Dortmund
4 May 1943 — Dortmund
- Date
- 4 May 1943
- Target
- Dortmund, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 596 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 31
Narrative
The largest force Bomber Command had yet sent against a single German city opened this phase of the Ruhr offensive: 596 aircraft, a mixed stream of Lancasters, Halifaxes, Wellingtons, Stirlings and a few Mosquitoes. Pathfinder marking was accurate, and about half the main force dropped within three miles of the aiming point — a concentration that tore through the central and northern districts. Two steel foundries and the inland docks were among the works wrecked; more than 1,200 buildings were destroyed and over 2,000 badly damaged, while German decoy fires lit on the outskirts drew off only a part of the bombing. Around 690 people were killed on the ground, among them some 200 Allied prisoners of war held in the city. Thirty-one bombers failed to return — a loss of more than five per cent — and several more crashed in England on the way home.
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
253 airmen in this archive died on 4 May 1943 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 Norman Ainsworth (20)
- Sergeant Richard Allison
- Aircraftman 1st Class Thomas Francis Amies (36)
- Sergeant Anderson (21)
- Flight Sergeant Jack Colin Archer
- Flight Sergeant George Ernest Armstrong
- Pilot Officer Thomas Armstrong
- Sergeant John Avery (23)
- Flight Sergeant James Banyer (33)
- Flight Sergeant John Lawrence Barry (23)
- Flight Lieutenant Jean Paul Barsalou (25)
- Flight Sergeant Sidney William Bartlett (19)
- Flying Officer John Baxter (27)
- Sergeant Frederick Ronald Beech (21)
- Sergeant James Arthur Beedim (34)
- Sergeant Frederick Horace Bennetton (20)
- Pilot Officer Robert Henry Waldron Bentley (23)
- Sergeant Victor Edward Betterton
- Sergeant Jack Smith Birkett (24)
- Pilot Officer Robert Orin Blackhall (23)
- Sergeant Charles Robert Sayre Blenkhorn (22)
- Sergeant John McLaren Boswell (26)
- Flight Sergeant Kenneth Charles George Bourne (20)
- Sergeant Gordon Stanley Bowles
See all 253 who died on 4 May →
Source: Wikipedia — Battle of the Ruhr →