Berlin
2 December 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 2 December 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 458 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 40
Narrative
This was one of the blackest nights of the whole campaign. Unforecast high winds scattered the bomber stream on the way to Berlin, breaking up the concentration that was the crews’ best protection, and the German controllers fed their night-fighters into the straggling formation with deadly effect. Forty bombers were lost — close to one in eleven of those sent — and much of the bombing fell wide of the aiming point to the south, though the Siemens electrical works were among the places hit. The combination of bad winds and a well-handled fighter defence showed how quickly a Berlin raid could turn into a disaster.
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
324 airmen in this archive died on 2 December 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 Harold William Addis (21)
- Sergeant William Ainscow (26)
- Flight Lieutenant Thomas Derek Hudson Alford (26)
- Flight Sergeant Gerald Walter Allso
- Sergeant George William Arlett (21)
- Leading Aircraftman Cyril Francis Ashby
- Flying Officer Graham Leslie Ashman
- Flying Officer Shirley Waldemar Frank Baker (22)
- Leading Aircraftman Thomas Frederick Bamber (21)
- Flight Sergeant Richard Hooton Banks (25)
- Leading Aircraftman Arthur Theodore Barnson (21)
- Flight Lieutenant Charles Thomas Bassage
- Sergeant Frederick Donald Beattie (22)
- Flight Sergeant James Murray Beatty (20)
- Leading Aircraftman Frank Bedford (20)
- Air Mechanic Albert Lawrence Bee (26)
- Warrant Officer John Edward Bellamy (23)
- Sergeant Henry Benedict Bellew (18)
- Flight Sergeant Herbert Sidney Bennett (24)
- Flying Officer Richard Trevor Bennett (29)
- Warrant Officer Class II Roland Edward Black (20)
- Sergeant James Lawson Blackwood
- Leading Aircraftman Alastair Farquhar Blue (21)
- Leading Aircraftman John Harold Bolsworth (19)