Dortmund
12 March 1945 — Dortmund
- Date
- 12 March 1945
- Target
- Dortmund, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 1,108 aircraft
Narrative
The attack on Dortmund on 12 March 1945 was the largest Bomber Command raid of the entire war against a single target. A force of 1,108 aircraft — 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes and 68 Mosquitoes — dropped 4,851 tons of bombs in less than half an hour, destroying around 98 per cent of the city centre. It was the culmination of years of attacks on the Ruhr, and a demonstration of the overwhelming weight Bomber Command could by then bring down on a city in a single blow.
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
37 airmen in this archive died on 12 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.
- Flying Officer Bruce Andrew Stanley Abbott (21)
- Pilot Officer Frank Ernest Baker (29)
- Pilot Officer George Herbert Brock (22)
- Flight Sergeant John Derrick Bryant (30)
- Pilot Officer George Leonard Burgess (24)
- Flight Sergeant Lewis Walter Calder (23)
- Flying Officer Manoel Callas (27)
- Flying Officer James Paul Farrell (25)
- Flight Lieutenant Harry John Fowler (23)
- Flight Lieutenant Murray Macdonald Gardner (28)
- Corporal Charles Henry George
- Warrant Officer Class II Floyd Eugene George (20)
- Flying Officer Edward Franklin Gilbert (26)
- Leading Aircraftman Arthur James Gilder (38)
- Flight Sergeant Hunter Gillender (21)
- Leading Aircraftman Thomas E. Gorringe (23)
- Flying Officer Ronald Arthur Green (24)
- Flight Lieutenant Robert Alfred Haywood (25)
- Pilot Officer Daniel William Hodge (19)
- Pilot Officer George Alexander Kennedy (22)
- Pilot Officer Thomas Alexander Mallon (30)
- Warrant Officer Raymond William Moffat (23)
- Wing Commander Victor Rundle Oats (29)
- Flight Sergeant George John Patrick O'Brien (21)
See all 37 who died on 12 March →
Source: Wikipedia — List of strategic bombings over Germany in World War II →