Essen

Date

8 March 1942

Target

Essen, Germany

Force dispatched

211 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

169 airmen in this archive died on 8 March 1942 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.

• Pilot Officer Douglas Spencer Aitken (21)
• Flight Sergeant Francis Harold Emmanuel Anger
• Leading Aircraftman James Asquith (21)
• Sergeant Joseph William Avis (22)
• Corporal Frank James Ball (26)
• Sergeant Richard Ball (21)
• Pilot Officer Peter Vincent Barthel (22)
• Sergeant Alfred Thomas Bennett
• Sergeant Sydney William Benson (19)
• Sergeant Harry Walter Trevor Bidgood (19)
• Flight Sergeant William Durham Biltcliffe (22)
• Sergeant Alexander Douglas Blakey (21)
• Sergeant William Henry Bowers (27)
• Sergeant Geoffrey Brereton
• Sergeant Charles Broad (21)
• Flight Sergeant Stanley James Brown (29)
• Sergeant Phillip Crocker Bucknell (20)
• Aircraftman 2nd Class Donald Victor Bunn (40)
• Wing Commander Vernon Stanley Butler (26)
• Sergeant Leslie Wilbur Calderhead (26)
• Flight Lieutenant Basil Bernard Callick (30)
• Flight Sergeant Carl Stuart Carruthers
• Sergeant George Cartwright (24)
• Sergeant James Cartwright (26)

See all 169 who died on 8 March →

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