Soest

Date

5 December 1944

Target

Soest

Force dispatched

497 aircraft

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

96 airmen in this archive died on 5 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.

• Flight Sergeant Colwyn Parker Angus (23)
• Flight Lieutenant Raymond Lloyd Annand-smith (27)
• Pilot Officer Robert Kenneth Armstrong (22)
• Pilot Officer Orval George Backes (29)
• Flying Officer Jack Douglas Baird (20)
• Pilot Officer Cecil Henry Baldwin (29)
• Flight Sergeant Arie Gordon Baxter (21)
• Lieutenant Begg (25)
• Pilot Officer Jabez Kevin Bendall (24)
• Sergeant Joseph Jean Paul Osias Berlinguette (20)
• Flight Sergeant Frank Alexander Black (31)
• Air Mechanic Christoffel J. Botha
• Flying Officer Joseph Rufin Boudreau
• Sergeant Laurence Ernest Brown (24)
• Sergeant William McDonald Campbell (33)
• Flying Officer Albert Victor Carter (22)
• Warrant Officer Class I James George William Chalmers
• Flying Officer Gordon Roy Cheesman (29)
• Sergeant George Albert Chevrier (19)
• Flying Officer Kenneth Cregeen Christian (24)
• Pilot Officer Edwin Spencer Charles Clark (21)
• Flying Officer Kenneth Roy Collier (24)
• Sergeant Ernest Newton Cook (37)
• Sergeant Thomas Wesley Cook (36)

See all 96 who died on 5 December →

Source: RAF Bomber Command Campaign Diary (60th-Anniversary website, via the Wayback Machine) →