Berlin
29 December 1943 — Berlin
- Date
- 29 December 1943
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 712 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 20
Narrative
For the last raid of 1943 Bomber Command put up a large mixed force of over 700 aircraft — some 457 Lancasters and 252 Halifaxes — against Berlin. Heavy cloud over the city again prevented accurate bombing, so that the size of the effort was not matched by its results. Losses, however, were relatively modest at twenty aircraft, helped by diversions and by weather that troubled the defenders. The raid was typical of the middle phase of the battle: huge forces dispatched night after night into the German winter, achieving far less against the sprawling capital than Harris had promised, while the steady drain of crews went on.
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
170 airmen in this archive died on 29 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.
- Aircraftman 1st Class George William Ainger
- Flying Officer Francis McIvor Allen (22)
- Sergeant Sidney Allom (22)
- Sergeant Donald Robert Cox Appleyard
- Flying Officer Derek Norman Armitage
- Pilot Officer Albert Edward Frederick Banning (19)
- Flying Officer Glen Patrick Beattie (21)
- Flight Sergeant Ernest Henry Behrent (23)
- Flight Sergeant Keith Selwyn Bell (23)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class Norman Robert Bell (20)
- Sergeant Jack Biggs (23)
- Flying Officer Gordon Eugene Bishop (24)
- Sergeant Wallace Bennett Blakely (21)
- Pilot Officer Ambrose Edward Blight (29)
- Sergeant Albert Bostock (36)
- Corporal Bevill Cyril Bowerman (23)
- Sergeant Alexander Braid (26)
- Flight Sergeant Noel Breward (29)
- Aircraftman 2nd Class James Bryan (18)
- Flight Sergeant Reginald Walter Carver (22)
- Sergeant Andrew Colbourne (20)
- Sergeant Robert Cooke (22)
- Leading Aircraftman Milton John Cornish (38)
- Sergeant Leslie Charles Cornwell (26)