Operation Veracity I

'Veracity I' was a British air raid by Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse’s RAF Bomber Command against German naval units in the harbour of Brest in German-occupied north-western France (17/18 December 1941).

The raid was undertaken by 121 medium bombers (72 Vickers Wellington, 25 Handley Page Hampden, and 24 Armstrong Whitworth Whitley aircraft), of which 80 claimed to have bombed the naval base area. One Hampden was lost, and only negligible damage was caused.

This was just one of a lengthy series of British air raids (29/30 October, 18/19 November, 25/26 November, 7/8 December, 12/13 December, 14/15 December, 17/18 December, 18 December, 18/19 December and 23/24 December 1941, and 2/3 January, 3/4 January, 5/6 January, 6/7 January, 7/8 January, 8/9 January, 11/12 January, 25/26 January, 26/27 January and 31 January/1 February 1942 etc) on Brest, where the three principal targets were the battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.