Bomber Command Losses 1939-1945
Of the 125,000 Aircrew who served in Bomber Command during the Second Wold War, nearly three quarters were killed, seriously injured or taken Prisoner of War and over 40 per cent were killed whilst serving, giving the highest rate of attrition of any Allied unit. Each man was a volunteer, and their average age of death was only 23. If your ancestor was a Bomber Command casualty, expect to find him in this collection.
See description
Of the 125,000 Aircrew who served in Bomber Command during the Second Wold War, nearly three quarters were killed, seriously injured or taken Prisoner of War and over 40 per cent were killed whilst serving, giving the highest rate of attrition of any Allied unit. Each man was a volunteer, and their average age of death was only 23. If your ancestor was a Bomber Command casualty, expect to find him in this collection.
Learn about these records
These are records of close to 58,000 service personnel who died whilst serving with Bomber Command during the Second World War, 1939-1945. Typically expect to find the following information in these records:
- First name(s)
- Last name
- Birth year
- Age
- Service
- Squadron number
- Rank
- Service number
- Year
- Year of death
- Father’s first name
- Mother’s first name
- Cemetery or memorial where buried or commemorated
- Death date
- Next of kin
- Rank as transcribed
- Trade
- Source website URL
The work to create this database, which now contains almost four million pieces of data, was undertaken by a team of volunteers at the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) in Lincoln and took six years. Led by Losses Archivist and volunteer, Dave Gilbert, the team cross-referenced the data with innumerable sources including the series of Bomber Command Losses books by W R Chorley, national and international rolls of honour, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Squadron Association records, and prisoner of war records.
Flight Lieutenant Karl Inge Aalborg was born in Lloyminster, Saskatchewan on 9 July 1917. He had a brother Anders and another brother and a sister who both died in infancy. His parents were both born in Norway where his father, Eric was a farm worker. He went to school in McLaughlin, Atlanta 1937- 1938 and in Edmonton 1938-1942. He attended Public School in Oxville, Atlanta and then took both Junior and Senior Matriculation in Garneau High, Edmonton. He worked at Cloverdale Knitting Mills in Edmonton between October 1938 and April 1940 as a knitting machine mechanic and then for J I Case Co. as an Inside Shipper and accountant, between April 1940 and May 1942. Between 1932 and 1934 he worked at home on the farm.
The above text is taken from the IBCC website which also publishes a photo of Karl Aalborg. He was killed in action on the 13th September 1944 whilst serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force and is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery in Germany.