The greatest lost battle on the german side

The RAAF in bomber command

Street names at the Australian Defence Force Academy honour notable wartime actions. While every one of those actions was a matter of life or death for the men involved, when measured against the broader sweep of history some scarcely merit the description “battle”. It might seem curious, therefore, that three of the greatest battles in which Australians have fought are not acknowledged.

Those three battles all took place in the skies over Germany during World War II and were fought by the men of the RAF’s Bomber Command, some 11,500 of whom were members of the RAAF. The first was the Battle of the Ruhr from March to July 1943, the second the Battle of Hamburg from 24 July to 3 August 1943, and the third the Battle of Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944.