Stuttgart

28 July 1944 — Stuttgart

Date
28 July 1944
Target
Stuttgart, Germany
Force dispatched
496 aircraft
Aircraft lost
39

Narrative

The third raid of the late-July sequence completed the destruction of central Stuttgart but at a savage cost to the attackers. A force of 496 Lancasters flew deep into southern Germany, and on the long route the night-fighters of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 found the stream and tore into it: thirty-nine bombers failed to return, nearly eight per cent of the force, one of the heaviest losses of the summer. The bombing added to the ruin already inflicted on 24 and 25 July, and the three attacks together left close to a thousand dead and more than a hundred thousand homeless in the city. The night was a grim illustration of the bargain of deep-penetration raiding in 1944 — Stuttgart could now be wrecked, but a long flight far into Germany still handed the defenders their chance, and they took it.

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

229 airmen in this archive died on 28 July 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.

See all 229 who died on 28 July →

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