Berlin
16 December 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 16 December 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 498 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 25
Narrative
The raid of 16/17 December is remembered less for what happened over Berlin than for what happened on the way home. Some 500 aircraft attacked the capital and did useful damage, badly disrupting the city’s railways and holding up supply trains bound for the Eastern Front. But as the crews returned, thick fog closed down their airfields in eastern England, and aircraft low on fuel crashed or were abandoned trying to land. The aircrew lost in these landing accidents — about as many again as were shot down over Germany — made the night one of the worst of the war for No. 1 and No. 8 Groups, and it became known to crews as ‘Black Thursday’.
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 16 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.
- Pilot Officer Gilbert Ernest Adams (23)
- Sergeant Norman Ellis Adams (21)
- Sergeant Philip William Alderton (24)
- Sergeant Harry Derek Gordon Aldiss (20)
- Sergeant Ward William James Allen (25)
- Flight Sergeant Charles William Angus (22)
- Pilot Officer Lewis Percival Archibald (21)
- Sergeant Raymond Askew (21)
- Sergeant Raymond Atkin
- Leading Aircraftman Jack Atkins (37)
- Flight Lieutenant Charles Oscar Aubert (26)
- Sergeant William Stanley Austin (29)
- Pilot Officer Donald Baker (20)
- Flight Sergeant Robert William Baldwin (28)
- Sergeant John Bamford
- Sergeant Leslie Banks
- Sergeant Raymond John Baroni
- Sergeant Jack Leslie Barrett
- Pilot Officer George William Frederick Batchelor
- Flight Sergeant James Richard Bateman (23)
- Flight Sergeant Ernest John Battle (22)
- Sergeant Albert Elvin Baumann (22)
- Pilot Officer Richard Anthony Bayldon (20)
- Flying Officer Alfred Francis Beckett (36)