Cologne

Date

17 March 1944

Target

Cologne, Germany

Force dispatched

29 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

147 airmen in this archive died on 17 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.

• Sergeant Thomas Hutchison Allan (22)
• Sergeant Benjamin Edward Ansell (21)
• Flying Officer Edson Gilroy Armour (27)
• Leading Aircraftman John William Bainbridge
• Flight Sergeant Ernest William Baldwin (23)
• Sergeant Leslie Harold Baldwin
• Pilot Officer Robert Elmer Ballentine (22)
• Sergeant Ronald Osborne Barrs (19)
• Leading Aircraftman Kenneth Guy Biggs (20)
• Flight Lieutenant Dennis Arthur Bourne (23)
• Sergeant Denis James Brotherton (21)
• Flying Officer Archibald Douglas Buchanan (28)
• Warrant Officer Joseph Y. Burke (21)
• Flying Officer Ernest Herbert Butler
• Flying Officer Vernon Bartlett Groves Butler
• Flight Sergeant Peter John Calder (19)
• Flight Lieutenant David Mark Campbell (31)
• Pilot Officer Leslie Cannon (31)
• Sergeant Roland Clewer (22)
• Sergeant Winston Pescod Clough (19)
• Flying Officer Edwin Claude Colcomb (29)
• Flight Sergeant Terence Patrick Collins (22)
• Flying Officer Thomas William Cooper (21)
• Sergeant Walter Cotton (22)

See all 147 who died on 17 March →

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