ONE of the most tragic raids in the history of a wartime bomber base is about to be remembered at commemorative events in both France and the UK.

The night of November 4 and 5, 1944, saw a heavy RAF Bomber Command attack on the German steel-producing city of Bochum, which was of high importance to the Nazi war machine.

It involved a total of 749 aircraft – Halifaxes, Lancasters and Mosquitoes and was the 150th time the city had been raided.

RAF Elvington, near York, put up 25 aircraft from the two French squadrons of 346 “Guyenne” and 347 “Tunisie.”

For Guyenne the night was to be particularly horrific as, bringing up the final wave of the attack, their 16 Halifax bombers were the most vulnerable to attack by enemy fighters.

Consequently, they lost five aircraft - each with seven aircrew aboard, amounting to 35 men.

Of those, 11 were taken as prisoners-of-war after bailing out and one successfully evaded capture - but the rest lost their lives.

There was also a passenger on board the aircraft of Commander Robert Baron, who was on his 26th and last operation, a Lieutenant Colonel N Dagan.

He was undertaking an assessment operation of a typical mission and the hazards encountered by aircrew – and in a grim twist of fate also lost his life.

The raid saw the worst single night of losses that the French were to endure during their service with Bomber Command.

Elvington is now the home of the Allied Air Forces Memorial and Yorkshire Air Museum and director Ian Reed will be making the pilgrimage to the cathedral of Les Invalides, the military museum in the heart of Paris on November 4 to join French veterans at an annual commemorative mass.

The raid will also be commemorated at the 11am Remembrance Sunday gathering on November 13 with a later service at the Station Chapel at the Yorkshire Air Museum at 1.30pm to which all visitors are welcome.