6 Group Unavailable
769 aircraft- 49 5 Lancasters, 264 Halifaxes, lo Mosquitoes. 35 aircraft- 22 Halifaxes, I 3 Lancasters - lost, 4·6 per cent of the force. I02 Squadron, from Pocklington, lost 5 of its 16 Halifaxes on this raid, 2 more crashed in England and the squadron would lose 4 more aircraft in the next night's raid. The bomber approach route took a wide swing to the north but, once again, the German controller managed to feed his fighters into the bomber stream early and the fighters scored steadily until the force was well on the way home. The diversions were not large enough to deceive the Germans.
The Berlin area was, as so often, completely cloud-covered and what happened to the bombing is a mystery. The Pathfinder sky-marking appeared to go according to plan and crews who were scanning the ground with their H2S sets believed that the attack fell on eastern districts of Berlin. No major navigational problems were experienced. No photographic reconnaissance was possible until after a further 4 raids on Berlin were carried out but the various sources from which the Berlin reports are normally drawn all show a complete blank for this night. It is not known whether this is because of some order issued by the German authorities to conceal the extent of the damage or whether the entire raid missed Berlin.
source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
419 Moose Squadron (Moosa Aswayita) RAF Middleton St George. On January 20, 1944 Halifax BII aircraft DT 731 dropped its bomb load on the target at Berlin, Germany and on the return leg was near Leipzig, Germany when it was shot down by a German JU-88 aircraft. The crew all abandoned the Halifax before it crashed near Dessau-Roblau, Germany
Warrant Officer Class 1 WE MacKenzie (RCAF), Flying Officer A Cormack (RCAF), FS IV Hopkins (RCAF), Sergeant WD McCaghey (RCAF), Sergeant ER Jenkins (RAF) and TSergeant FS Paules (USAAF) all survived and were taken as Prisoners of War
There were two 419 Squadron Halifax BII aircraft lost on this operation. See Sanderson, FG for information on Halifax HX 162 VR-X
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