Kiel
9 April 1945 — Kiel
- Date
- 9 April 1945
- Target
- Kiel, Germany
Narrative
On the night of 9/10 April 1945 over 300 Lancasters of Nos 1 and 3 Groups attacked the naval dockyard at Kiel. Among the warships caught at their berths was the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, which was hit, capsized and sank — one of the last German capital ships, destroyed in harbour in the war’s final month.
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
72 airmen in this archive died on 9 April 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.
- Flying Officer Alfred Desmond John Ball (20)
- Flight Sergeant Neville James Barron (19)
- Flying Officer Thomas Henry Baulderstone (21)
- Flying Officer Vincent Gerald Berriman (25)
- Pilot Officer Frederick William Birks (23)
- Flight Sergeant Anthony Ellis Bowman (23)
- Wing Commander Terence Patrick Armstrong Bradley (28)
- Flight Sergeant William John Brooker (20)
- Sergeant Frederick Brookes
- Warrant Officer Thomas Louis Bubke (22)
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Stuart Burnett (62)
- Pilot Officer Melvin John (mel) Burns (20)
- Flight Sergeant Herbert Eric Burton (25)
- Flying Officer John Charles Cunningham (35)
- Flight Sergeant Harold Crawford Daer (21)
- Pilot Officer Alfred John Damm (32)
- Lieutenant Dekema (20)
- Air Corporal David De Villiers (30)
- Pilot Officer Robert Allison Duncan
- Flying Officer Kenneth Valentine Dunning (31)
- Flight Sergeant Neil Vernon Evans (22)
- Flight Lieutenant Ronald Sylvester Evans (20)
- Flying Officer William Forrester (20)
- Flying Officer Douglas Godfrey Vincent Forster (25)
See all 72 who died on 9 April →
Source: Australian War Memorial — Kiel after the RAF attack, 9/10 April 1945 →