Saint-leu-d'esserent
7 July 1944 — Saint-leu-d'esserent
- Date
- 7 July 1944
- Target
- Saint-leu-d'esserent, France
Narrative
The limestone quarries at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, north of Paris, held one of the Germans’ largest underground stores for the V-1 flying bombs being launched at London. No. 617 Squadron struck the quarry with Tallboys on the night of 4/5 July 1944, and a heavy main-force attack followed on 7/8 July. The bombing cut the tunnel entrances and the rail lines serving them, badly disrupting the supply of flying bombs to the launch sites.
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
86 airmen in this archive died on 7 July 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 Hilton Craig Bell (22)
- Pilot Officer James Douglas Bishop
- Squadron Leader William Walter Blessing (31)
- Flying Officer John William Blyth (23)
- Pilot Officer Kenneth Arthur Boyce (23)
- Warrant Officer Warwick Brothers (22)
- Pilot Officer Hugh Thomas Blakeley Burgess (23)
- Corporal Reginald Edward Stanley Butler
- Warrant Officer Class II Henry Ramsay Carruthers (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Henry Joseph Cleary (25)
- Flight Sergeant Verne Edward Cockroft (24)
- Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Anthony Conway Coldridge (22)
- Pilot Officer Ronald Thomas Collins (26)
- Corporal Robert Edwin Colwell (23)
- Flying Officer Arthur George Corck (20)
- Flight Sergeant Horace Andrew Cummins (28)
- Warrant Officer Geoffrey James Custance (21)
- Flight Sergeant John Phillip Sinclair Dalton (21)
- Flight Sergeant Rae Charles Dalton (27)
- Flight Sergeant Dennis Albert Davies (24)
- Lieutenant Francois Meyer Du Toit (19)
- Flying Officer Douglas Elphick (25)
- Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (25)
- Flying Officer Norman Vincent Gautschi (26)