Le Havre E-boat Pens
14 June 1944 — Le Havre E-boat Pens
- Date
- 14 June 1944
- Target
- Le Havre E-boat Pens, France
Narrative
On 14 June 1944 a strong daylight force attacked the harbour at Le Havre, where the German fast attack craft — the E-boats threatening the invasion shipping in the Channel — were based. The raid, in which No. 617 Squadron’s Tallboys were used against the concrete E-boat pens, wrecked the harbour and destroyed a large part of the flotilla, easing the threat to the cross-Channel supply lines.
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
53 airmen in this archive died on 14 June 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.
- Pilot Officer Jack Thomas Battye (36)
- Lieutenant Begbie (26)
- Flying Officer Gordon Wilmer Besley
- Pilot Officer Leonard Douglas Bonnett (21)
- Flight Sergeant John Alexander Buckingham (22)
- Sergeant Patrick Cameron (22)
- Squadron Leader John William Carmichael (25)
- Flying Officer Robert William Clark-hall (23)
- Corporal John William Cliff (42)
- Flight Lieutenant Ian Bruce Croll
- Flying Officer Lorne Franklin Curry (27)
- Warrant Officer Class II Frederick Richard Dreger (27)
- Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Eric Evans (34)
- Warrant Officer Class I John Edward Ford (24)
- Flight Sergeant Magnus August Gislason (21)
- Pilot Officer Noel Goodridge (20)
- Warrant Officer Ian Frederick Gould (24)
- Squadron Leader John Grigor Mackenzie Grant (28)
- Flying Officer John Fraser Gray (23)
- Lieutenant Harding (25)
- Flight Sergeant Ronald Albert Harrip (21)
- Lieutenant Arthur Harrison (51)
- Pilot Officer Owen Peter Hughes (20)
- Warrant Officer Donald Bertram Kairton (22)
See all 53 who died on 14 June →
Source: Wikipedia — Tallboy (bomb) →