DETAILED DAMAGE REPORT NO. K. 1274
               Photographs taken by No. 1 P.R.U. on 4.3.42
                         and 8.3.42.
SORTIE a/380                            SORTIE a/392
 
F.24",F.14",F.5".                            F.40", F.8".
 
Low Obliques.                           Contact scale: 1/7,000.
Flying Height: 500 ft.                            Flying Height: 23,600 ft.
Mean time of photography: 1250 hrs.               Mean time of photography: 1530 hrs.
 
          LOCALITY: S.V. SUBURBS OF PARIS
 
MOTOR ARMAMENT PLANT (RENAULT): BILLANCOURT
 
     Damage resulting from recent night attack upon the target is assessed from excellent low
obliques taken on the following day and poor quality verticals of a reasonable scale taken 4 days
later.  There is ample evidence supplied by those two sorties of the high degree of success
obtained in the operation.  Damage is distributed very evenly over the entire area of the Works
and considering the scale and intensity of the attack the proportion of civilian damage is
surprisingly small and concentrated mainly at the boundaries of the target.
 
PROPABLE EFFECT OF DAMAGE
 
     It is now considered that the destruction caused will probably mean that it will be
impossible to use the Plant again on anywhere near the same scale as before until large scale
repairs and re-construction are completed.  If this is attempted, which is unlikely, it wil
undoubtedly take a period of years to accomplish since many vital parts of the plant, such as
special tools, casting machinery etc., will have to be replaced.
     The only sections of the Plant which appear to be either intact or suffering from only slight
damage are the Diesel Engine Assembly Shop, the Artillery, part of the Tyre Manufacturing Plant
and a few other less important departments.  It is interesting to note that the least damaged shops
lie on the extreme eastern boundary of the Ile Seguin and the main Works on the N. Wing.
     It is also interesting to note the amount of damage which has been caused by fire, and
since the number of incendiaries carried was not considerable, it appears likely that H.E. falling on
Sections of the Plant, such as furnaces, heat processing, cellulose paint spraying etc., resulted in
burning material being distributed over a wide area, causing many heavy fires.  Owing to this fact
it is extremely difficult to differentiate between damage caused by fire and by H.E.
 
NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS
 
     An attempt has been made to analyse the fire tracks on the films of the night photographs
and to tie them up with the actual damage seen.  In all, approximately 70 fire tracks were analysed
and 30 approximate plottings of fires attempted.  The information obtained is in most cases very
approximate and is mainly used for confirmation.
     In most cases fires are seen to spread in a N to NE direction and in some cases the spread
is very rapid indeed, which indicates that the strength of the wind was very suitable for fire attack. 
It is quite obvious from the number of fire tracks which are seen to be diminishing towards the
end of the attack that the A.R.P. Services were making efforts to obtain control, but the damage
on the day photographs proves that the scale and accuracy of the attack proved too much for
them.