Narrative of the Operation
Details of Enemy Night Air Operations

Night activity was generally small, for which the weather can be held mainly accountable.

Twin engine bombers.--Operations were identified on only 2 night out of the 7, namely, 18-19 and 19-20. On the 18th about 50 sorties were flown and bombs were dropped in the Escaut Canal sector. Whether this was directed against the airborne landings is not clear, for the area of attack lay well to the west of the main landing zones. As these bombers had been idle for the preceding 2 weeks, it is reasonable to suppose that their sudden reappearance was a direct result of the landings. The following night about 100 bombers operated, the main target being Eindhoven. If further attacks were planned, they were probably canceled due to the weather.

Fighter-bombers.--There were no accounts of night operations by night fighter-bombers operated on a small scale (10-20 sorties) on 18 and 19 September, not in the landing areas but in the Aachen-Maastricht vicinity. It is possible that a very small number cooperated with the twin-engine bombers' attack on Eindhoven on the night of the 18-19, and they may also have been active as nuisance raiders on other occasions.

Reconnaissance.--From the night of the 18th onward, from two to four twin-engine night fighters were out on reconnaissance over the southern North Sea and seaward approaches to the Netherland islands. Their most likely task was to detect and report any signs of seaborne operations in cooperation with the troops landed from the air.