Wizernes
17 July 1944 — Wizernes
- Date
- 17 July 1944
- Target
- Wizernes, France
Narrative
At Wizernes the Germans had cut an immense concrete dome into a chalk quarry to shelter a V-2 rocket launching complex. Conventional bombing barely scratched it, so on 17 July 1944 No. 617 Squadron attacked with Tallboys; near-misses undermined the dome and brought down the surrounding chalk, rendering the site unusable. It was abandoned, never having launched a rocket.
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
65 airmen in this archive died on 17 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.
- Pilot Officer Percy Leonard Alp (30)
- Flight Lieutenant George Leonard Barker (30)
- Flight Sergeant Edward Laurence Bishop (26)
- Flying Officer Robert Wallace Blair (19)
- Pilot Officer Joseph Arthur Blasko (19)
- Flight Sergeant Frederick George Brezina (26)
- Squadron Leader Charles Gordon Bull
- Captain Burger
- Sergeant Ronald Frank Burgess (22)
- Pilot Officer Robert Elwood Burton
- Sergeant James Alexander Calder (21)
- Leading Aircraftman William Charles Carney (31)
- Pilot Officer Douglas Alexander Carson
- Air Commodore Guy Lloyd Carter (44)
- Flying Officer Peter Clark
- Pilot Officer Ralph Stewart Cole (22)
- Pilot Officer Douglas Alexander Cooper (25)
- Flying Officer William John Curtis (35)
- Flight Lieutenant Theron Elwyn Daniels (41)
- Flying Officer John William Kirkwood Dunn (35)
- Air Corporal Rudolf Du Preez
- Flying Officer Ronald Gordon Ellis (27)
- Sergeant Richard George Foster (22)
- Squadron Leader Walter William Beresford Gale (24)
See all 65 who died on 17 July →
Source: Wikipedia — Operation Crossbow →