Berchtesgaden
25 April 1945 — Berchtesgaden
- Date
- 25 April 1945
- Target
- Berchtesgaden, Germany
Narrative
On 25 April 1945, in one of its very last operations, Bomber Command attacked the Obersalzberg above Berchtesgaden — the mountain complex of residences and bunkers built for Hitler and the Nazi leadership, including the Berghof. More than 300 Lancasters and Mosquitoes, No. 617 Squadron among them dropping Tallboys, bombed the site; the SS barracks and Göring’s house were wrecked. Two bombers were lost. It was a symbolic blow at the very heart of the regime in its final days.
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
70 airmen in this archive died on 25 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 Lloyd Hilbourne Amos
- Flying Officer Douglas George Baker (23)
- Warrant Officer George Donald Barry (27)
- Flying Officer Allan Bernard Boyd
- Pilot Officer James Edwin Brambleby (24)
- Lieutenant T. J. McD. Breakey (22)
- Flying Officer Edward Dale Brydon
- Lieutenant Francis Bullard (30)
- Flight Lieutenant John Alan Burkitt (26)
- Flight Sergeant Ralph Franklin Carrodus (23)
- Pilot Officer Paxton Chapple (22)
- Flying Officer John Duncan Cruickshank (28)
- Pilot Officer Dennis Rupert Humphrey Curzon (20)
- Flying Officer Wilfred Tarquinas De Marco
- Flight Lieutenant Arthur Joseph Dilworth (22)
- Flying Officer William John Edwards (25)
- Flight Lieutenant Arthur Blevyn Ely
- Flight Lieutenant Barry Desmond Emmet (24)
- Flying Officer Cedric John Evans (22)
- Flight Lieutenant George Walter John Fenwick (31)
- Pilot Officer Oswald Ernest Goddard (22)
- Pilot Officer Ronald Bede Goodwin (21)
- Captain Gould (35)
- Flight Lieutenant Kilburn Howard Grist