Berlin
1 January 1944 — Berlin
- Date
- 1 January 1944
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 421 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 28
Narrative
The new year opened with Berlin again as the target, an all-Lancaster force of over 400 aircraft setting out on the night of 1/2 January 1944. The German night-fighter arm, now well practised at infiltrating the bomber stream, took a heavy toll, and twenty-eight bombers were lost. Diversionary attacks failed to draw the defenders away as hoped. The raid set the pattern for a punishing January in which Bomber Command would return to the capital again and again, the loss rates creeping towards and beyond the level the force could sustain for long.
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
240 airmen in this archive died on 1 January 1944 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.
- Wing Commander William Abercromby (33)
- Sergeant Richard William Allen
- Sergeant Eric Atkinson (19)
- Flying Officer Roy Barry Baker (29)
- Sergeant Robert Ross Barbour (21)
- Flight Sergeant George Barry (23)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Sydney Herbert Bartrum (36)
- Sergeant George Frederick Kenneth Bedwell (24)
- Flight Sergeant John Bell (22)
- Flying Officer Henry Edward Bennett (30)
- Sergeant Ernest Berry
- Flight Sergeant William Donald Blackwell (28)
- Flying Officer Oldrich Dennis Blaha (21)
- Pilot Officer Charles Edward Blanchette (29)
- Flight Sergeant Jack Ludwig Boeson
- Flight Sergeant Arthur Harold Boettcher (26)
- Flying Officer Alan Richard Bolsover (31)
- Pilot Officer Gerald Peter Robert Bond (22)
- Flying Officer Archibald Neville Book (24)
- Flying Officer Henry Slade Botell (29)
- Flying Officer William John Bottrell (29)
- Pilot Officer Roland John Bowen (23)
- Flying Officer Richard Frederick Charles Brodie (21)
- Flying Officer James Gilmour Bryson