Bombing of Berlin in World War II
Bombing of Berlin in World War II | |||||||
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Part of Strategic bombing during World War II | |||||||
The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, heavily damaged in an Allied bombing and preserved as a monument against destruction and war | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom United States Soviet Union France | Germany | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
US Army Air Force
French Air Force |
History of Berlin |
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Margraviate of Brandenburg (1157–1806) |
Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918) |
German Empire (1871–1918) |
Free State of Prussia (1918–1947) |
Weimar Republic (1919–1933) |
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Nazi Germany (1933–1945) |
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West Germany and East Germany (1945–1990) |
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Federal Republic of Germany (1990–present) |
See also |
Prelude
When the
The British had a policy of using aerial bombing only against military targets and/or infrastructure such as ports and railways of direct military importance. It was acknowledged that the aerial bombing of Germany would cause civilian casualties, but the British government was initially reluctanct to deliberately bomb civilian property outside combat zones as a military tactic.
Between 1939 and 1942, the policy of bombing only targets of direct military significance was gradually abandoned in favour of "
1940 to 1943
Before 1941, Berlin, at 950 kilometres (590 miles) from London, was at the extreme range attainable by the British bombers then available to the Allied forces. It could be bombed only at night in summer when the days were longer and skies clear—which increased the risk to Allied bombers. The first RAF raid on Berlin took place on the night of 25 August 1940; 95 aircraft were dispatched to bomb
The Soviet Union started a bombing campaign on Berlin on 8 August 1941 that extended into early September. Medium Navy bombers, accompanied from 12 August by Army bombers, conducted ten raids from Saaremaa island to Berlin with 3–12 aircraft in each raid, fifty in total reaching Berlin.[17] Heavy Army bombers, operating from near Leningrad, executed one raid to Berlin on 11 August, with only few machines reaching the target.[18] In total in 1941, Soviet aircraft dropped 36,000 kilograms (79,000 pounds) of bombs on Berlin. Combat and operational losses for the Soviets tallied 17 aircraft destroyed and 70 crewmen killed.[19]
On 7 November 1941,
At the same time, new bombers with longer ranges were coming into service, particularly the Avro Lancaster, which became available in large numbers during 1942. During most of 1942, however, Bomber Command's priority was attacking Germany's U-boat ports as part of Britain's effort to win the Battle of the Atlantic. During the whole of 1942 there were only nine air alerts in Berlin, none of them serious.[22] Only in 1943 did Harris have both the means and the opportunity to put his belief in area bombing into practice.
The Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was launched by Harris in November 1943, a concerted air campaign against the German capital, although other cities continued to be attacked to prevent the Germans concentrating their defences in Berlin. Harris believed this could be the blow that would break German resistance. "It will cost us between 400 and 500 aircraft," he said. "It will cost Germany the war."
A prelude to the 1943 raids came from the
The first raid of the battle occurred on November 18–19, 1943. Berlin was the main target, and was attacked by 440
On December 17, extensive damage was done to the Berlin railway system. By this time cumulative effect of the bombing campaign had made more than a quarter of Berlin's total living accommodation unusable.[26] There was another major raid on January 28–29, 1944, when Berlin's western and southern districts were hit in the most concentrated attack of this period. On February 15–16, important war industries were hit, including the large Siemensstadt area, with the centre and south-western districts sustaining most of the damage. This was the largest raid by the RAF on Berlin. Raids continued until March 1944.[26][27][28]
These raids caused immense devastation and loss of life in Berlin. The November 22, 1943 raid killed 2,000 Berliners and rendered 175,000 homeless. The following night, 1,000 were killed and 100,000 made homeless. During December and January regular raids killed hundreds of people each night and rendered between 20,000 and 80,000 homeless each time.[29] Overall nearly 4,000 were killed, 10,000 injured and 450,000 made homeless.[30]
