Würzburg
16 March 1945 — Würzburg
- Date
- 16 March 1945
- Target
- Würzburg, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 226 aircraft
Narrative
On the night of 16 March 1945, 226 Lancasters of No. 5 Group attacked Würzburg, a baroque cathedral city of little military importance. In an attack lasting under twenty minutes the incendiaries raised a firestorm that consumed almost the entire historic town; an estimated 5,000 people were killed and some ninety per cent of the buildings destroyed. It stands with Dresden among the most-debated of the late-war area attacks.
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
97 airmen in this archive died on 16 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.
- Flight Sergeant Vincent James Arnold (23)
- Flight Sergeant Gerard Sydney Barbeler (21)
- Flight Sergeant Raymond Franklin Lindsay Barber (26)
- Pilot Officer Malcolm Melly Barker (19)
- Flight Sergeant Lyle Eugene Bedell (20)
- Flight Sergeant Kenneth William Binder (19)
- Sergeant Asrielis Blumbergas
- Flying Officer Angus Edward Brechin (20)
- Flying Officer Kenneth Stickney Brenton (28)
- Flight Lieutenant Edward George Brown
- Pilot Officer Walter Gordon Brown (20)
- Warrant Officer Gilmour Sydney Catford (27)
- Flight Lieutenant Frank Earl Connors (27)
- Flying Officer Roger Leon Corcoran (21)
- Flying Officer George Alfred Osborn Dauphinee (24)
- Flight Sergeant John Donald Davidson (36)
- Flight Sergeant Mervyn Desmond Sylvester Davis (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Keith William Daymond
- Squadron Leader Philip Alexander Dey (23)
- Flying Officer Ronald Kingston Dorrington (25)
- Flight Lieutenant Frank Edmond Dotten (22)
- Lieutenant George Dunlop
- Corporal Donald Vernon Elliott (23)
- Warrant Officer Ernest Oliver England (25)