Westkapelle

Date

17 October 1944

Target

Westkapelle

Force dispatched

53 aircraft

Sortie details (which aircraft from which squadron, which crew flew, the outcome) will populate this page once the TNA AIR 27 squadron-diary importer arrives.

The fallen

43 airmen in this archive died on 17 October 1944 or the day that followed. For a raid of this kind these are overwhelmingly the night's losses, though a death-date match is not by itself proof an individual flew this operation.

• Flight Lieutenant Kelts Colfax Baker (27)
• Flying Officer Morris Ambrose Bellert (27)
• Leading Aircraftman William Morley Brotherston (22)
• Flight Sergeant Iden Alois John Butler (23)
• Flight Lieutenant Rodney Maxwell Coles
• Flight Lieutenant Stanley Herbert Ross Cotterill (24)
• Warrant Officer Gerald Joseph Davis (34)
• Flight Sergeant Robert Russell Denholm (22)
• Pilot Officer John Frederick Dowding (17)
• Sergeant William Downs (33)
• Flying Officer Norman Charles Dumont (20)
• Flying Officer Sydney James Emery (28)
• Leading Aircraftman Gilles Arthur Ferron
• Flight Lieutenant Colin Gowans Finlayson (23)
• Sergeant John Richard Wharton Forshaw
• Flight Sergeant James Stephen Hurst
• Leading Aircraftman John George Jardine (23)
• Flying Officer Athol Eric Kilner (21)
• Flying Officer John Frederick Landsky (20)
• Flying Officer William John Lee (22)
• Flight Sergeant John Bagrie McDonald (20)
• Flight Sergeant Robert Muir McGregor (27)
• Flying Officer James Robert Menzies (22)
• Air Corporal Curtis M. Murray

See all 43 who died on 17 October →

Source: RAF Bomber Command Campaign Diary (60th-Anniversary website, via the Wayback Machine) →