6 Group Unavailable
677 aircraft - 432 Lancasters, 241 Halifaxes, 4 Mosquitoes. Part of the German fighter force was drawn up by the early diversions and the bomber approach route over Northern Denmark proved too distant for some of the other German fighters. The German controller was, however, able to concentrate his fighters over the target and many aircraft were shot down there. 46 aircraft - 26 Halifaxes, 20 Lancasters - lost, 6ยท8 per cent of the force.
The cloud over Berlin was broken and some ground-marking was possible but the Bomber Command claim that this was the most concentrated attack of this period is not quite fully confirmed by German records. The western and southern districts were hit but so too were 77 places outside the city. The Berlin recording system was now showing an increasing deterioration. No overall figure for property damage was recorded; approximately 180,000 people were bombed out on this night. Although many industrial firms were again hit, the feature of this night is the unusually high proportion of administrative and public buildings appearing in the lists of buildings hit: the new Chancellery, 4 theatres, the 'French' cathedral, 6 hospitals, 5 embassies, the State Patent Office, etc. The report concludes with this entry: 'The casualties are still not known but they are bound to be considerable. It is reported that a vast amount of wreckage must still be cleared; rescue workers are among the mountains of it.The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt
Lancaster DV 180 Took off from Kirmington at 00:12 in Lancaster Mk III (Sqn code: AS-W Bomber Command) on an operation to Berlin.
Homebound and while altering course NE of Berlin at 18000 feet collided with another aircraft. Two crewmen were thrown clear of AS-W. The others went down with the aircraft
Killed: Sergeant William Harold Clarke RAF KIA Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery Collective grave 4. E. 23-25. Sergeant Homfray Reece Gibbon RAF KIA Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery Coll. grave 4. E. 23-25. Sergeant Edward Peter Hillyard RAF KIA Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery grave 4. E. 27. Sergeant Roland Winder RAF KIA Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery Coll. grave 4. E. 23-25. Master Sergeant William Mitchell USAAF burial location unknown,
POWs: Pilot Officer Earl Doran Nesbitt RCAF J/19481 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria. Pilot Officer Colin Gregory Phelps RAF POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria.
