Stuttgart

26 November 1943 — Stuttgart

Date
26 November 1943
Target
Stuttgart, Germany
Force dispatched
178 aircraft
Aircraft lost
6

Narrative

This was a small attack flown for a larger purpose. While the main weight of Bomber Command was thrown at Berlin that night, 178 aircraft — mostly Halifaxes with a few Lancasters — were sent to Stuttgart as a diversion, to split the German night-fighter force and draw some of it away from the route to the capital. In Stuttgart itself the raid killed 31 people and injured around 156. Six Halifaxes were lost. The night shows how Stuttgart’s role in the offensive had partly shifted: as well as a target in its own right, the city was used as a feint within the larger Battle of Berlin, its distance and direction making it useful for pulling the defences off balance. For the people on the ground the distinction meant little — the bombs fell just the same.

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

394 airmen in this archive died on 26 November 1943 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 394 who died on 26 November →

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