#BomberCommand

[whencyclopedia]

The Bombing of Berlin

The bombing of Berlin, aka the Berlin Air Offensive or Battle of Berlin (Air), was a sustained bombing campaign on the German capital by the British Royal Air Force and United States Air Force from November 1943 until March 1944. The objective, which failed, was to bomb Germany into surrender and win WWII without the necessity of land operations.

Area Bombing

The commander-in-chief of the RAF Bomber Command, Arthur Harris (1892-1984), had received backing at the highest level for the night-time area bombing (aka carpet bombing) of German industrial targets and industrial cities. The Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) had already conducted a Combined Bomber Offensive and made repeated attacks on the Ruhr industrial area of Germany (Battle of the Ruhr, March-July 1943) and on Hamburg with the utterly devastating Operation Gomorrah (July-August 1943). Typically, the RAF bombed by night and the USAAF by day in these combined operations. As Winston Churchill (l. 1874-1965), the British prime minister put it:

We shall bomb Germany by day as well as by night in ever-increasing measure, casting upon them month by month a heavier discharge of bombs, and making the German people taste and gulp each month a sharper dose of the miseries they have showered upon mankind.

(Liddell Hart, 189)

By the summer of 1943, the Allied leaders began to shift their focus to a future invasion of Continental Europe. The Allies issued the Pointblank Directive in June 1943, which stated that bombing raids in Europe should prioritise Germany's capacity to produce fighter planes, which could be used against ground troops in the D-Day Normandy landings (Operation Overlord) planned for the following summer. Air supremacy had to be achieved before Overlord could get underway. However, Harris remained sceptical of the possibility of hitting small but strategically important targets like weapons factories. This was in some way born out by the USAAF's Schweinfurt-Regensburg raids. The first Schweinfurt raid in August 1943 had not been very successful in damaging the crucial ball-bearing factories, and many aircraft had been lost in the process. (The USAAF returned to Schweinfurt and was more successful in October). Berlin did have key armaments factories, and these could be knocked out with a wider and more indiscriminate bomb-dropping strategy, Harris thought. Berlin was also an obvious transport hub and, of course, a prestige target, too. Harris believed that the heavy bombing of Berlin could ultimately lead to Germany's surrender and so the Allies might even avoid the necessity of dangerous and time-consuming land operations.

There were some flaws in the plan. Berlin was a much bigger city than those bombed previously and so would take many more raids to damage. Harris knew this, and so he called for a force of 6,000 bombers, but this was never possible; the RAF and USAAF combined only had some 3,000 bomber planes at any one time. Berlin was also well-defended with over 100 anti-aircraft batteries. The historian M. Hastings describes Berlin as "the largest and most heavily defended industrial urban area in Europe" (285). As the historian R. Neillands put it, Berlin "was always a difficult target. It lay a long way into Germany, close to the eastern frontier, and was a very big and very flat city, with few physical features…" (217).

Another problem was that in 1943, Allied fighter planes still did not have sufficient fuel range to escort bombers to targets deep in Germany. Finally, the other bombing campaigns, which included the thousand-bomber raid on Cologne in 1942, had not shattered civilian morale despite causing enormous casualties and damage. This had also been true of the German bombing of British cities and the London Blitz earlier in the war. Even if German civilian morale could be broken, in a totalitarian state built on violence, there was probably not much civilians could do to influence policy change anyway. Despite these pitfalls, the Combined Chiefs of Staff gave Harris the green light, and the bombers were sent to Berlin. Crucially, the USAAF, preferring to pursue its own targets like Germany's oil supplies, would not join the raids until near the end of the campaign. The RAF bomber crews would be on their own in their effort to bomb into submission the city they called "Big B".

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[whencyclopedfr]

Bombardement de Dresde en 1945

Le bombardement de Dresde fut une opération combinée controversée et très destructrice menée par des bombardiers Lancaster de la Royal Air Force et des bombardiers B-17 Flying Fortress de l'United States Air Force les 13, 14 et 15 février et le 2 mars 1945. Ce raid s'inscrivait dans le cadre de l'opération Thunderclap (Coup de tonerre) qui visait à frapper Berlin et d'autres villes d'Allemagne de l'Est, afin de provoquer un chaos logistique permettant de soutenir l'avancée des Russes sur le front de l'Est.

