Berlin
18 November 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 18 November 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 444 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 9
Narrative
This was the opening blow of the long winter offensive that Sir Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, hoped would ‘wreck Berlin from end to end’ and so help end the war. About 440 Lancasters were sent to the capital while a second, larger force struck Ludwigshafen the same night, splitting the German defences. Thick cloud lay over Berlin and the marking and bombing were scattered, so the damage was slight, but the diversion and the weather kept losses low — nine aircraft failed to return. It was an almost gentle beginning to a campaign that would become one of the costliest Bomber Command ever fought.
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
285 airmen in this archive died on 18 November 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 Douglas Gordon Addison (20)
- Flight Sergeant Hector Ferdinand Altus (33)
- Warrant Officer Class II Sydney Andrew Anderson (23)
- Flying Officer James William Allen Armstrong (22)
- Sergeant George Henry Austin
- Sergeant Denis Reginald Bailey
- Flight Lieutenant Ernest Thomas Baker (29)
- Flying Officer Kenneth George Baldwin (25)
- Flight Lieutenant Arthur Stephen Bancroft (24)
- Sergeant Hugh George Bannister (19)
- Sergeant John Wentworth (jack) Barklam (21)
- Flying Officer Robert Barr
- Flight Sergeant William Barraclough (22)
- Sergeant Eric Charles Beacock (24)
- Flight Sergeant Forbes Govan Benning (24)
- Leading Aircraftman Stanley Betts (20)
- Sergeant Thomas Aldroyd Bird
- Flying Officer David Edward Blain (29)
- Sergeant John Miller Bliss (20)
- Corporal Stanley Border (22)
- Flying Officer Peter Lewis Bowden (20)
- Sergeant Robert Sidney Bowers (19)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class William Brackenridge (20)
- Flight Sergeant Francis Bradbury (19)