Pas-de-calais V-weapon Sites
16 December 1943 — Pas-de-calais V-weapon Sites
- Date
- 16 December 1943
- Target
- Pas-de-calais V-weapon Sites, France
Narrative
From December 1943 Bomber Command joined the Anglo-American Operation Crossbow against the ‘ski sites’ being built across the Pas-de-Calais and Cherbourg peninsula to launch V-1 flying bombs at London. The attacks on these small, scattered, well-defended targets — codenamed ‘Noball’ — forced the Germans to abandon the elaborate ski sites for simpler hidden launchers, and absorbed a large share of the bomber effort in the months around D-Day.
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
394 airmen in this archive died on 16 December 1943 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 Gilbert Ernest Adams (23)
- Sergeant Norman Ellis Adams (21)
- Sergeant Philip William Alderton (24)
- Sergeant Harry Derek Gordon Aldiss (20)
- Sergeant Ward William James Allen (25)
- Flight Sergeant Charles William Angus (22)
- Pilot Officer Lewis Percival Archibald (21)
- Sergeant Raymond Askew (21)
- Sergeant Raymond Atkin
- Leading Aircraftman Jack Atkins (37)
- Flight Lieutenant Charles Oscar Aubert (26)
- Sergeant William Stanley Austin (29)
- Pilot Officer Donald Baker (20)
- Flight Sergeant Robert William Baldwin (28)
- Sergeant John Bamford
- Sergeant Leslie Banks
- Sergeant Raymond John Baroni
- Sergeant Jack Leslie Barrett
- Pilot Officer George William Frederick Batchelor
- Flight Sergeant James Richard Bateman (23)
- Flight Sergeant Ernest John Battle (22)
- Sergeant Albert Elvin Baumann (22)
- Pilot Officer Richard Anthony Bayldon (20)
- Flying Officer Alfred Francis Beckett (36)
See all 394 who died on 16 December →
Source: Wikipedia — Operation Crossbow →