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[guywithbeer]

Check out this third gameplay video of this fun WW2 game.

bombercrew #gameplay #videogames #gaming #strategy #rts #ww2 #bombercommand #worldwar2 #realtimestrategy

[iloveahangar]

Just a 6 ship take off 😳. The caption on this image stated “A flight of Martin B-26 Marauders in take-off from desert strip during experiments with the 6 plane system in Africa.” However a handwritten notation below the typed caption read:  “6 ship take-offs were never executed in Africa. It was whilst the group was based at Decimomannu, Sardinia. The first 6 ship training flights were executed 19th April 1944 and procedure was used the next day for the mission to Leghorn. Procedure continued to be used for over 100 missions,  without mishap, until the unit moved from Sardinia to Corsica in Sept of ‘44” Authority: Mrs Harold E Oyster. Harold Eugene Oyster (1923-1988) was a member of the 439thBS, 319th BG, 12. The aircraft front (88) is SN 42-107565 “Roger the Dodger” 🌎www.iloveahangar.com 📷Feel free to repost but please remember to tag us 👍😊 #aircraft #airforce #airshow #avgeek #aviation #aviationdaily #aviationgeek #aviationhistory #aviationlovers #aviationphotos #bombercommand #ww2aviation #instaaviation #militaryaviation #militaryaviationphotography #oldairplanes #vintageaircraft #warbird #warbirds #usaaf #ww2aircraft #b26 #b26marauder https://www.instagram.com/p/CTR7NsMBFR6/?utm_medium=tumblr

[wattersworkshop]

So it’s not Christmas without a classic Airfix! Here’s the 1:72 Dambusters Avro Lancaster as flown by Guy Gibson DFC. #airfix #lancaster #bombercommand #scalemodeling #dambusters #miniaturepainting #art https://www.instagram.com/p/B6qIEbsHQA7/?igshid=lgamc993pxin

[rupertmatthews]

A humbling visit to the crash site of Lancaster R5694 EM-F near #Eaton. Thanx to @MeganEKelleher of @CWGC for the information. #RAF #BomberCommand (at Melton Mowbray) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUatS6Eg-Aj/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ad-maiora--sara-albanese]

🇬🇧 Youtubr Channel Ad Maiora (https://youtu.be/JEnDQegtLoo) ☝Here is the English version of my video about Charlie Darby, an Air Gunner who served in the RAF Bomber Command during WWII. In his unpublished works, he offers a new perspective of the role and the hard life of Air Gunners. His poetry is direct and refined, powerful and honest. Thank you to the IBCC Digital Archive of the University of Lincoln for giving me the opportunity and the privilege to talk about these precious unpublished texts and the authors who witnessed such a painful and controversial page of our recent history. #WWII #RAF #bombercommand #universityoflincoln #airgunner #poetry #warpoetry https://www.instagram.com/p/CPQ5751AC7z/?utm_medium=tumblr

[penandswordbooks]

‘To all who served’. A memorial stone to 78 Squadron, 4 Group Bomber Command, situated in the grounds of All Saints Church, Bubwith, Yorkshire. #Memorial #WW2 #SecondWorldWar #WW2History #History #Aviation #WW2Aviation #BomberCommand #RAF #RoyalAirForce #RAFBomberCommand #Breighton #Dishforth #Bubwith #Yorkshire (at All Saint's Church Bubwith) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJxnrsJa-k/?igshid=5wez4kea7x3o

[tallyhochap]

Published in 1942, 'The Wonder Book of the R.A.F' portrays a very rosy picture of the Second World War. This was the ultimate book for every British boy, who had looked high in the sky and seen the vapour trails of dog fighting aircraft playing actors on the Battle of Britain stage. Filled with heroic stories and details of R.A.F fighter and bomber command. The book provides an advertisement for a career in the Royal Air Force. Which by the end of the Second World War had reached a total strength of 1,208,000 men and women, with a not so rosey number of 70,000 personnel killed. Look into the 'wonder' of the RAF for yourself now available @tally.ho.chap #raf #royalairforce #battleofbritain #fightercommand #bombercommand #ww2 #tallyhochap (at Tally Ho Chap) https://www.instagram.com/p/By42wf2H6rw/?igshid=15zi834vbzk85

[blakepassion]

#Excited too 😊 #Repost @intbcc with @get_repost ・・・ The doors have barley opened for tonight's big event and we are already excited for tomorrows! There will be a few tickets left on the door if you haven't got yours yet... @thebandblake @theddaydarlings @waddingtonmwc ⠀ #thebandblake #theddaydarlings #waddingtonmwc #proms #whatsonlincolnshire #visitlincoln #becauseweremember #aviationhistory #dday75 #bombercommand https://www.instagram.com/p/BydhfCuhSXH/?igshid=xn9s1odt4m8h

[whencyclopedia]

The Bombing of Dresden in 1945

The bomber raid on Dresden was a controversial and highly destructive combined operation by Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers and United States Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress bombers on 13, 14, and 15 February and 2 March 1945. The raid was part of Operation Thunderclap, which aimed to strike Berlin and other cities in eastern Germany, causing logistical chaos to support the Russian advance on the Eastern Front.

