Stuttgart
22 November 1942 — Stuttgart
- Date
- 22 November 1942
- Target
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 222 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 5
Narrative
By late 1942 the Pathfinder Force was leading Bomber Command’s attacks, and 222 aircraft were sent against Stuttgart on this November night with PFF crews marking ahead of the main force. Cloud again hid the city centre, and the bombing fell on the southern outlying districts — Rohr, Vaihingen, Plieningen and Möhringen — rather than on the heart of the city or the Bosch works. Some 28 people were killed and around 88 houses destroyed. The Pathfinders could now find Stuttgart and put markers down, but the same deep valleys that had thwarted earlier raids still scattered the load away from the aiming point. It was a recurring frustration that no amount of force seemed able to overcome: Stuttgart could be reached, but rarely struck cleanly.
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
110 airmen in this archive died on 22 November 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.
- Pilot Officer Graham William Charles Allchin (26)
- Sergeant Raymond Henry Alvey (22)
- Sergeant Richard William Andrews (32)
- Flying Officer David John Appleton (20)
- Flight Sergeant Thomas Rodham Armstrong (20)
- Warrant Officer Harry Albert Artis (42)
- Sergeant Jack Glyn Ashton
- Flying Officer Alan Bate (22)
- Leading Aircraftman Thomas John Blundell (20)
- Flying Officer Elwood Maurice William Bolton (34)
- Leading Aircraftman Algie John Bourke (38)
- Flying Officer William Richardson Bower (31)
- Sergeant Henry William Sydney Bristow
- Sergeant Thomas William Brock (31)
- Flight Sergeant Frederick Victor Brook (28)
- Leading Aircraftman Frederick George Brookes (30)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Robert Lomas Brooks (32)
- Leading Aircraftman Frederick Bullock (22)
- Pilot Officer Douglas Frederick Button (22)
- Leading Aircraftman John Patterson Campbell
- Sergeant Thomas William Catchpole (27)
- Sergeant Herbert Thomas Cheetham (21)
- Sergeant Gordon Thomas Lister Chisholm (25)
- Sergeant Reginald Harry Church (21)