Operation Bellicose

Operation Bellicose was an attack by Avro Lancaster bombers of the Royal Air Force on a German radar factory housed in the former Zeppelin Works at Friedrichshafen and the Italian naval base at La Spezia. It was the first shuttle bombing raid in the Second World War and the second use of a Master Bomber. In early June 1943, a Central Interpretation Unit photo interpreter (Claude Wavell) identified a stack of ribbed baskets (Würzburg radar reflectors) at the Zeppelin Works. After Winston Churchill viewed the photos at RAF Medmenham on 14 June, No. 5 Group RAF received the surprise orders on 16 June to attack Friedrichshafen during the next full moon.

On approach to the target, Wing Commander Gomm (No. 467 Squadron RAAF) assumed control of the operation when the aircraft of Group Captain Slee, the master bomber, developed trouble. The Main Force was ordered to bomb from 15,000 feet (4,600 m) rather than the planned 10,000 feet (3,000 m) due to heavy flak. In the first phase, the Pathfinder Force (PFF) and Wing Commander Gomm dropped Target Indicator bombs for the Main Force to aim at. In the second phase, as dust and smoke obscured the TIs, Gomm ordered the Main Force to use 'time-and-distance' bombing runs from a location on the Lake Constance shore along a measured distance to the target.

The operation was successful. As well as damaging the radar factory, the bombers destroyed the unsuspected V-2 rocket production line also housed in the Zeppelin Works, so that Bellicose accidentally became the first Allied air strike against the German V-weapons programme. No Lancasters were lost. From Friedrichshafen the aircraft continued to the USAAF base at Maison Blanche (now Houari Boumediene Airport), Algeria. On 23–24 June, eight of the original force of sixty Lancasters remained in Algeria for repairs and the remaining 52 bombed the Italian naval base at La Spezia, damaging an "oil depot" and an "armaments store" and continued to Britain, again without loss.