25th April 1945
Tønsberg - The last raid
Postcard (unused - most likely send in an envelope) depicting a general view of Tønsberg. The correspondence reads, 'Souvenir from Norway 1943, Albert Hahns (?)' to his loved ones at home.' Note: Transport of Poles from Reichsgau Danzig-Westprussen on 26th March 1943 (from unknown German Companies/ employment office. 14 Polish workers alongside 84 German nationals were sent to Kirkens, Kristiansand and Tønsberg. Was this correspondent one of them? (Source: Denkiewicz-Szczepaniak, Emilia. “Polish civilian forced labourers and prisoners of war in the Organisation Todt – Einsatzgruppe
Wiking, 1941–1945”. Studia Maritima XXXIV (2021): 125–160. DOI: 10.18276/sm.2021.34-06.). Ref: 25.04.1945 (date of the last RAF heavy bomber raid).
Tønsberg
and the last RAF strategic bombing raid of WWII
Tønsberg, historically Tunsberg, is a city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about 102 kilometres (63 miles) south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The city is the most populous metropolis in Vestfold county. Tønsberg also serves as the administrative centre for Vestfold county and the seat of the County Governor of Vestfold og Telemark.
Berg interneringsleir (Berg internment camp) was a concentration camp near Tønsberg in Norway that served as an internment and transit center for political prisoners and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
Source: Wikipedia
25th/26th April 1945. 107 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitoes of 5 Group attacked the oil refinery in Tønsberg in Southern Norway in the last raid flown by heavy bombers. The attack was accurately carried out and the target was severly damaged. A Lancaster of 463 Squadron canme down in Sweden, the last of more than 3,300 lancaster lost in the war; Flying officer A. Cox and his all-British crew all survived and were interned in Sweden until the end of the war - only a few days away.
Source: Middlebrook and Everitt 1990
Reconnaissance photograph of an oil refinery on a peninsular with large plume of smoke from damaged oil tanks upper right area. Oslofjord is to the left with Prinds Christians Batterie just visible on the edge top left. Explanatory note underneath mentions target 'VALLO (Near Oslo) oil refinery'. Submitted with description 'Reconaissance [sic] photograph showing damage to Tonsberg oil refinery, Norway (captioned as 'Vallo, near Oslo') after operation by RAF Bomber Command on 25-26/04/1945. This was the last bombing flown by RAF heavy bombers in WWII'.
Source: https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/
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