Cologne
15 October 1942 — Cologne
- Date
- 15 October 1942
- Target
- Cologne, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 289 aircraft
Narrative
By the autumn of 1942 the newly formed Pathfinder Force was leading the way to the target, and 289 aircraft were sent against Cologne on this October night with PFF crews marking ahead of the main force. The technique was still young — the markers and flares the Pathfinders used were improvised, and the precision of the Oboe era was a few months off — so the bombing, while better concentrated than the scattered spring raids, fell short of wrecking the city. The value of the night lay in the method: a dedicated marking force finding and illuminating the aiming point for the bombers behind it, the principle that would carry the whole offensive from 1943 onward. Cologne, attacked so often that its citizens knew the drill of the sirens better than most, was once again the place where Bomber Command rehearsed the tactics of its coming maturity.
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
210 airmen in this archive died on 15 October 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 Thomas Adamson (24)
- Flying Officer Jack Whitwell Allison (26)
- Leading Aircraftman Charles William Anders (23)
- Sergeant Patrick James Anderton (23)
- Sergeant Irving Arbuckle (19)
- Flight Sergeant Douglas Drennan Baird (23)
- Sergeant Robert Bayley (20)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Thomas Baythorp (25)
- Pilot Officer Keith Thomas Beange (21)
- Sergeant Arthur Ewart Bell (30)
- Sergeant John Ernest Bellamy (26)
- Sergeant Reuben John Benn (24)
- Pilot Officer Gerrard Roy Bing (25)
- Flying Officer John Stanbridge Bird (23)
- Sergeant Stephen William George Bishop (25)
- Flight Sergeant Reginald George Blair (26)
- Sergeant Edward Albert Blake (20)
- Sergeant Sidney Brans (30)
- Flight Sergeant Raymond Gerard Brasnett
- Sergeant Frank Briggs (22)
- Flight Lieutenant Alfred Brindley
- Flight Sergeant John Crawford Brocket (21)
- Sergeant Ronald Brooker (25)
- Flight Sergeant John Hooper Brooks (21)