8. The Jericho Raid Was a Success – Then It Became a Controversy
The Jericho Raid’s leading Mosquitoes were to bomb and breach the prison’s outer walls, and the rest were to bomb the guard barracks and cafeteria. The raid was timed for lunchtime, to catch as many German guards as possible as they sat dining. The Mosquitoes arrived at noon, and dropping 500 lb bombs with delayed fuses to allow the raiders time to fly out of the blast zone before detonation, breached the outer walls. Then the guardhouse was struck and destroyed, killing its occupants along with collateral damage to prisoners nearby. Once prisoners were observed pouring out of the breached walls, the raiders flew back home.
The operation was a tactical success, but the results were mixed: the bombing was pinpoint accurate by the era’s standards, and the walls were successfully breached, allowing the prisoners an opportunity to escape. At the cost of three Mosquitoes and two escorting fighters, 50 Germans were killed, but so were 107 of the 717 prisoners. 258 prisoners escaped, but 182 were recaptured. Controversy erupted after the war when some in the Resistance disputed that they had requested the bombing. Additionally, no evidence emerged that the Germans had actually planned mass executions of the Amiens prisoners.
