Koblenz
29 December 1944 — Koblenz
- Date
- 29 December 1944
- Target
- Koblenz, Germany
Narrative
Where the Moselle meets the Rhine, Koblenz was a vital rail junction feeding the German offensive in the Ardennes. On 29 December 1944 Lancasters attacked its marshalling yards in daylight to cut the supply lines behind the German thrust — part of the wider effort to strangle the movement that sustained the Battle of the Bulge.
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
56 airmen in this archive died on 29 December 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 Raymond Francis Adam (20)
- Pilot Officer George Howell Barnett
- Flight Sergeant Kenneth Henry Barnett (20)
- Lieutenant John Rollo Forbes Biggs (21)
- Flight Lieutenant William Nicholas Bingham (25)
- Lieutenant Booyzen
- Squadron Leader Thomas Sutherland Brotherstone (31)
- Flight Sergeant Lance Cain (31)
- Pilot Officer James Edward Cartman (24)
- Pilot Officer Roy Clifford Conley
- Pilot Officer Frederick Stanley Dennis
- Flying Officer Howard Raymond Dryer (20)
- Pilot Officer Jacob Feldman
- Warrant Officer Class I Forbes
- Flying Officer Gerald Gordon Fox (21)
- Lieutenant Howard Thomas Funkey (24)
- Flight Sergeant Albert Edward Gillings (48)
- Flight Sergeant Malcolm James Gordon (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Francis Brooke Pickard Gregory
- Pilot Officer Alan Wardell Haley (21)
- Sergeant Thomas Raymond Harrigan
- Warrant Officer Raymond Richard Lindsay Hawke (29)
- Sergeant John Andrew Heenan (20)
- Warrant Officer Class II Huskisson (18)
See all 56 who died on 29 December →
Source: Wikipedia — Koblenz →