6 Group Unavailable
1,055 aircraft- 561 Lancasters, 463 Halifaxes, 31 Mosquitoes. This was the heaviest raid on Essen so far in the war and the number-of aircraft dispatched was also the greatest number to any target so far; these new records were achieved without the Lancasters of 5 Group being included. 5 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes were lost.
4,538 tons of bombs were dropped. More than 90 per cent of this tonnage was high explosive (and included 509 4,000-pounders) because it was now considered that most of the burnable buildings in Essen had been destroyed in earlier raids. The greater proportion of high explosive, against all the trends in earlier area-bombing raids, was now quite common in attacks on targets which had suffered major fire damage in 1943. A report from Essen states that 607 buildings were destroyed and 812 were seriously damaged; 662 people were killed, a figure which included 124 foreign workers, and 569 people were injured. Other details from Essen and Bomber Command's own claims for bombing results are given in the report for a further.raid on 25 October
source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
419 Moose Squadron (Moosa Aswayita) RAF Middleton St George. Lancaster BX aircraft KB 776 WR-F missing during a night operation against targets in Essen, Germany. The Lancaster was shot down by 1 & 6/schwere Flak-Abteilung 233 (o) and the 2 & 3/ schwere Flak-Abteilung 134, crashing into the Bocholder Strasse, Essen-Borbeck, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany with the loss of the entire crew
Squadron Leader WC McGuffin (RCAF), Pilot Officer RC Schlievert (RCAF), Pilot Officer RT Neville (RCAF), Pilot Officer E Neufeld (RCAF), Flying Officer R Molloy (RCAF), Flying Officer J Futoranski (RCAF) and Sergeant J Mallabone (RAFVR),Sgt. J. Mallabone (RAF) were all killed in action
419 Squadron RCAF 1941 to 1945 Crew of Lancaster KB776
Bomber Command Museum Monthly ORB