Wesel
23 March 1945 — Wesel
- Date
- 23 March 1945
- Target
- Wesel, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 330 aircraft
Narrative
Wesel stood on the east bank of the Rhine at the very point chosen for the great Allied river crossing of March 1945, Operation Plunder. To clear the way, Bomber Command battered the town to rubble: some 80 Lancasters of No. 3 Group struck by day and around 250 more that evening of 23 March, dropping over 1,100 tons of high explosive in the hours before the assault troops crossed. Following earlier raids that February which had already destroyed most of the town, the bombing was so effective and so closely timed that the commandos who went in afterwards met little resistance; their commander judged it a decisive contribution. Wesel was left among the most completely destroyed towns of the war.
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
68 airmen in this archive died on 23 March 1945 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.
- Pilot Officer John Lawrence Adams (23)
- Flying Officer Lorne Raymond Aljoe (21)
- Flying Officer Reginald Arthur Henry Allen (23)
- Flying Officer William Anderson (25)
- Flight Sergeant Norman Hanson Ashworth (28)
- Flight Lieutenant John Benjamin Barnes
- Flight Sergeant Harry James Boyd (22)
- Flying Officer Wilfred Henry Brooks (21)
- Flying Officer Kenneth Rupert Bruce (24)
- Warrant Officer Class II James Ewart Bunn
- Squadron Leader William Ritchie Christison (26)
- Flight Lieutenant Cooper (25)
- Flight Lieutenant Gordon Couldrey (28)
- Flying Officer Ian Rees Cowan (22)
- Lieutenant De Klerk
- Pupil Pilot Colin Douglas (22)
- Flying Officer Francis William Douglas (24)
- Flying Officer Derek Wallace Edwards (21)
- Flying Officer Richard Akehurst Egley (21)
- Warrant Officer William Richard Flanagan (26)
- Leading Aircraftman Cecil Richard Ford (28)
- Pilot Officer Edward Bruce Forsythe (23)
- Sergeant John William Geran
- Sergeant Gordon Noel Graham (24)