Bombing of Mannheim in World War II ||This article needs
additional citations for verification. (October 2006)| As part
of Operation Abigail Rachel, the "first deliberate terror raid"
on Germany took place on December 16, although with poor effect
even though one hundred tonnes of explosives and 14,000
incendiaries were dropped on Mannheim. The British had been
waiting for the opportunity to experiment with such a raid aimed
at creating a maximum of destruction in a selected town since
the summer 1940, and the opportunity was given after the German
raid on Coventry. Internally it was declared to be a reprisal
for Coventry and Southampton. The new bombing policy was
officially ordered by Churchill on December 1, explained in the
War Cabinet on December 12, and operation Abigail was approved
on the 13th, on condition it receive no publicity and be
considered an experiment. The "air-crews, rightly, regarded it
as a terror raid". Incendiaries dropped by eight bombers to mark
the target missed the city center and