Most Impressive Precision Bombing

[Kraxis]

Lets discuss!

And just to be clear, this means what you consider the most impressive from the pilot's view. Meaning it is more impressive if the pilot has to dodge lots of obstacles, fight high command, ect ect... to land a bomb that did nothing for the war in reality. Important bombings might be included, but the fact that they were important is not considered a positive characteristic in itself (then it would be 'Most Important').

So my vote is the bombing of the Shell-house in Copenhagen in WWII.
The Shell-house is smackdown in the middle of central Copenhagen, and it was the central HQ of the Gestapo, containing many resistance prisoners (many slated for execution). Of course it was a nice target, but the Germans didn't expect it to be in trouble, as any bombers would be spotted long before they were in range (and intercepted by any fighters), and it was in the middle of a densely populated area of occupied people. Further it was protected by civilian buildings all round more or less.
So mass bombing was out of the question to just hit this target. And a few bombers were easy to pick off with the local fighters. The Germans were right to feel secure.

A flight of Mosquitos were selected for the bombing. They had to avoid land all the way to Copenhagen (a major detour around the north), and do this at sea level (something that woul come back to haunt them).
Anyway they did manage to sneak in under the radar and entered the city at such a low level that some of them knocked over chimneys, and people claimed that they flew below the rooftops (in the streets).
So the approach to the target was bad enough, but at the target they were not allowed to just bomb the building as the prisoners were not to be killed. They had in fact been placed in the upper storeys as a failsafe for bombing.
So the planes had to bomb the lower levels of the building.

Eventually they did line up when disaster struck.
The leading plane got shot down (or struck a structure on the way I don't know) and the next plane in line had his windshield so plastered with salt from the sea that he had a hard time making out the target, so he just targeted the the explosion of the leading plane's bombs. Sadly, it had crashed into the French School, so the following plane bombed the school killing about 40 children and teachers. But the next planes managed to line up correctly and left their bombs at the door, leading to a most unpleasant day for the doorkeep.

The result was an astounding success since most of the captives not only survived but managed to escape in the confusion.
Pretty impressive in my mind.

[Red Harvest]

Throwing out a few ideas to add to the list:

1. The attacks on the dams in WWII. Can't recall where, they developed special bombs for the raids.
2. There was an attack on a POW prison in WWII, that targeted the wall and did good work. I haven't looked it up.
3. The Swordfish biplanes did good work against the Italian fleet at Taranto, despite being slow and obsolete.
4. Israeli operation vs. the Iraqi nuke reactor in the early '80's.


I know this one is not precision "bombing" but the bombardment of Fort Pulaski by rifled cannon in the American Civil War deserves special mention. This first use of rifled cannon to defeat a masonry fort illustrated that rifled guns could literally bore a hole through masonry forts by repeatedly hitting the exact same point, and target the magazine. While it was not aerial bombardment, it exemplifies precision.

[Kraxis]

Hmmm... well bombing does include artillery bombardment I guess. Just hadn't thought of it.

[InsaneApache]

The result was an astounding success since most of the captives not only survived but managed to escape in the confusion. Pretty impressive in my mind.

The thing that always amused me about the Copenhagen raid was the fact that it was the ONLY building in the city that was camoflaged...talk about pin a bullseye onto your backside..lmao...I gotta go with Kraxis here, it was a remarkable achievement when you consider the aircraft and equipment they had at their disposal...even today this would be highly risky. Brave men indeed. I too have heard of people looking out of their top story windows looking down onto the Mozzys as they flew past at lampost height...what a machine that was.

[Kraxis]

Yeah, that is the entire point. None of the other big ones (we could call them that) had to fly into a dense city to pinpoint a single building. And be forced to stay so low as to be lower than radar and AA and still be able to hit the first floor rather than the roof.
It is one of those WOW impressions.

[SwordsMaster]

Just thought it was worth a mention: the war on the north during WWII, Mostly russian pilots targeting german convoys and warships going through the White sea. Days of flying in blinding snow, minus 40C and bright whiteness to find a ship whose last coordinates were, at most, orientative, finding it, bombing it and coming back to base was most impressive IMHO.
Take into account that radars didnt work well that far north due to maintenance problems and the weather in those extreme latitudes.