Düsseldorf
25 May 1943 — Düsseldorf
- Date
- 25 May 1943
- Target
- Düsseldorf, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 729 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 27
Narrative
This was a large attack on Düsseldorf that the weather defeated. A force of 729 aircraft — 323 Lancasters, 169 Halifaxes, 142 Wellingtons, 113 Stirlings and a dozen Mosquitoes — set out behind the Oboe markers of No. 109 Squadron, but two layers of cloud over the city made the Pathfinders’ work very difficult, and German decoy markers and fires drew much of the main force into bombing open ground. Only about thirty people were killed and a relatively small number of buildings destroyed — a poor return for so great an effort. Twenty-seven bombers were lost. The night stood in sharp contrast to the devastating Düsseldorf raid that followed seventeen nights later, on 11 June, and it captured the central uncertainty of the Ruhr battle: under cloud, even Oboe could be spoofed, and a huge force sent its load harmlessly into the fields.
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
246 airmen in this archive died on 25 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.
- Sergeant Brian Cyrus Ainsworth (22)
- Sergeant Peter Alfred Allport (21)
- Sergeant George Edmond Anderson
- Corporal Neville Bruce Andrews (30)
- Sergeant Patrick Arnott (19)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Colin Granville Atkins (19)
- Pilot Officer Joseph Henry Atkinson
- Sergeant Sydney Arthur James Bailey (21)
- Pilot Officer Frank Greenaway Baker (24)
- Sergeant Eric Harry Frederic Barker (23)
- Sergeant Frederick William Barns (34)
- Sergeant Stanley Francis Barrow (22)
- Sergeant Cyril Walter Bates (20)
- Sergeant Roy Batterbee
- Warrant Officer Class II Donald Lyall Beatty (24)
- Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Bell
- Flight Sergeant Peter Bentley (22)
- Sergeant Derrick Lewis Berresford (21)
- Pilot Officer Joseph Francois Exavier Gilles Berthiaume
- Flight Sergeant Alburn Frederick Birkbeck
- Sergeant Ronald Sydney Blake (32)
- Flying Officer Cyril Francis Blanchard (31)
- Flying Officer Albert Carey Bonner (24)
- Sergeant George Langdon Bottomley (20)
See all 246 who died on 25 May →
Source: Wikipedia — Battle of the Ruhr →