Le Mans

Date

7 March 1944

Target

Le Mans, France

Force dispatched

304 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

79 airmen in this archive died on 7 March 1944 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.

• Leading Aircraftman George Stephen Ambrose
• Flight Sergeant Alan Ashby Applegate (20)
• Sergeant Bernard Vincent Arney (20)
• Sergeant Charles Stewart McGregor Averill (21)
• Leading Aircraftman Albert Bagnall (22)
• Flying Officer James Hamilton Ballantyne
• Flying Officer Edward Granville Bayer
• Pilot Officer Frank Reginald Bedford (33)
• Sergeant Joseph William Bell (20)
• Leading Aircraftman Albert Sheppard Blanchard (19)
• Sergeant Edward Irvin Brock (21)
• Sergeant Peter Charles Brown (20)
• Flying Officer George Herbert Eversley Buckley (32)
• Flying Officer Clifford Frank Bull (23)
• Warrant Officer Class II Frederick Lighthall Pulsford Cains (22)
• Warrant Officer Edward Callander
• Pilot Officer Neil Donald Campbell
• Pilot Officer Gerald Alexandre Arthur A. Caron (22)
• Squadron Leader John Dawson Clements (32)
• Wing Commander James Carleton Coffey (35)
• Flying Officer George Leslie Coster
• Leading Aircraftman Phillip John Dewings (36)
• Flight Sergeant Bruce Allen Duckworth (21)
• Leading Aircraftman John Reginald Durston (20)

See all 79 who died on 7 March →

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