The two Osaka strikes were interspersed with an attack on the urban are of the sister city of Kobe. We hand twenty-seven B-29s out on this one and twenty-four of them dropped on the target.

It was estimated that twenty-seven Jap fighters were met with gunners claiming three destroyed, eight probable destroyed and eight more damaged. Anti-aircraft fire reached the proportions of intense and accurate, but a number of crews reported it as meager and inaccurate when they went over. Over the target clouds were 2/10ths, but some of the planes dropped by radar because of the heavy smoke clouds over the target city.

Kobe was Japan's most important transportation center and also much heavy industry; shipbuilding activities and shipping interest were there. The designated target area for this mission contained several large steel plants, a rubber factory, an important railroad station, part of the commercial district and a densely built-up area.

Damage to Kobe, including a part of nearby Mikage, resulting from this attack was estimated at 4.35 square miles, or 28 percent of the built-up portion of the city. Seventeen numbered targets were either damaged or destroyed. Total damage to Kobe up to that time was 4.85 square miles.