Cologne
2 March 1945 — Cologne
- Date
- 2 March 1945
- Target
- Cologne, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 858 aircraft
Narrative
The last great raid on Cologne fell on 2 March 1945, just two days before American troops entered the city. Some 858 aircraft attacked in daylight, adding to the ruin of a city that, after the thousand-bomber raid of 1942 and years of attack, was already among the most devastated in Germany. By the time the ground forces arrived, Cologne was a wilderness of rubble around its surviving cathedral.
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
64 airmen in this archive died on 2 March 1945 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.
- Flight Lieutenant Richard Joseph Audet (22)
- Air Sergeant Austin (21)
- Warrant Officer Class II Harland Trevor Benn (20)
- Pilot Officer Ernest Bertin Boyce (22)
- Flying Officer Clair Patrick Boyle
- Flying Officer Donald Peter Bradshaw (20)
- Flight Sergeant Kenneth Thomas Brown (21)
- Flying Officer Charles Jackson Cameron (31)
- Flight Sergeant Rodney Austin Carson (31)
- Flight Sergeant Graham Richard Conley (20)
- Warrant Officer Class II John Corman
- Flying Officer John William Coyle (24)
- Flying Officer Thomas Neville Downes (20)
- Flight Sergeant Robert James Eaton (20)
- Flight Sergeant Osric Brownrigg Elliott (21)
- Warrant Officer Class II Faull (18)
- Flying Officer Alfred Percy Fogerty (27)
- Flight Sergeant Walter William Foy (25)
- Flight Sergeant John Michael Gerrard (20)
- Corporal Derek Arthur Leslie Gibbons (23)
- Flight Sergeant Albert William Conrad Gledhill (21)
- Leading Aircraftman Patrick Francis Goodger (20)
- Warrant Officer Henry Vincent Gordon (26)
- Flying Officer Leo Joseph Robert Gregoire