The 16 raids on Berlin cost Bomber Command more than 500 aircraft, with their crews killed or captured. This was a loss rate of 5.8%, which was above the 5% threshold that was considered the maximum sustainable operational loss rate by the RAF.[31] In December 1943, for example, 11 crews from No. 460 Squadron RAAF alone were lost in operations against Berlin; and in January and February, another 14 crews were killed. Having 25 aircraft destroyed meant that the fighting force of the squadron had to be replaced in three months. At these rates “Bomber Command would have been wiped out before Berlin."[32] It has been largely acknowledged that the Battle of Berlin was a failure; for the RAF,[32] British official historians have stated that "in an operational sense the Battle of Berlin was more than a failure, it was a defeat". [33]
March 1944 to April 1945
In 1943, the
The
At the tail end of the Battle of Berlin the RAF made one last large raid on the city on the night of 24–25 March, losing 8.9% of the attacking force,[37] but due to the failure of the Battle of Berlin, and the switch to the tactical bombing of France during the summer months in support of the Allied invasion of France, RAF Bomber Command left Berlin alone for most of 1944. Nevertheless, regular nuisance raids by both the RAF and USAAF continued. In 1945, the Eighth Air Force launched a number of very large daytime raids on Berlin, the last of them being on 18 March (there were bombing raids to Falkensee and Spandau, near Berlin, on 28 March),[38] the 15th Air Force launched its only bombing mission to Berlin on 24 March,[38] and for 36 nights in succession scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city.[39]
The largest American raid on Berlin
1,500 bombers of the Eighth Air Force, protected by some 1,000 fighters attacked the Berlin railway system on the forenoon (British: morning) of 3 February 1945 in the belief that the
In the raid, led by Lieutenant-Colonel
The bombing was so dense that it caused a city fire spreading eastwards, driven by the wind, over the south of Friedrichstadt and the northwest of neighboured Luisenstadt. The fire lasted for four days until it had burnt everything combustible in its range to ashes and after it had reached waterways, large thoroughfares, and parks that the fire could not jump over. Due to the exhaustion of German supplies the German anti-aircraft defense was under-equipped and weak so that out of the 1,600 US aircraft committed, only 36 were shot down and their crews taken as prisoners-of-war.[45] First Air Division commander Lt. Col. Rosenthal was among those shot down and survived, but was rescued by the Soviet armed forces and eventually returned to England.[46]
A number of monuments, such as French Luisenstadt Church, St. James Church,
Another raid on 26 February 1945
- "the Western Allies had dropped 65,000 tons of explosives on the city in the course of more than two years; whereas the Red Army had expended 40,000 tons in merely two weeks". Later, statisticians calculated that for every inhabitant of Berlin there were nearly 30 cubic meters (39 cubic yards) of rubble.[48]
Up to the end of March 1945 there had been a total of 314 air raids on Berlin, with 85 of those coming in the last twelve months.
Berlin's defences
The Nazi regime was well aware of the political necessity of protecting the Reich capital against devastation from the air. Even before the war, work had begun on an extensive system of public air raid shelters, but by 1939 only 15% of the planned 2,000 shelters had been built. By 1941, however, the five huge public shelters (Zoo, Anhalt Station, Humboldthain, Friedrichshain and Kleistpark) were complete, offering shelter to 65,000 people. Other shelters were built under or near government buildings, the best-known being the so-called Führerbunker underground in the backyard of the Reich Chancellery building. In addition, many U-Bahn stations were converted into shelters. The rest of the population had to make do with their own cellars.[53]
In 1943, the Germans decided to evacuate non-essential people from Berlin. By 1944 1.2 million people, 790,000 of them women and children, about a quarter of the city's population, had been evacuated to rural areas. An effort was made to evacuate all children from Berlin, but this was resisted by parents, and many evacuees soon made their way back to the city (as was also the case in London in 1940–41). The increasing shortage of manpower as the war dragged on meant that female labour was essential to keep Berlin's war industries going, so the evacuation of all women with children was not possible. At the end of 1944 the city's population began to grow again as refugees fleeing the
