Nuremberg
27 August 1943 — Nuremberg
- Date
- 27 August 1943
- Target
- Nuremberg, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 674 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 33
Narrative
On the night of 27/28 August 1943 Bomber Command sent 674 aircraft — 349 Lancasters, 221 Halifaxes and 104 Stirlings — on the long haul to Nuremberg, deep in southern Germany. The night was clear but very dark, and the attack went wrong in the way that so often dogged distant targets. The Pathfinders’ opening markers were accurate, but their H2S radar sets struggled over unfamiliar ground and a steady “creep-back” set in as crews bombed the leading edge of the fires rather than pressing on to the aiming point. The Master Bomber’s corrections went largely unheard — only about a quarter of the force could pick up his broadcasts — and much of the bombing fell into open country south of the city. Thirty-three aircraft were lost. Nuremberg in August 1943 was a sharp reminder that range, darkness and the limits of early radar could blunt even a large and well-led force, and it foreshadowed the catastrophe the same city would inflict on Bomber Command the following March.
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
293 airmen in this archive died on 27 August 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 William Walter George Addison (21)
- Flight Sergeant Billie Albert Anderson (23)
- Warrant Officer Harold Anderson (23)
- Flying Officer Kenneth Arthur (25)
- Warrant Officer Leonard Wilson Aspden (22)
- Sergeant Donald John Atkinson (19)
- Sergeant Douglas Bailey
- Flight Sergeant Martin Bailey (27)
- Flight Sergeant Peter Chadwick Bartle (29)
- Sergeant Benjamin Joseph Barton (23)
- Pilot Officer Francis Wilson Bateman (27)
- Sergeant James Andrew Beck (23)
- Sergeant Robert Peter Belsey (20)
- Corporal Frederick George Bennett (26)
- Sergeant Wendelin Bernard Bettin (27)
- Sergeant Kenneth Jack Bevis (22)
- Corporal Frank Bickers (27)
- Flying Officer Alfred John Birtles (30)
- Leading Aircraftman Philip Henry Blampied
- Sergeant Stanley George Bond (20)
- Flight Sergeant Donald George Booth (19)
- Flight Sergeant Frederick Nelson Bowler (22)
- Pilot Officer Augustine Brannigan (29)
- Flight Sergeant Cyril Jack Bridger (26)