Munich
24 April 1944 — Munich
- Date
- 24 April 1944
- Target
- Munich, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 250 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 9
Narrative
This raid on Munich is remembered as one of the finest marking feats of the war. The attack was a 5 Group operation — 234 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitoes — and it used the low-level marking method in which a handful of Mosquitoes dived to mark the aiming point from only about 700 feet, beneath the flak and with great precision. The marker force was led by Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire of No. 617 Squadron, who lingered over the heavily defended city to place his markers exactly; for this and his sustained record of such work he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The result was a concentrated and accurate attack that destroyed some 80 per cent of the buildings in the target area and killed around 139 people. Nine Lancasters were lost. The night demonstrated, against a distant and well-defended target, just what precise visual marking from low level could achieve.
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
299 airmen in this archive died on 24 April 1944 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 Daniel Gilbert Adams (27)
- Flight Sergeant Percy James Adshead (27)
- Flight Lieutenant Philip Raymond Aitken (22)
- Sergeant William Edward Alexander (22)
- Flying Officer Eric Robert Alston
- Pilot Officer Arthur John Thomas Armon (23)
- Sergeant Keith Leonard Armstrong (22)
- Flight Sergeant Roy Francis Crossley Badman (20)
- Pilot Officer George Harvey Bainbridge (20)
- Flight Sergeant Alfred Baker (21)
- Flight Sergeant Frederick Basil Baker (25)
- Warrant Officer Class II Walter Baldwin Baldwinson (22)
- Sergeant Dennis Albert Barber
- Flight Sergeant John Raymond Bathe (30)
- Sergeant John George Beilby (24)
- Flight Lieutenant Clifton Francis Benefield (25)
- Flight Sergeant Henry Thomas Leonard Bennett (26)
- Flight Sergeant Peter Anthony Bennett (20)
- Pilot Officer Victor Hector Bernyk
- Sergeant William Bingham (22)
- Flight Sergeant John Edwin Bloomer (21)
- Pilot Officer Gerald Joseph Boucher (19)
- Pilot Officer Lawrence Joseph Henry Boudreau
- Pilot Officer Theodore Phillip Bourque