Operation Hurricane
14 October 1944 — Duisburg
- Date
- 14 October 1944
- Target
- Duisburg, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 1,013 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 24
Narrative
Operation Hurricane on 14 October 1944 was a deliberate demonstration of Allied air power over the Ruhr, intended to show the enemy the overwhelming weight of force now ranged against Germany. In daylight more than a thousand RAF aircraft attacked Duisburg under fighter escort, and that night the bombers returned in two waves. Across roughly twenty-four hours Bomber Command flew some 2,500 sorties and dropped in the region of 10,000 tons of bombs on the city, while the US Eighth Air Force mounted its own attacks. Duisburg, already badly damaged, was devastated, and more than two thousand of its inhabitants were killed. Twenty-four aircraft were lost. The operation showed how completely the balance in the air had shifted since the lean years of 1940–42.
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
115 airmen in this archive died on 14 October 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 Lieutenant Reginald Major Aldus (29)
- Sergeant Leslie Arthur Andrews
- Flying Officer Alexander Barr (24)
- Flying Officer Archie Verdun Batty (29)
- Flight Sergeant Byron Jeremiah Becker
- Flight Sergeant Clarence Walter Beckingham (20)
- Leading Aircraftman William Whittingham Beddow (21)
- Flying Officer Glenn Crawford Bellamy (26)
- Flight Sergeant Lloyd Douglas Bennett (26)
- Warrant Officer Charles Siel Billington (26)
- Flying Officer Ronald Lionel Lister Bodie (22)
- Pilot Officer Robert Henry Bowen (24)
- Flying Officer Joseph Ross Eugene Brouillette (22)
- Pilot Officer John William Brown (22)
- Flight Sergeant Denis Frederick Buist (23)
- Flying Officer Dell Alfred Butler
- Flying Officer James Commodore Campbell (28)
- Flight Sergeant Frederick Paul Cartan
- Pilot Officer Roland Marcel Joseph Champagne (24)
- Flying Officer Robert Albert Charland
- Flight Lieutenant Ray Lloyd Clearwater (32)
- Flying Officer Ross Cuthbert Clouston (22)
- Flight Sergeant Francis John Cook (21)
- Sergeant Gordon Thomas Cook (22)