Trappes
6 March 1944 — Trappes
- Date
- 6 March 1944
- Target
- Trappes, France
Narrative
The attack on the railway yards at Trappes, south-west of Paris, on the night of 6/7 March 1944 was the first heavy raid of the ‘Transportation Plan’ — the campaign to wreck the French and Belgian rail network and so paralyse German movement before the invasion. The bombing was strikingly accurate, cutting the yards in many places, and helped prove that heavy bombers could hit such precise targets. It opened a campaign that, by D-Day, had struck some eighty rail centres across northern France.
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
112 airmen in this archive died on 6 March 1944 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.
- Warrant Officer Class I Alan Aiken (19)
- Warrant Officer Albert Edward Alberry (28)
- Leading Aircraftman George Stephen Ambrose
- Sergeant Bernard Vincent Arney (20)
- Lieutenant Aronson (22)
- Sergeant Charles Stewart McGregor Averill (21)
- Leading Aircraftman Albert Bagnall (22)
- Lieutenant Bain (28)
- Flying Officer George James Ballard (23)
- Flying Officer Edward Granville Bayer
- Pilot Officer Frank Reginald Bedford (33)
- Lieutenant Bell (25)
- Flight Lieutenant Arthur Lea Baldwin Bent (28)
- Lieutenant Bowles (30)
- Flying Officer Peter Angus Bradley
- Sergeant Peter Charles Brown (20)
- Sergeant James Gerard Bruen (24)
- Flying Officer Clifford Frank Bull (23)
- Warrant Officer Class II Frederick Lighthall Pulsford Cains (22)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Douglas Frederick Call (19)
- Warrant Officer Edward Callander
- Pilot Officer Neil Donald Campbell
- Flying Officer Glen Ross Canfield (22)
- Pilot Officer Gerald Alexandre Arthur A. Caron (22)
See all 112 who died on 6 March →
Source: Wikipedia — Transport Plan →