Essen

Date

27 May 1943

Target

Essen, Germany

Force dispatched

518 aircraft

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

196 airmen in this archive died on 27 May 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.

• Leading Aircraftman Geoffrey David Abbott (20)
• Sergeant Andrew Aitken (28)
• Pilot Officer Ralph Grant Allan (21)
• Sergeant Robert Maxwell Allott (21)
• Sergeant Charles Basil Anderson
• Sergeant Harry Anderson
• Pilot Officer Albert Armstrong
• Sergeant John Leonard Atha
• Flight Sergeant Richard Joseph Ayres (21)
• Warrant Officer Class II Albert George Bailey (21)
• Sergeant Eric Gordon Fay Beaumont Baker (19)
• Leading Aircraftman Peter William Baker (20)
• Pilot Officer Walter George Baker (22)
• Sergeant Wilfred Reginald Beadsmoore (33)
• Flying Officer Francis Bruce Beale (26)
• Flying Officer Alexander Farquhar Beaton (24)
• Sergeant Stanley Grieve Beattie (21)
• Sergeant Frank Bettridge (21)
• Flight Sergeant Edward William Carpenter Bewley (25)
• Sergeant Colin Lisle Bishop (19)
• Flying Officer Stanley Adolfson Bishop (26)
• Sergeant Ernest Bernard Blackbarow
• Sergeant William Alfred Blackwell (21)
• Flying Officer Alfred Henry Blake (24)

See all 196 who died on 27 May →

Source: RAF Bomber Command Campaign Diary (60th-Anniversary website, via the Wayback Machine) →