Bochum

13 May 1943 — Bochum

Date
13 May 1943
Target
Bochum, Germany
Force dispatched
442 aircraft
Aircraft lost
24

Narrative

A force of 442 aircraft was sent against Bochum, in the heart of the Ruhr. The attack began well, with accurate Pathfinder marking, but after about fifteen minutes German decoy markers drew much of the main force away from the true aiming point and scattered the later waves into open ground. Even so the town was hit hard: close to 400 buildings were destroyed and more than 700 seriously damaged, and around 300 people were killed. The cost to the attackers was heavy — 24 bombers lost, 5.4 per cent of the force — the night-fighter belt across the Low Countries and the Rhineland again taking a steady toll of the stream as it came and went. The night showed both faces of the Ruhr battle: marking good enough to start a destructive fire, and an enemy growing ever more skilled at pulling the bombing off its mark and the bombers out of the sky.

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

428 airmen in this archive died on 13 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.

See all 428 who died on 13 May →

Source: Wikipedia — Battle of the Ruhr →