Operation Yellowfin
23 February 1945 — Pforzheim
- Date
- 23 February 1945
- Target
- Pforzheim, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 380 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 12
Narrative
The raid on Pforzheim — codenamed Yellowfin — on the night of 23/24 February 1945 was one of the most destructive area attacks of the entire war relative to the size of the target. Some 367 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitos of Nos. 1, 6 and 8 Groups attacked the small Black Forest town, prized for its precision-instrument and clock industry, from unusually low level. In about twenty minutes they raised a firestorm that consumed the centre: more than four-fifths of the built-up area was destroyed and around 17,600 people — close to a third of the population — were killed, a proportion exceeded in Germany only at Hamburg and Dresden. Twelve aircraft were lost, most to night-fighters over the target. Pforzheim stands among the starkest examples of the devastation area bombing could inflict on a single town.
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
63 airmen in this archive died on 23 February 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 Donald William Bateman
- Flight Sergeant Henry Thomas Batten (28)
- Pilot Officer Raymond Clifford Brown
- Flight Sergeant Thomas George Campbell (20)
- Flight Sergeant Patrick John Paul Carlon (21)
- Flying Officer Frederick Einar Casher (23)
- Flight Lieutenant William Mackie Constable
- Flight Sergeant William Remington Cookson (23)
- Flying Officer Joseph Alfred Emile Thomas Cousineau
- Pilot Officer Charles Cleghorn Brockie Craigie (21)
- Pilot Officer Leo Patrick Curtin (20)
- Leading Aircraftman Kellems Richards Davey (20)
- Warrant Officer Francis Herbert Dix (24)
- Flight Lieutenant Joseph Garrett Doyle (23)
- Sergeant John Joseph Drake (21)
- Flight Sergeant William Francis Duncan (24)
- Flying Officer Vivian Clive Ely (23)
- Sergeant John Gower Evans (22)
- Pilot Officer Alan Noel Fletcher (24)
- Pilot Officer James Gallagher
- Aircraftman 1st Class Robert Orr Grant (32)
- Flying Officer Clifford Wesley Hall (22)
- Warrant Officer Norman Joseph Hall (24)
- Flying Officer Clifford Seymour Hart (23)