Stuttgart
20 February 1944 — Stuttgart
- Date
- 20 February 1944
- Target
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 598 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 8
Narrative
A force of 598 aircraft — the great majority Lancasters, with Halifaxes and Pathfinder Mosquitoes — attacked Stuttgart on this February night, and clever routing kept the cost remarkably low. Two diversionary sweeps, one out over the North Sea and one towards Munich, drew the German night-fighters away from the real target, and only eight bombers were lost from so large a force. On the ground around 160 people were killed. The raid opened a heavier phase of the Stuttgart campaign in 1944, in which much larger forces, better marking and increasingly elaborate deception combined to do the city far more harm than the scattered attacks of earlier years. The low loss rate was a measure of how skilfully Bomber Command could now manipulate the night-fighter defences when the planning came off.
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
589 airmen in this archive died on 20 February 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 Sergeant Robert William Ackerman (21)
- Sergeant Terence Clifton Akeroyd
- Sergeant Arthur Ronald Albone (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Orlin Ronald Alexander
- Pilot Officer Francis Frederick George Allan
- Pilot Officer John Francis Allen (29)
- Pilot Officer Foster Richard Alleyn (22)
- Sergeant Kenneth Arthur Archer (19)
- Flight Lieutenant Clifford Harold Armour
- Sergeant Vincent Joseph Ashmore (21)
- Pilot Officer James Desmond Aspin (21)
- Sergeant David Beaumont Asquith (22)
- Pilot Officer John James Astles
- Flying Officer Thomas Ralston Atkinson (21)
- Sergeant Albert Ronald Bailey (26)
- Warrant Officer Frederick John Bailey (21)
- Flight Sergeant George Bailey (21)
- Pilot Officer John Humphreys Baird (29)
- Sergeant Christopher Thomas Baker (20)
- Sergeant Bernard Henry John Baldwin (21)
- Pilot Officer William Sidney Ball (30)
- Sergeant Ronald Frederick Banks (21)
- Flying Officer Arnold Smedley Barclay
- Sergeant Albert Kenneth Barlow (21)