Something I learned

A couple of days ago I watched a British War Ministry film about a 1944 bombing mission  by 600 RAF bombers on Berlin. The documentary focused on one Avro Lancaster bomber. I was surprised to learn that the four-engine Lancaster did not have a co-pilot. All flying was in the hands of one pilot. One man to fly the bomber with its load of thousands of pounds of bombs to a target and home again. One man.

I had heard of Bomber Command losses during World War II, but a simple search brings numbers that makes service by those RAF personnel even more amazing.

“The successes of Bomber Command were purchased at terrible cost. Of every 100 airmen who joined Bomber Command, 45 were killed, 6 were seriously wounded, 8 became Prisoners of War, and only 41 escaped unscathed (at least physically). Of the 120,000 who served, 55,573 were killed including over 10,000 Canadians. Of those who were flying at the beginning of the war, only ten percent survived. It is a loss rate comparable only to the worst slaughter of the First World War trenches. Only the Nazi U-Boat force suffered a higher casualty rate.”

https://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/bomber-command/bomber-commands-losses/