The bombing of Peenemünde in World War II was carried out on several occasions as part of the overall Operation Crossbow to disrupt German secret weapon development. The first raid on Peenemünde, on the Baltic coast of Germany, was Operation Hydra of the night of 17/18 August 1943, involving 596 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force. Intelligence about the existence and location of the programme was allegedly obtained from the secretly recorded conversations of a German officer, Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, who was a prisoner of war of the British. Subsequent attacks were carried out in daylight raids by the US Army Air Force's Eighth Air Force.