Berlin
28 January 1944 — Berlin
- Date
- 28 January 1944
- Target
- Berlin, Germany
- Force dispatched
- 677 aircraft
- Aircraft lost
- 46
Narrative
By the night of 28/29 January 1944 the Battle of Berlin had settled into a grim war of attrition, and this raid showed how the balance had tilted against Bomber Command since the successes of November. A force of 677 aircraft was sent to the capital, routed in over northern Denmark in an attempt to deceive the defences. The ruse only partly worked: German controllers fed their night-fighters into the bomber stream on both the outward and return legs, and the running battle in the darkness cost 46 aircraft, nearly seven per cent of the force. The bombing, made through cloud onto sky-markers, fell mainly on the southern and south-eastern districts of Berlin and caused considerable damage, but nothing decisive — the city was simply too vast, and too far, to be destroyed in the way Hamburg had been. Raids like this one, heavy in losses and inconclusive in result, were steadily wearing down Bomber Command’s crews through the winter of 1943–44 without bringing the end of the war that Harris had promised.
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
393 airmen in this archive died on 28 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 Cyril Arthur Acombe-hill
- Flying Officer Harold Raymond Adams (20)
- Flight Sergeant David Sydney Alexander (21)
- Pilot Officer James Alexander (24)
- Flying Officer Frank Allison
- Pilot Officer Joseph Emmanuel Alves (22)
- Warrant Officer Class I Anderson (21)
- Pilot Officer Leslie Dean Anderson (20)
- Aircraftman 1st Class Robert William Anderson
- Pilot Officer Walter Harold Andrews
- Sergeant Eric Ernest Appleby (20)
- Corporal John William Armfield (23)
- Sergeant George Armstrong (20)
- Sergeant Cyril Atherton (31)
- Sergeant Francis Alfred Aver (23)
- Flight Sergeant George Arthur Baker (34)
- Flying Officer Herbert Allan Baker
- Pilot Officer John Donald Barrie (23)
- Flight Sergeant George Henry Barrington (21)
- Sergeant Cedric Jack Barron (30)
- Sergeant Michael Joseph Bates (20)
- Sergeant Raymond John Batham (19)
- Sergeant William Beach (21)
- Flight Sergeant James Begg