Timeline
Date | Bomber command | Notes |
---|---|---|
7–8 June 1940 | French Navy | One Farman N.C.223.4 Jules Verne converted long-range transport. Flew from Bordeaux via Baltic Sea, approaching Berlin from the north (first bombing of Berlin).[54] |
25–26 August 1940 | RAF | 95 aircraft.[12][13] |
7 September 1940 | RAF | Bombed Christuskirche church in Neukölln.[8] |
10 September 1940 | RAF | Damaged Brandenburg Gate.[8] |
12/13 March 1941 | RAF | U-boat production at Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin attacked with 257 aircraft[55] |
24 March 1941 | RAF | 130 bombers.[8] For the first time Polish Air Forces took part (No. 300 Squadron).[20] |
17–18 April 1941 | RAF | [20] |
7–8 August 1941 | Soviet Navy | 10 |
8–9 August 1941 | Soviet Navy | 9 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet, operating from Kuressaare airfield on Saaremaa island (9 reached Berlin, dropping 5.4 tons of bombs).[17] |
10–11 August 1941 | Soviet Air Force
|
8 TB-7 (Pe-8) heavy bombers and 3 Yer-2 from Pushkin, of these 3 TB-7 and 2 Yer-2 reached Berlin.[18] |
11–12 August 1941 | Soviet Air Force
|
3 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet, operating from Kuressaare and 9 DB-3F (Il-4) from Long Range Aviation operating from Aste on Saaremaa island (8 reached Berlin).[17] |
13 August 1941 | RAF | 82 tons of bombs[8] |
15-16 August 1941 | Soviet Air Force
|
13 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet and 9 DB-3F (Il-4) from Long Range Aviation, operating from Saaremaa island (17 reached Berlin, dropping 10.5 tons of bombs).[17] |
18–19 August 1941 | Soviet Air Force
|
5 DB-3F (Il-4) bombers from Long Range Aviation, operating from Saaremaa island (2 reached Berlin).[17] |
20–21 August 1941 | Soviet Air Force
|
8 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet and 4 DB-3F (Il-4) from Long Range Aviation, operating from Saaremaa island (3 reached Berlin, 4 lost).[17] |
31 August–1 September 1941 | Soviet Navy | 6 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet, operating from Saaremaa island (2-3 reached Berlin).[17] |
2–3 September 1941 | Soviet Navy | 2 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet, operating from Saaremaa island (1 reached Berlin).[17] |
3 September 1941 | RAF | [8] |
4 September 1941 | RAF | [8] |
4–5 September 1941 | Soviet Navy | 6 DB-3 bombers of the Baltic Fleet (3 reached Berlin). In total 57 naval and 27 army DB-3/DB-3F aircraft performed ten raids from 7 August to 5 September, of these 50 reached Berlin,[17] dropping some 30 tons of bombs.[56] |
7/8 September 1941 | RAF | 197 bombers (a mixture of Vickers Wellingtons, Handley Page Hampdens, Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys, Short Stirlings, Handley Page Halifaxes and Avro Manchesters)[57] |
8 September 1941 | RAF | Burned Potsdamer Bahnhof, over 100 civilians killed in a house at Pariser Platz[8] |
7–8 November 1941 | RAF | 169 aircraft sent to Berlin with other raids at same time. 20 aircraft (12.5%) lost[21][8] Only around 30% of aircraft reached main target, and cloud cover resulted in blind bombing.[20] The high losses led to pause in Bomber Command main bombing campaign[58] |
26 August 1942 | Soviet Air Force
|
Il-4 bombers.[59] |
2 March 1943 | RAF | 251 bombers, 17 lost, dropped 610 tons of bombs, 711 killed on the ground.[8][page needed] |
23–24 August 1943 | RAF | 727 Lancasters, Halifaxes, Stirlings and Mosquitos set out, with 70 turning back before reaching target. 57 aircraft (7.8%) lost.[60] |
31 August–1 September 1943 | RAF | 613 heavy bombers (331 Lancasters, 176 Halifaxes, 106 Stirling) and 9 Mosquitos. 47 aircraft (7.6%) lost.[61] The evacuation of "all children and all adults not engaged in war work" was ordered by the Berlin authorities.[62] |
3–4 September 1943 | RAF | 316 Lancasters dispatched with four Mosquitos carrying out diversionary laying of flares to distract defences.[63] 22 aircraft (6.9%) lost.[64] |
18–19 November 1943 | RAF | The first operation of the RAF Battle of Berlin campaign. Berlin, the main target, was attacked by 440 Avro Lancasters and 4 de Havilland Mosquitos. They bombed the city, which was under cloud with 2% aircraft loss rate. Diversionary raids on Mannheim and Ludwigshafen by 395 other aircraft. Mosquitos attacked several other towns. In all 884 sorties. 32 aircraft (3.6%) lost.[25] |
