Totals of RAF Bomber Command aircraft losses on night operations in WWII?

[Theo Boiten]

Dear all,

Who can help me with the totals of RAF Bomber Command aircraft losses sustained during night operations in WWII? I.e. excluding operational losses on daylight operations and excluding aircraft lost in accidents.

Cheers and thanks for any help,

Theo

[Allan125]

Other than yourself :-) - don't the Chorley books come up with any figures at all Theo ?

Allan

[Juha]

Hello Theo
also in Max Hastings' Bomber Command (2nd Impression 1980) there is Appendix A Bomber Command Sorties Dispatched and Aircraft Missing and Written off. It gives monthly a/c losses divided to day and night losses. Hastings noted that minelaying and special ops sorties are missing and there are some minor omissions because some sqns and groups were careless in their recording practices. But according to him his table contains "the best figures that the RAF is ever likely to compile." He also noted that before Feb. 1942 the info on crash-landings is unreliable and it is not known which of those were written off and which were reparable.

Juha

[Theo Boiten]

Thanks chaps for your replies, I did check the appendix in Max Hastings book, but unfortunately these do not include losses sustained during Gardening & Special Duties operations ..

Cheers, Theo

[MW Giles]

Type CountOfType

Battle 7
Beaufighter 1
Blenheim 136
Boston 3
Fortress 18
Halifax 2225
Hampden 575
Hudson 4
Lancaster 3547
Liberator 10
Lightning 1
Lysander 14
Manchester 72
Mosquito 344
Stirling 778
Wellington 1699
Whitley 463

This is from my own database - Losses on operational sorties at night 03.09.39 to 08.05.45

It includes a few USAAF sorties while flying with RAF on night ops and it includes all losses over the UK on return from ops. It does not include where a crew landed away from base and were then lost on the ferry flight back to base after an op
It includes SD flights of all sorts
It would take an hour to type in all the caveats and explain what counts and what does not but this will give you a clue. Use it if you want. Ignore it if you don't

Martin

[Kutscha]

Don't know how much help this will be, http://www.lancaster-archive.com/bc_stats.htm

stats from Source: Bomber Command Squadron's of the RAF and their aircraft Published 1964

[Theo Boiten]

Thanks for these further statistics -I must say that the different statistics do vary somewhat. I have, for example, documented 2,225 Bomber Command a/c lost on ops during 1943 -against these losses, for the new book series I have documented 1,794 Nachtjagd claims in the West plus 682 Luftwaffe and Marine Flak claims, 270 of the latter being contested by the Nachtjagd. Almost all of these claims have now been matched to BC losses and, in some cases, to a/c that managed to return (badly) shot up.

Cheers, Theo

[Juha]

Hello again Theo
I have seen the gardening losses in a book, in connection with comparision the cost effectiveness of different types of attacks against Axis shipping (mine laying vs torpedo-bombing vs bombing). Maybe Goulter's A Forgotten Offensive Royal Air Force Coastal Command's Anti-Shipping Campaign, 1940 - 1945. (1993) or in some other book on the CC.

Juha

[Peter Clare]

The following comes from.....The War Room Manual Of RAF Bomber Command 1939-1945

RAF Bomber Command aircraft losses night operations. I have deducted losses re OTUs and HCUs

Mosquito -113
1409 Flight -1
Hampden's -286
Wellington's - 1045
Whitley's - 242
Stirling's - 469
Halifax's -1630
Lancaster's - 2986

[Theo Boiten]

Thanks Peter for providing these interesting details.

Cheers, Theo