Essen
25 October 1944 — Essen
- Date
- 25 October 1944
- Target
- Essen, Germany
Narrative
By the autumn of 1944 Bomber Command could attack the Ruhr in daylight under fighter escort, and Essen — the home of Krupp and the most-bombed city of the war — was struck by a great force on 25 October 1944 as part of Operation Hurricane, the demonstration of overwhelming Allied air power over the Ruhr. The Krupp works and the city, already shattered by years of attack, were pounded with thousands of tons of bombs.
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
44 airmen in this archive died on 25 October 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.
- Flying Officer Harold Alexander Armstrong (21)
- Pilot Officer William Arthur Bartlemay (19)
- Lieutenant Bell (23)
- Pilot Officer Walter Burford Bernie (20)
- Flight Sergeant Eric Eyles Birch (20)
- Leading Aircraftman Stanley Bousfield (24)
- Flight Sergeant Edward Thomas Brightwell (29)
- Flying Officer Adrian Victor Browne (26)
- Flying Officer James Roberts Burton
- Warrant Officer Peter William Byers (20)
- Pilot Officer John Geoffrey Norman Gadsden (20)
- Group Captain Charles Lennox Gilbert (41)
- Pilot Officer Robert Kane Gillis (22)
- Pilot Officer William Ray Hart (20)
- Sergeant Wilson Henfrey (52)
- Sergeant William James Hetherington (24)
- Flying Officer James Burleigh Hill (21)
- Sergeant John Hills (21)
- Warrant Officer Ernest Frederick Hore
- Flight Sergeant Harvey Roland Irwin (20)
- Pilot Officer Ronald Charles Knight (39)
- Leading Aircraftman George Leo Lafleur (19)
- Flying Officer Edwin Kay Lovell Langton (28)
- Flight Sergeant Aleck Malaidack (21)