Stuttgart

4 May 1942 — Stuttgart

Date
4 May 1942
Target
Stuttgart, Germany
Force dispatched
121 aircraft
Aircraft lost
1

Narrative

This was the first large attack of the war on Stuttgart, the southern German city whose Bosch works made magnetos and electrical gear for almost every German engine. A force of 121 aircraft set out, but the night exposed the problem that would dog every raid on the place: Stuttgart lies cradled in a knot of deep wooded valleys that broke up the bombing and hid the aiming point. Dense cloud made matters worse, and a German decoy fire-site at nearby Lauffen drew much of the load away from the city; only 13 people were killed in Stuttgart itself. One Stirling was lost. The raid set the pattern for the long and frustrating campaign against Stuttgart, a target that the city’s own terrain defended almost as effectively as its flak.

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

121 airmen in this archive died on 4 May 1942 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.

See all 121 who died on 4 May →

Source: Wikipedia — Bombing of Stuttgart in World War II →