Cologne

16 June 1943 — Cologne

Date
16 June 1943
Target
Cologne, Germany
Force dispatched
212 aircraft

Narrative

A force of 212 aircraft attacked Cologne on this June night, again led to the city by Oboe-marking Mosquitoes of No. 109 Squadron. It was a smaller raid than the giant attacks that would fall on Cologne later in the month, and it served partly to keep the pressure on while the Command’s main weight was directed elsewhere across the Ruhr. The marking held reasonably well and fires were started in the city, but the night is overshadowed by what followed within a fortnight, when forces three times this size all but destroyed the centre of Cologne. Taken together, the June 1943 raids marked the point at which the cumulative weight of the bomber offensive began to overwhelm even a large and well-defended Rhineland city.

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

171 airmen in this archive died on 16 June 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.

See all 171 who died on 16 June →

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