Berlin
23 November 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 23 November 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 381 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 21
Narrative
Coming the night after the most destructive raid yet made on Berlin, this attack was meant to fan the fires still burning in the city. By now the force sent to the ‘Big City’ was almost entirely Lancasters, the Stirlings and many Halifax squadrons having been withdrawn from the deepest targets after suffering badly. Around 380 aircraft pressed on through the long, cold route to the capital and added to the devastation in the central and western districts. Twenty-one bombers were lost — a sharp reminder that, even with the defences stretched, the price of reaching Berlin was climbing.
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
335 airmen in this archive died on 23 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)
- Flying Officer Gavin Robert Adams
- Sergeant Herbert Charles Adams (20)
- Flying Officer George Ainsworth
- Sergeant Donald Paget Aitken (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Leslie James Allum (27)
- Sergeant Eric Ambrose (23)
- Sergeant Horace Wilfred Ambrose (32)
- Pilot Officer William Anderson
- Flight Sergeant William Charles Andrews (24)
- Sergeant George Edward Apps (21)
- Flying Officer Irving Armitage
- Sergeant Roland Atkins (20)
- Pilot Officer Edward Smith Atkinson (24)
- Sergeant Frederick Atkinson (28)
- Flight Sergeant George Addison Atkinson (20)
- Sergeant Arnold William Henry Atyeo (23)
- Sergeant Richard Ernest Charles Bacon (22)
- Sergeant Eric Bailey
- Flight Lieutenant James Bannon
- Flight Sergeant Ross Gordon Norman Barber (23)
- Sergeant Stafford Alfonzo Barton
- Flight Sergeant John Beebe (23)
- Flying Officer Charles Henry Bell (36)