Laon

Date

23 March 1944

Target

Laon

Force dispatched

143 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

384 airmen in this archive died on 23 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.

• Flight Lieutenant Ronald Henry Ackland
• Pilot Officer William George Adamson (28)
• Flight Sergeant Thomas James Adkison
• Sergeant Ernest Alfred Anthony (22)
• Flying Officer William Douglas Armour (21)
• Sergeant Robert Geoffrey Arthur (22)
• Sergeant Richard Graham Atkinson (21)
• Sergeant Charles Henry Bagot
• Pilot Officer Leo Bandle
• Flight Sergeant Henry Keith Barden (21)
• Sergeant Thomas James Barnett (39)
• Sergeant Charles Geoffrey Gordon Bateman
• Flight Sergeant John Edward Beaman (21)
• Flight Lieutenant John Rogers Beckett (27)
• Pilot Officer Alexander Matthew James Bell (34)
• Flying Officer Peter Anthony Charles Bell (23)
• Sergeant Philip Charles Knill Bennett (19)
• Sergeant Stanley George Bentley (20)
• Squadron Leader Kenneth George Bickers (21)
• Sergeant Leonard Douglas Blackford (24)
• Flying Officer Norman Eric Blight
• Air Sergeant Bernard Blomson
• Sergeant Frank Sidney Bodkin (21)
• Sergeant Jack Northwood Boston (22)

See all 384 who died on 23 March →

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