Operation Lübeck raid

28 March 1942 — Lübeck

Date
28 March 1942
Target
Lübeck, Germany
Force dispatched
234 aircraft
Aircraft lost
12

Narrative

The attack on Lübeck on the night of 28/29 March 1942 was the first big success of Sir Arthur Harris’s new area-bombing offensive. Harris chose the old Hanseatic port not for its military value — which he admitted was slight — but because its medieval centre of narrow streets and timber-framed houses would burn. A force of 234 Wellingtons and Stirlings crossed the target in under two hours, dropping around 400 tons of bombs, including some 25,000 incendiaries and heavy ‘blockbusters’ to blast buildings open for the flames. A firestorm gutted the old town and destroyed three of its great churches. Twelve aircraft were lost. Lübeck proved the destructive power of concentrated incendiary attack and shaped the tactics Bomber Command would use against German cities for the rest 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

129 airmen in this archive died on 28 March 1942 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.

See all 129 who died on 28 March →

Source: Wikipedia — Bombing of Lübeck in World War II →