Berlin
27 January 1944 — Berlin
- Date
- 27 January 1944
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 530 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 33
Narrative
Over 500 aircraft attacked Berlin on the night of 27/28 January, the bombing spreading widely across the city. Elaborate diversions were flown to mislead the German controllers, with some success, but even so thirty-three bombers were lost. By this stage of the campaign the cumulative cost was telling heavily: the long series of deep penetrations to Berlin had worn down the squadrons and was running at a loss rate the force could not bear indefinitely. Within weeks the battle would effectively be abandoned, its climax — and Bomber Command’s costliest single night — coming with the catastrophic raid on Nuremberg at the end of March 1944.
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
302 airmen in this archive died on 27 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.
- Sergeant Ben Ackroyd (22)
- Sergeant Cyril Arthur Acombe-hill
- Sergeant John Henry Adams
- Pilot Officer John Adamson (23)
- Flying Officer Robert Hartny Adamson
- Sergeant Eric Henry Alcock (19)
- Flight Lieutenant Selwyn Henry Alcock (24)
- Sergeant Frank George Aldred (20)
- Sergeant Sidney Allan (22)
- Warrant Officer Class I Anderson (21)
- Sergeant Richard Anderson
- Flight Sergeant Austin William Archer
- Corporal John William Armfield (23)
- Sergeant Derek Kilgour Ashton (29)
- Sergeant Cyril Atherton (31)
- Flying Officer John Jule Baker (23)
- Pilot Officer Keith Ormond Barnes (20)
- Flight Sergeant Ernest Emmanuel Baron
- Flight Sergeant Douglas George Barrett (26)
- Pilot Officer Harold John Barrons
- Flight Sergeant Ernest Frederick Bartholomew (21)
- Sergeant Kenneth Bartholomew (19)
- Sergeant Charles William Batten (23)
- Sergeant William Beach (21)