A list of strategic bombing over Germany in World War II includes cities and towns in Germany attacked by

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

and the

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...

. This list is not complete.

History

Defence of Germany

German defensive strategy of their country, and neighbouring occupied countries, against

strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...

was conducted by the

Defence of the Reich The Defence of the Reich (german: Reichsverteidigung) is the name given to the military strategy, strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany over German-occupied Europe and Germany during World War II. Its aim w ...

. In February 1944, the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

air raids of

Big Week Big Week or Operation Argument was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Strategic bombing during World War II#US bombing in Europe, European strategic bombin ...

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 The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James ...

fighter. 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 The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or ...

could completely outwit the German defences; the Mosquito was almost impossible to

shoot down ''Shoot Down'' is a 2006 documentary regarding the events surrounding the Brothers to the Rescue organization and the eventual shootdown of two of its aircraft. Based on five reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an Ame ...

, being able to outrun most German fighter aircraft too, and it carried no discernible defensive armament. Around fifteen German cities were

firebombed Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary ...

, 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 The Battle of the Ruhr (5 March – 31 July 1943) was a strategic bombing campaign against the Ruhr Area in Nazi Germany carried out by RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. The Ruhr was the main centre of German heavy industry with ...

Destruction

Approximately 410,000 German civilians were killed in the strategic bombing. 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.

Strategic bombing

B

Bombing of Braunschweig (October 1944) During World War II, Braunschweig (known as Brunswick in English) was attacked by Allied aircraft in 42 bombing raids. On the night of 14/15 October 1944, the attack by No. 5 Group Royal Air Force (RAF) marked the high point of the destruction ...

; the main raid was on 14/15 October 1944 by

No. 5 Group RAF No. 5 Group was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part (February 1943 – 1945) by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane. History Overview The Group was formed on 1 September 1937, with its headquarters at RAF Mild ...

and part of the 24-hour

Operation Hurricane Operation Hurricane was the first test of a Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom, British atomic device. A plutonium Nuclear weapon design#Implosion-type weapon, implosion device was detonated on 3 October 1952 in Main Bay, Trimouille Island ...

, where around 10,000 tons were dropped.

D

Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II Darmstadt was bombed a number of times during World War II. The most devastating air raid on Darmstadt occurred on the night of 11/12 September 1944 when No. 5 Group of the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed the city. 66,000 of the 110,000 inhabitants ...

; the raid on 11/12 September 1944 resulted in a

firestorm A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...

Bombing of Dresden in World War II The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Roya ...

Bombing of Duisburg in World War II Duisburg was bombed a number of times by the Allies during World War II. The most devastating air raids on Duisburg occurred during October 1944 when the city was bombed by the Royal Air Force (RAF). Duisburg was a major logistical centre in the ...

E

Bombing of Essen in World War II During World War II, the industrial town of Essen, was a target of Allied strategic bombing. The Krupp steelworks was an important industrial target, Essen was a "primary target" designated for area bombing by the February 1942 British Area bo ...

H

Bombing of Hamburg in World War II The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacke ...

Bombings of Heilbronn in World War II During World War II, the German city of Heilbronn was bombed numerous times by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. The largest air-raid occurred on December 4, 1944, but Heilbronn was targeted several times before a ...

K

Bombing of Kassel in World War II The Kassel World War II bombings were a set of Allied strategic bombing attacks which took place from February 1942 to March 1945. In a single deadliest raid on 22–23 October 1943, 150,000 inhabitants were bombed-out, at least 6,000 people die ...

; on the raid on 22 October 1943,

Operation Corona Operation Corona was a Royal Air Force (RAF) initiative to confuse German nightfighter defences during RAF bomber raids on German cities during World War II. The RAF used both native speakers and people who could speak German to a standard wh ...

was first implemented, whereby native German speakers would give confusing orders to the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

fighter pilots from

Hollywood Manor Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

West Kingsdown West Kingsdown is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England, on the A20 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Swanley, 5.5 miles (9 km) northeast of Sevenoaks and from London. The Area The parish was part of Axsta ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

; the raid resulted in a firestorm, destroying 23 square miles; the

Kassel Mission The Kassel Mission on 27 September 1944 was also known as the ''air battle over the Seulingswald''. The mission aimed to destroy the factories in Kassel of the engineering works of Henschel & Sohn which built tracked armoured vehicles (the "Tiger ...

by the USAAF occurred on 27 September 1944, and was one of the largest air battles between the

and the USAAF, and 118 American aircrew were killed, of which 11 were murdered after parachuting to safety * Bombing of Konigsberg

M

Bombing of Munich in World War II The bombing of Munich (''Luftangriffe auf München'') took place mainly in the later stages of World War II. Munich was, and is, a significant German city, as much culturally as industrially. Augsburg, thirty-seven miles to the west, was a main c ...

; the main raid was on 24/25 April 1944

S

Bombing of Stuttgart in World War II The bombing of Stuttgart in World War II was a series of 53 air raids that formed part of the strategic air offensive of the Allies against Germany. The first bombing (by 20 aircraft of the Royal Air Force) occurred on August 25, 1940, and resulte ...

W

Bombing of Wuppertal in World War II During the Second World War, the city of Wuppertal suffered numerous Allied air raids, primarily nighttime attacks from the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command during its Battle of the Ruhr bomber offensive. The largest raids were on the night of 29- ...

; the raid on 29–30 May 1943 caused a firestorm

References

External links

War History Online
{{WWII city bombing

Bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

History of the Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

World War II strategic bombing of Germany