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[whencyclopedfr]

Bombardement de Berlin

Le bombardement de Berlin, alias la bataille de Berlin (aérienne), fut une campagne de bombardement soutenue sur la capitale allemande par la Royal Air Force britannique et l'United States Air Force de novembre 1943 à mars 1944. L'objectif, qui échoua, était de bombarder l'Allemagne pour qu'elle se rende et de gagner la Seconde Guerre mondiale sans qu'il soit nécessaire de mener des opérations terrestres.

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[guywithbeer]

Check out this second gameplay video of this fun WW2 game.

#bombercrew #gameplay #videogames #gaming #strategy #rts #ww2 #bombercommand #worldwar2 #realtimestrategy

[iloveahangar]

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A post shared by I love a hangar (@iloveahangar)

A nice line up on the taxiway here….from “News of the Day” c 1942 For those without audio….“ West Coast Ferry Command of the United States Army Air Corp – fighting planes for the RAF with newly commissioned American flight officers at the controls for the first leg of the thousand mile hop to Britain. Special training for a hand-picked group of Yankee pilots. This ferry service was taken over by the Government five months ago, already has started nearly 1,000 planes on their way. Uncle Sam’s Air Force does it’s share to keep ‘em flying for the RAF” If you look carefully at around the 8.5-9.5 second mark, there is a glimpse of Col. Robert Olds, Chief of Air Corps Ferrying Command (standing sideways, just right of middle with hat, below B-24 cockpit) 🌎www.iloveahangar.com 📷Feel free to repost but please remember to tag us 👍😊 #aircraft #airforce #airshow #avgeek #aviation #aviationdaily #aviationgeek #aviationhistory #aviationlovers #aviationphotos #bombercommand #ww2aviation #instaaviation #militaryaviation #militaryaviationphotography #oldairplanes #vintageaircraft #warbird #warbirds #b24liberator #usaaf #p38 https://www.instagram.com/p/CQpsBwIoupS/?utm_medium=tumblr

[berlinluftterror]

[An in-flight view of Whitley Mk.V T4131, EY-W from No 78 RAF Squadron during 1941. Note row of bombs painted on the fuselage nose to indicate numbers of missions flown over the Third Reich. Photo: Wixey, K. Warpaint. p.11.]

The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley was one of the three ´strategic` bombers types with which Britain went to war in September 1939. The Whitley was concived as a night heavy bomber and was RAF´s first monoplane bomber and the first one to penetrate on Germany.

With a crew of five men, and powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlin X engines, the Whitley was capable of 230 mph (370 km/h) at 16,400 ft (5,000 m) and was bombed with up to 7,000 lb (3,175 kg) of bombs in the fuselage and 14 individual cells in the wings.

[Artist Paul Nash made this watercolour and chalk drawing of Berlin´s RAF first attack from a set of photographs that Air Ministry sent to him. It shows an aerial view of four Whitley bombers in flight over a target area of Berlin. It was made in January 1941. Photo: Imperial War Museum.]

[The Nash and Thompson Type FN4 rear turret of an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber of No 102 Squadron RAF at Driffield, Yorkshire, 8 March 1940. It was armed with four ,303 in Browning machine-guns to protect the plane against night-fighters. Note formation lights lamps below and gunner inside the framed turret. Photo: Imperial War Museum.]

[davidfieldsculptor]

Very nearly finished the B17 Flying Fortress tribute plaque inspired by the sacrifice of the crew of Mi Amigo on February 22nd 1944 and the dedication of Sheffield resident Tony Foulds in looking after their memorial. I'll be moulding it soon. #miamigo #tonygotaflypast #sheffieldgotaflypast #tonyfoulds #sheffield #ww2 #b17 #flyingrortress #alliedaircrew #aircrew #usairforce #raf #airforce #plaque #memorial #USembassy #usa #flyingfortress #bombercommand #305thbombgroup #americanairmuseum #endcliffepark #305thbombgroupcando #305thcando #dday #bigweek #royalbritishlegion #sculpture #memorial #clay https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu3rJqxlwk7/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8i4gk8yng687