Berlin
23 December 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 23 December 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 379 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 16
Narrative
A smaller force of just under 400 aircraft went to Berlin two nights before Christmas. Poor weather on the route hampered the German night-fighters as much as the bombers, and losses were comparatively light at sixteen aircraft. The bombing, hindered by cloud over the target, did little fresh damage to a city already badly battered. Mosquitoes of the Pathfinder force mounted diversions elsewhere to confuse the defences. It was a quieter night by the grim standards of the Berlin battle, but for the men who flew it the long haul to the capital and back in midwinter was an ordeal in itself.
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
190 airmen in this archive died on 23 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.
- Sergeant John McLean Adamson (21)
- Flight Sergeant John Carman Atherton (30)
- Flight Sergeant Thomas Henry Badkin (21)
- Sergeant Harry Barber (40)
- Flight Sergeant Roger William Basey (20)
- Flying Officer Kenneth William Baxter (23)
- Flight Lieutenant Lawrence Howe Bear (28)
- Flight Sergeant Kenneth Albert Beech (21)
- Leading Aircraftman Joseph Robert Bilbow
- Leading Aircraftman Albert Frederick Billenness (42)
- Sergeant Eric Birchall
- Pilot Officer Edward John Blackley (22)
- Flight Sergeant Robert Meredith Bond (22)
- Sergeant Leslie Frederick Bostock (22)
- Sergeant Harry Bowles (19)
- Flying Officer Frederick Clifford Boyce (23)
- Flying Officer William Bradley (27)
- Leading Aircraftman Harold John Brailsford (27)
- Sergeant John Walker Brewster
- Flight Sergeant Robert Wishart Brown (20)
- Sergeant Vincent De Paul Brown
- Air Mechanic William Browne
- Flight Lieutenant Alister Whyte Buchanan (32)
- Sergeant Cornelius Burgess