Kassel
3 October 1943 — Kassel
- Date
- 3 October 1943
- Target
- Kassel, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 547 aircraft
Narrative
A force of 547 aircraft attacked Kassel on this October night, but a marking error robbed it of the concentration the Pathfinders were aiming for and much of the bombing fell on the western suburbs rather than the city centre. Even so the raid did serious harm where it landed, striking the armament factories, wrecking the main railway station, and burning out the Fridericianum, one of Europe’s oldest public museums, with the loss of some 350,000 books — seven-eighths of its library. The night was a partial success that taught the lessons applied three weeks later: when Bomber Command returned to Kassel on 22 October the marking held, and the result was one of the most destructive raids of the whole war. This first attack was, in effect, the rehearsal for that catastrophe.
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
335 airmen in this archive died on 3 October 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.
- Flight Sergeant Richard Harry Adams (21)
- Leading Aircraftman Andrew Adamson (40)
- Sergeant Walter Adamson
- Pilot Officer Felix Norman Alexander (29)
- Flying Officer David Anderson (22)
- Corporal Stanley Harold Anderson (29)
- Sergeant Edgar James Andrews
- Pilot Officer Brian Andrew Armstrong (22)
- Sergeant John Francis Albury Bailey (21)
- Sergeant John Alexander Baker
- Sergeant William James Baker (20)
- Leading Aircraftman Harold Edward William Ball (30)
- Sergeant George Kenneth Barnes
- Sergeant Timothy John Barrett (33)
- Sergeant Frederick Walter Bate (23)
- Sergeant George Henry Beach (23)
- Sergeant Jack Stear Beech (20)
- Sergeant John Edward Arthur Beecher (24)
- Sergeant James Philip Belfield (19)
- Sergeant William Bell (22)
- Sergeant Rowland Bennett (23)
- Flight Lieutenant George Theodore Berg
- Leading Aircraftman William Edward Biltcliffe (25)
- Sergeant James Briggs Elder Birrell