Potsdam
14 April 1945 — Potsdam
- Date
- 14 April 1945
- Target
- Potsdam, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 512 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 1
Narrative
The attack on Potsdam, the old garrison town beside Berlin, on the night of 14/15 April 1945 was the last raid of the war by a major Bomber Command force on a German city. Some 500 Lancasters and a dozen Mosquitoes of Nos 1, 3 and 8 Groups bombed the barracks and railway facilities. With the Reich collapsing and much of the route already in Allied hands, only one Lancaster was lost.
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
42 airmen in this archive died on 14 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.
- Warrant Officer Graham Morris Bagshaw (22)
- Sergeant Donald Gerald Boutcher
- Pilot Officer John Mostyn Brightwell (23)
- Corporal Henry James Chinchen (29)
- Flying Officer Percy Bruce Crosswell
- Flight Sergeant Edward Arthur Crutchfield (23)
- Flight Lieutenant John Norrie Gordon Dick
- Flying Officer Robert Mould English
- Flight Sergeant Sefton Clyde Joseph Ferrick (23)
- Sergeant Ronald Spilsbury Finney (24)
- Pilot Officer Edgar Joseph Foy (24)
- Leading Aircraftman James Gibbons (24)
- Flight Lieutenant Jack Dunthorn Laurie Hall
- Flight Sergeant John William Hamilton (29)
- Flying Officer Arthur Sydney Haynes (40)
- Pilot Officer William Henderson
- Sergeant William Spencer John Hickmore (28)
- Sergeant Edward Charles Johnson (30)
- Corporal Barry Pugh Jones (24)
- Pilot Officer Gregory James Jones (20)
- Pilot Officer Gordon Archie Livingston (30)
- Flying Officer John George Stanley Joseph Livingstone (24)
- Flying Officer Charles Robert Loft (22)
- Pilot Officer Colin Charles Maclaren (31)
See all 42 who died on 14 April →
Source: 75(NZ) Squadron — Attack on Potsdam, 14 April 1945 →