The W R Chorley Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War (Revised Book Review)

Royal Air Force

RAF Bomber Command Losses 1939-1945

The W R Chorley Nine Volume Set

The Banner Image is of my uncle, Flt Sgt Harry Alfred Marshall RAF VR a flight engineer (centre) with some of the crew of Avro Lancaster PB402 LQ-M of 405 (City of Vancouver) Path Finder Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force in late 1944, the pilot and skipper, Flight Lieutenant Leslie Payne RCAF on the far left.

It is only recently, 2023, when working on Volume 1 1939-1940, that I noticed that this first volume is signed by my father (1927-2012) and is also signed by the author, Bill Chorley ‘With Best Wishes’.

Suddenly, I had fresh focus. I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

The W R Chorley Nine Volume Set

I

THE CHORLEY SERIES on Bomber Command Losses covering the entire war is superbly compiled and widens the perspectives of the enquiring reader and researcher. It also, for example, enables me to obtain a little of the impact - I use that adjective advisedly - upon those who were on the ‘receiving end’.

Despite two uncles being KIA over Germany in 1943 and 1945 respectively, this did not 'colour' the attitude of their siblings, my parents, who made sure that I and my siblings visited Austria with school trips in the 1960s, and with my own continuing journeys to Germany both with the RAF VR but also privately, because I enjoy being in Germany

My parents’ loss had given them the reason for finding 'someone to talk to' and which in turn led to 63 years of very happy marriage.

This, in turn, led to my own very close and deep association with the German People.

II

We are the generation that came immediately post-war, and in the 21st Century, it is difficult to comprehend the influence that six years of war had on the post-war generation, akin to the pebble in a pool, so that we were still affected by that war 20, 30 and 50 years on.

For me, the Chorley Volumes are now more important than ever; especially when film directors will have us all believe that the most horrendous outcomes can literally be like a scratch, a shake of dust, from which one then gets up and carries on. Real war is not like that and I write as one who held the Queen's Commission.

III

The Chorley Set must be protected and always made available; for Word War Two is now fast fading into long-distant history. That is inevitable.

However, the records live on. We must learn from them. In that regard, we are not doing well when we consider Aleppo.

I recommend Chorley to any person who is undergoing a serious study of the Strategic Air Offensive and also of air war generally.

If visiting RAF Cranwell I would not be silent if I discovered that the complete Chorley set is not available to students. But it also enables me to think about the impact of air war on all sides, whether it be the aircrews and, even more importantly, their ground crews, but also the civilian populations that, through no choice or voice, are brought into the front line. Moreover, in countless historical biographies and battlefield reenactments, it is as if the writer sees only through the eyes of the chess player. Set pieces on a board. Cities and towns apparently emptied, and cleared, so the protagonists can slog it out. As we know from Russia and Assad in Syria, the cities Houla and Aleppo, and now Russia in the War in Ukraine, the port city of Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Kherson, the people are in situ.

The Chorley series also includes a volume recording the losses within the Heavy Conversion Units. The entries make for sober reading.

IV

For most of my life, the losses in Bomber Command were invariably fixed at 55,573 aircrew personnel killed. In 2021, this is rightly revised, and I quote a Wikipedia source:

(a) 57,205 killed (a 46 per cent death rate), plus

(b) 8,403 wounded, plus

(c) 9,838 thereby becoming prisoners of war (POWs)

This totals 75,446 aircrew personnel (60 per cent of operational airmen of all ranks) either killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

This is just one Command of the Royal Air Force and the Commonwealth Air Forces, all of which were grouped into a single Bomber Command for the period 1936-1968.

This does not include those killed, wounded or captured in any of the other RAF Commands.

A cautionary note, however, is required regarding the Wikipedia source, namely, that Wikipedia is open to all. I am, therefore, inclined towards the official figure of 55,573, although readers might be interested to investigate the probable higher figure of 57,205 as reported by Wikipedia contributors.

The Full 9-Volume Set
Royal Air Force
BOMBER COMMAND
LOSSES
of the Second World War

Volume 11939 - 1940

Volume 2 1941

Volume 3 1942

Volume 4 1943

Volume 5 1944

Volume 6 1945

Volume 7 Operational Training Units 1940 -1947

Volume 8 Heavy Conversion Units and Miscellaneous Units 1939 - 1947

Volume 9 Roll of Honour 1939 -1947

David Gunby and Pelham Temple have compiled a separate Set following the Chorley Precedent.

Royal Air Force
BOMBER LOSSES
IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND
MEDITERRANEAN

Volume 1 1939 - 1942

2 January 2023
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL


Written 15 July 2021

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

Lest We Forget

Simply an artistic depiction of a mid-air collision I felt inclined to produce. It was enough to go this far. Reading through the reports, I decided to stop at this point because the mid-air collision I refer to within the artwork happened in the dead of night. It is, though, in tribute to the fourteen lives lost on those two Avro Lancasters that night. KTW 2 January 2023.