3. Churchill authorized the RAF to bomb targets in the Ruhr
Churchill, with his oft-used gift for rhetoric, referred to the bombing of the Ruhr as “striking at his vitals”. Targets included oil plants, steel plants, and other industrial facilities. The raids were to be conducted at night, to reduce casualties. Because they flew at night, the British bombers did not fly in formation. They also lacked precision bombsights to find their targets. If the lead British bomber dropped its bombs on the wrong target, the subsequent bombers often did too, guided by the fires of the original bombs. On May 16/17, 78 British bombers attacked oil plants near Gelsenkirchen. Only 47 of them found their targets. The rest dropped their bombs indiscriminately.
Several German cities were bombed through May and into June, including Hanover, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Essen, and others. The results were always the same. Some airplanes reached their assigned targets, but many did not, and bombs were scattered haphazardly in the general area. German citizens learned to take shelter when the alarms sounded or the sound of the rumbling British engines were heard. Civilian casualties led to howls of outrage in Germany and in the United States, directed against the British. The Luftwaffe did not respond by attacking targets in Britain, and remained focused on mopping up the French, before turning to face their island enemy.