Berlin
26 November 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 26 November 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 450 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 21
Narrative
Some 450 aircraft returned to Berlin on a clear night that exposed the bombers to the city’s anti-aircraft guns; the Reinickendorf district in the north was heavily hit. The clear skies that helped the gunners also helped the night-fighters, and on top of those shot down over Germany a number of crews were lost in crashes when they came home to fog-bound airfields in eastern England — a hazard that would soon become notorious. The combined toll for the night ran far higher than the twenty-one posted as failing to return, and underlined how the weather over both the target and home could be as deadly as the enemy.
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
394 airmen in this archive died on 26 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 John Andrew Adams (19)
- Sergeant Hugh Alexander Stewart Addison (19)
- Warrant Officer Class I Andrew Aikman
- Flying Officer Jonah Alderson-hiller (22)
- Flying Officer Harry Charles Aley
- Sergeant William Archibald
- Sergeant George Donald Arnott
- Sergeant Frederick Edward Ashman (19)
- Sergeant Denys Ashworth (19)
- Sergeant Maurice Victor Aungier (22)
- Leading Aircraftman Frederick John Bailey (35)
- Sergeant Arthur Vernon Baker
- Sergeant George Edward John Ballard (20)
- Sergeant Jeffrey William Barker (23)
- Leading Aircraftman John Barnes (19)
- Sergeant Louis Harold Barnes (29)
- Sergeant Peter Adin Barnes (19)
- Pilot Officer Gerald Hotspur Barrett (39)
- Flight Sergeant Paul Jack Barske
- Pilot Officer Harold Beane (22)
- Flight Sergeant Harold James Beattie (22)
- Flying Officer Gerard Anthony Beaumont (27)
- Sergeant Alan Frank Bell (31)
- Sergeant William Bell