Berlin
22 November 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 22 November 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 764 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 26
Narrative
The raid of 22/23 November 1943 was the most destructive that Bomber Command ever inflicted on Berlin. A force of 764 aircraft — 469 Lancasters, 234 Halifaxes, 50 Stirlings and 11 Mosquitoes — reached the capital under thick cloud, which forced the Pathfinders onto sky-marking but also kept the night-fighters largely grounded and held losses down. In barely half an hour some 2,300 tons of bombs went down into the heart of the city, and the dry conditions allowed the fires to take firm hold. Wide areas of central and western Berlin were burnt out: the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was wrecked, several embassies, the Charlottenburg palace and the zoo were hit, around 2,000 people were killed and as many as 175,000 made homeless. Only 26 aircraft were lost, a comparatively light 3.4 per cent. Coming early in the Battle of Berlin — Arthur Harris’s winter attempt to “wreck Berlin from end to end” and so, he argued, end the war — it was the campaign’s clearest success, though the months that followed would exact a far heavier price for far less effect.
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
400 airmen in this archive died on 22 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.
- Flight Sergeant Douglas Buchanan Aberle (20)
- Sergeant Albert Ackland (21)
- Flight Sergeant William Eric Ackland (20)
- Sergeant Herbert Charles Adams (20)
- Flying Officer George Ainsworth
- Sergeant Donald Paget Aitken (21)
- Sergeant William Allen (21)
- Sergeant Eric Ambrose (23)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Clarence Anderson (18)
- Sergeant Howard Leroy Anderson
- Sergeant Robert Anderson (26)
- Pilot Officer William Anderson
- Squadron Leader Douglas Campbell Anset (23)
- Sergeant George Edward Apps (21)
- Flying Officer Irving Armitage
- Sergeant Cyril James Ashton
- Sergeant Roland Atkins (20)
- Sergeant Frederick Atkinson (28)
- Flight Sergeant George Addison Atkinson (20)
- Sergeant Arnold William Henry Atyeo (23)
- Sergeant Richard Ernest Charles Bacon (22)
- Flight Lieutenant George Cooley Bailey (21)
- Sergeant Roland Barnsley Bainbridge (23)
- Sergeant William Albert John Baldwin (21)