List of strategic bombing over Germany in World War II
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
A list of strategic bombing over Germany in World War II includes cities and towns in Germany attacked by RAF Bomber Command and the Eighth Air Force. This list is not complete.
History
[edit]Defence of Germany
[edit]German defensive strategy of their country, and neighbouring occupied countries, against strategic bombing was conducted by the Defence of the Reich.
In February 1944, the RAF and USAAF air raids of Big Week notably limited the offensive capability of the Luftwaffe, from which it would never recover. On the first day of Big Week, 127 German fighters were shot down for the loss of one P-51 Mustang fighter.[citation needed] 434 German fighter pilots were killed in February 1944, which was 17% of the total, and many were the more-experienced fighter pilots.
The German air defence had advanced radar and was often impenetrable, or only penetrable at great cost; only aircraft such as the de Havilland Mosquito could completely outwit the German defences; the Mosquito was almost impossible to shoot down, being able to outrun most German fighter aircraft too, and it carried no discernible defensive armament. Around fifteen German cities were firebombed, in which destruction of the cities was almost total; the temperatures created in the firestorm were huge. Many north-western German cities were bombed in late 1943 in the Battle of the Ruhr.
On 27 May 1940, a 10 Sqn Armstrong Whitworth Whitley on German raid, becomes first time that a RAF rear gunner shot down a German fighter. On 5 May 1943, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt escorted for the first time. On 26 July 1944, the first time that a jet fighter shot down an aircraft occurred in air combat history, when a Me 262 shot down a reconnaissance Mosquito of 540 Sq.
Destruction
[edit]Approximately 410,000 German civilians were killed in the strategic bombing.[1] Within the 1937 borders of Germany, industrial capacity was greater at the end of the war than at the beginning. British and American raids often deliberately targeted the highly flammable medieval and early modern city centres, which had no military value. The raids intensified in the final months of the war, when Germany's defeat was effectively inevitable.
42 22,000lb Grand Slam devices were dropped over Germany.
Strategic bombing
[edit]
B
[edit]- Bombing of Berlin in World War II; in the first four months of the RAF campaign, the RAF lost around 1,000 aircraft; the USAAF joined the Berlin campaign from March 1944, with Mustang fighter support; the Luftwaffe fighter pilots were deeply alarmed by the numbers of the Mustangs; on 6 March 1944, the first large US raid drops 1600 tons of bombs from 600 bombers, with around 160 of the 800 defending German fighters being shot down; the largest USAAF raid of the entire war, with 1,500 bombers of the Eighth Air Force, was on the morning of 3 February 1945, causing a firestorm
- Bombing of Braunschweig (October 1944); the main raid was on 14/15 October 1944 by No. 5 Group RAF and part of the 24-hour Operation Hurricane, where around 10,000 tons were dropped.
- Bombing of Bremen in World War II, on 13 April 1943, 115 B-17s destroy half of the Focke-Wulf factory
D
[edit]- Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II; the raid on 11/12 September 1944 resulted in a firestorm
- Bombing of Dortmund, on 12 March 1945, the largest raid of the whole war on one target, the RAF drops 4,851 tonnes, with 1108 aircraft, 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, and 68 Mosquitos, destroying 98% of the city centre; it began at 4.30pm, and lasted 29 minutes
- Bombing of Dresden in World War II
- Bombing of Duisburg in World War II
E
[edit]- Bombing of Emden, on 31 March 1941, the first 4,000lb cookie was dropped, and was the 37th raid on the town; the 4,000lb device was described as five-times more powerful than previous RAF ordnance[2]
- Bombing of Essen in World War II, on 8 March 1942 was the first carpet bombing raid by RAF; on 5 March 1943, there was a huge raid, with 160 acres destroyed
H
[edit]K
[edit]- Bombing of Karlsruhe, on 2 September 1942, the first 8,000lb device was dropped by the RAF
- Bombing of Kassel in World War II; on the raid on 22 October 1943, Operation Corona was first implemented, whereby native German speakers would give confusing orders to the Luftwaffe fighter pilots from Hollywood Manor at West Kingsdown, Kent; the raid resulted in a firestorm, destroying 23 square miles; the Kassel Mission by the USAAF occurred on 27 September 1944, and was one of the largest air battles between the Luftwaffe and the USAAF, and 118 American aircrew were killed, of which 11 were murdered after parachuting to safety
- Bombing of Konigsberg
M
[edit]- Bombing of Munich in World War II; the main raid was on 24/25 April 1944
N
[edit]- Bombing of Nuremberg in World War II; on 2 January 1945, 521 Lancasters, with around 6,000 high-explosive bombs, a million incendiaries, caused a firestorm, destroying 90% of the Altstadt, killing 1835 people. Before the war 400,000 lived there, but after the war 200,000 lived there
S
[edit]W
[edit]- Bombing of Wuppertal in World War II; the raid on 29–30 May 1943 caused a firestorm
See also
[edit]- Category:World War II strategic bombing units
- List of strategic bombing over the United Kingdom in World War II
- Civilian casualties of strategic bombing
- List of air operations during the Battle of Europe
- Lists of World War II topics
References
[edit]- ^ "University of Exeter". Archived from the original on 2018-10-07. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
- ^ Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph Wednesday 2 April 1941 page 6
