had their sleep disturbed. It was to make German citizens mentally unfit for work. Although these were small raids, the raids were quite irritating for German people. The two-engined bomber aircraft were largely invincible from any attack; for the first six hundred

Mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

missions over Germany, only one was shot down. Once the bomb was dropped, the twin-engined bomber could return to Cambridgeshire at 400 mph, being invisible to radar.

Tactics

It feigned a larger raid, a nuisance raid. It would take place alongside spoof raids on a secondary target, which were deception tactics. It would often accompany the main bomber force beforehand, dropping the window radar deception, then the Mosquito aircraft subsequently went on the Siren Tour.

Operation

The raids apparently began on 30 November 1943, or thereabouts. There were around three aircraft in each raid, but with three or four targets. Each target would receive a 500 lb bomb from the aircraft. Siren tours would continue throughout early 1945. The aircraft took off from

RAF Upwood Royal Air Force Upwood or more simply RAF Upwood is a former Royal Air Force station adjacent to the village of Upwood, Cambridgeshire, England, in the United Kingdom. It was a non-flying station which was under the control of the United St ...

RAF Graveley Royal Air Force Graveley or more simply RAF Graveley is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station located south of Huntingdon. The station was originally intended to operate under No. 3 Group RAF, alongside RAF T ...

, RAF Little Staughton RAF Gransden Lodge,

RAF Oakington Royal Air Force Oakington or more simply RAF Oakington was a Royal Air Force station located north of Oakington, Cambridgeshire, England and northwest of Cambridge. History Second World War Construction was started in 1939, but was affected ...

, and

RAF Wyton Royal Air Force Wyton or more simply RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is decommissioned and the station is now under the comm ...

, all part of 8 Group (PFF).

Schedule

1945 * 24 February, Dessau, Erfurt and Halle * 4 March, Kiel, Lubeck, Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven * 5 March, Kiel, Lubeck, Hamburg and Hanover * 7 March, Hanover, Berlin, and Dessau * 8 March, Osnabruck, Hanover, and Bremen * 9 March, Osnabruck * 11 March, Hanover, Brunswick, and Magdeburg * 14 March, Bremen, Hanover, and Berlin * 15 March, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena * 16 March, Osnabruck, Berlin and Brunswick * 26 March, Berlin and Magdeburg * 27 March, Bremen, Magdeburg and Hanover * 29 March, Bremen and Hanover * 30 March, Hamburg and Kiel * 2 April, Hamburg and Lubeck * 3 April Magdeburg and Berlin

References

{{reflist De Havilland Mosquito Military history of Cambridgeshire Military history of Huntingdonshire Night flying Sleeplessness and sleep deprivation Sirens World War II strategic bombing of Germany

History

Tactics

Operation

Schedule

See also

References