Hamburg
30 January 1943 — Hamburg
- Date
- 30 January 1943
- Target
- Hamburg, Germany
Narrative
The Hamburg raid of 30/31 January 1943 is remembered less for its results than for the equipment it introduced: it saw the first operational use of H2S, the airborne ground-mapping radar that let Pathfinder crews find a target through cloud and darkness without ground-based beams. The new sets were still few and imperfect and the bombing was scattered, but H2S would transform the accuracy of Bomber Command’s attacks on cities, like Hamburg itself, that lay beyond the range of the Gee and Oboe systems.
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
155 airmen in this archive died on 30 January 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 McKeen Allan (33)
- Flight Sergeant William Robert George Anderson (25)
- Flight Sergeant John Dunstan Appleby (31)
- Flight Lieutenant Harold William Aves (29)
- Sergeant Leslie Frederick Axby (27)
- Sergeant Gilbert Campbell Baker (27)
- Sergeant John Leslie Emery Barden (24)
- Sergeant Peter William Barrett (20)
- Flight Sergeant Kenneth Batson (28)
- Flight Lieutenant Norman Lee Baugh (28)
- Leading Aircraftman Donald Robert Bawden (28)
- Sergeant John Henry Beasley (19)
- Sergeant James Hay Armstrong Beath (25)
- Warrant Officer Class II Frank James Belanger
- Sergeant Stuart Bell (22)
- Pilot Officer Cecil Joseph Bennett
- Sergeant Colin Bruce Berger (24)
- Sergeant K R Blakey
- Sergeant Kenneth Rushton Blaskey (26)
- Leading Aircraftman Joseph Louis Paul Boutin (21)
- Pilot Officer Charles Douglas Brown
- Sergeant James Arthur Gerald Browne (25)
- Sergeant Walter Henry Brunning (22)
- Sergeant Arthur William Butcher (19)
See all 155 who died on 30 January →
Source: Wikipedia — H2S (radar) →