Cologne
2 February 1943 — Cologne
- Date
- 2 February 1943
- Target
- Cologne, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 161 aircraft
Narrative
This was one of the first attacks on Cologne of 1943, flown as the new Oboe blind-marking technique was being brought into regular use by the Mosquitoes of No. 109 Squadron. A force of 161 aircraft was sent, and the raid had the character of these early-year operations against the city — a sharp, fairly concentrated attack guided by the marker aircraft running ahead, but on a scale dwarfed by what was to come once the Battle of the Ruhr opened in March. The damage was real but limited, and the raid is best seen as part of the steady winter pressure Bomber Command maintained on Cologne while it perfected the marking methods that would shortly devastate the Rhineland cities. Cologne lay just within reliable Oboe range, which made it both a favoured target and a constant testing ground for the aid.
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
173 airmen in this archive died on 2 February 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.
- Sergeant John Caldwell Adam (28)
- Pilot Officer John Methven Robertson Adams (34)
- Sergeant Leopold Gordon Alexander
- Pilot Officer Ralph Leonard Alexander
- Sergeant James Allan (22)
- Sergeant Francis Frederick Allen (23)
- Flight Lieutenant Frederick Cameron Anderson (25)
- Flying Officer Peter Clyde Astrosky (28)
- Flying Officer Stanley Maurice Austin (20)
- Sergeant Francis Louis Ayley (24)
- Flight Sergeant Marcus Edgar Barker (26)
- Sergeant Stanley David Beadon
- Flying Officer Clive Ronald Murray Bell (22)
- Sergeant Frederick George Bell (25)
- Flying Officer George Charles Bellman (20)
- Squadron Leader Ross Herbert Bertran (25)
- Sergeant Cecil James Berwick
- Pilot Officer Clifford Robertson Black (33)
- Flight Lieutenant William Andrew Black (23)
- Pilot Officer Kenneth Howard Blincoe (33)
- Sergeant Frank Arthur Boese (22)
- Corporal Arthur George Bond (37)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Robert Frederick Bonnick (18)
- Sergeant James Trueman Bostock (21)