6 Group Unavailable
The Mission to Stuttgart involved 461 Lancasters and 153 Halifaxes. 17 Lancasters lost and 4 Halifaxes lost. 4.6% of the force.
This was the first of 3 heavy raids on Stuttgart in 5 nights and the only report available is a composite of one of the 3 raids. The raids caused the most serious damage of the war in the central districts of Stuttgart which being situated in a series of narrow valleys had eluded Bomber Command for several years. They were now devastated and most of Stuttgarts public and cultural buildings were destroyed. The second of the 3 raids, on the night of July 25/26, was the most successful. Total casualties in Stuttgart during this series of raids were 1,171 people killed and 1,600 injured.The Bomber Command War Diaries by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
On the night of the 28th of July, 1944, Lancaster III PB172 took off from RAF Grimsby along with other Lancasters from 100 sqn to bomb targets at Stuttgart, Germany. It was reported by returning crews that there was fighter activity over the target but none reported any attacks. German documents record that the aircraft crashed on the 29th, July 1944 at about 01:55 hrs near to Durmersheim and Obereweier, some 70km west of Stuttgart. It was likely that the aircraft was hit by flak and disintegrated in mid-air. The aircraft wreckage fell to the ground within a radius of at lest 8km. Parts of the aircraft were found at the last inhabited house in Oberweier in the direction of Winkel, which is about 1.5km to the SSE.Traugott Vitz and Ralph Snape, provided by Andy Charvat
Killed: Sergeant Donald Judson RAF KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Ref : Coll. grave 11. H. 8-11. Pilot Officer Steve Lawrence Krawchuk RCAF J/90763 Durnbach War Cemetery Ref : Coll. grave 11. H. 8-11. Pilot Officer Conrad William Martens RCAF J/90764 KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Ref : 3. H. 3. Sergeant Kenneth Ernest Nottage RAF KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Ref : Coll. grave 11. H. 8-11. Flying Officer Hewitt Harold Robinson Reid RCAF J/26681 Pilot Durnbach War Cemetery Ref : Coll. grave 11. H. 8-11. Flying Officer Wilfred James Smith RCAF J/27489 KIA Durnbach War Cemetery Ref : 3. H. 4.
POW: Flight Sergeant William Archibald MacDonald RCAF R/176660 POW Stalag Luft L7 Bankau near Kreuzburg, Upper Silesia.
