Essen

Date

9 February 1943

Command

Bomber Command

Target

Essen, Germany

Force dispatched

23 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

72 airmen in this archive died on 9 February 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.

• Lieutenant Eric W. (dave) Airey (29)
• Leading Aircraftman George Armstrong (30)
• Sergeant Irwin Fowlds Bailey (23)
• Flight Sergeant John Douglas Baird
• Flying Officer Geoffrey Russell Baker (25)
• Sergeant Henry Nicholson Balmforth
• Sergeant John William Barker (28)
• Sergeant Jack Heaton Beebe (21)
• Sergeant Sydney Bellis (20)
• Flying Officer Roy Ledlay Brabant (22)
• Flight Sergeant Ronald Charles Brooks (23)
• Flying Officer Frederick Joseph Brown (28)
• Corporal Walter Ernest Broxham (27)
• Lieutenant Byas (25)
• Flying Officer Maxwell John Cobley (25)
• Aircraftman 2nd Class Gordon Walter Davidson (22)
• Sergeant James Robert Elding (21)
• Sergeant William Ronald Erasmus
• Flight Sergeant Edward Froggatt (22)
• Flight Sergeant Francis Colin Gordon (22)
• Sergeant Humphrey Ralph Green (22)
• Leading Aircraftman Robert William Albert Grigg
• Sergeant George Henry Hale (32)
• Sergeant Horace William Hall (20)

See all 72 who died on 9 February →

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