22–23 November 1943 | RAF | Berlin the main target. 469 Lancasters, 234 Waffen SS Administrative College, the barracks of the Imperial Guard at Spandau. Several factories employed in the manufacture of material for the armed forces and 26 aircraft (3.4%) were also lost.[25]
|
23–24 November 1943 | RAF | Berlin, the main target, was attacked by 365 Lancasters, 10 Halifaxes, 8 Mosquitos (383 aircraft).[25] |
24–25 November 1943 | RAF | Berlin, in a small raid, was attacked by 6 Mosquitos, 1 Mosquito lost |
25–26 November 1943 | RAF | 3 Mosquitos to Berlin.[25] |
26–27 November 1943 | RAF | Berlin, the main target, was attacked by 443 Lancasters and 7 Mosquitos. Most of the damage in Berlin was in the semi-industrial suburb of Reinickendorf. Stuttgart was a diversion, attacked by 84 aircraft. The total sorties for the night was 666. 34 aircraft (5.1%) lost.[25] |
2–3 December 1943 | RAF | Berlin, the main target, was attacked by 425 Lancasters, 18 Mosquitos, 15 Halifaxes. The Germans correctly identified that Berlin was the target. Unexpected cross winds had scattered the bomber formations and so German fighters found the bombers easier targets. 37 Lancasters, 2 Halifaxes, 1 Mosquito (8.7% of the force). Due to the cross winds the bombing was inaccurate and to the south of the city, but two more of the Siemens factories, a ball-bearing factory and several railway installations were damaged.[26]
|
16–17 December 1943 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. It was attacked by 483 Lancasters and 15 Mosquitos. German night fighters were successfully directed to intercept the bombers. The damage to the Berlin railway system was extensive. 1,000 wagon-loads of war material destined for the Eastern Front were held up for 6 days. The National Theatre and the building housing Germany's military and political archives were both destroyed. The cumulative effect of the bombing campaign had now made more than a quarter of Berlin's total living accommodation unusable. Two Bristol Beaufighters and 2 Mosquitos of No. 100 Group equipped with Serrate radar detector patrolled the route for German nightfighters. A Bf 110 was damaged, the first time these hunter killers had been on a successful Serrate patrol. 25 Lancasters, 5.2% of the Lancaster force, were lost over enemy occupied territory, with a further 29 aircraft lost on landing in England due to very low cloud.[26] |
23–24 December 1943 | RAF | Berlin was attacked by 364 Lancasters, 8 Mosquitos and 7 Halifaxes. German fighters encountered difficulty with the weather and were able to shoot down only 16 Lancasters, 4.2% of the force. Damage to Berlin was relatively small.[26] |
29–30 December 1943 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 457 Lancasters, 252 Halifaxes and 3 Mosquitos (712 aircraft), RAF losses were light, at 2.8% of the force. Heavy cloud cover frustrated the RAF and damage was light.[26] |
1–2 January 1944 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 421 Lancasters dispatched to Berlin. German night fighters were effective and 6.7% of the bombers were shot down. A small raid on Hamburg by 15 Mosquitos and smaller raids on other towns did not divert the night fighters.[27] |
2–3 January 1944 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 362 Lancasters, 12 Mosquitos, 9 Halifaxes (383 aircraft). The night fighters did not catch up to the bombers until they were over Berlin and managed to shoot down 27 Lancasters, 10% of the force. |
5–6 January 1944 | RAF | A diversionary raid by 13 Mosquitos on Berlin.[27] |
10–11 January 1944 | RAF | Small raids on Berlin, Solingen, Koblenz and Krefeld by 20 Mosquitos. No aircraft were lost.[27] |
14–15 January 1944 | RAF | 17 Mosquitos launched small raids on Magdeburg and Berlin.[27] |
20–21 January 1944 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 495 Lancasters, 264 Halifaxes, 10 Mosquitos (769 aircraft) despatched to Berlin. Night fighter attacks were pressed home successfully; 22 Halifaxes and 13 Lancasters were lost, 4.6% of the force. The damage could not be assessed due to low cloud cover the next day.[27] |
27–28 January 1944 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 515 Lancasters and 15 Mosquitos (530 aircraft) despatched to Berlin. The RAF records state that the bombing appeared to have been spread well up- and down-wind. The diversionary raids were only partially successful in diverting German night fighters. 33 Lancasters were lost, which was 6.4 per cent of the heavy force. A further 167 sorties were flown against other targets, with one aircraft lost.[27] |
28–29 January 1944 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 432 Lancasters, 241 Halifaxes, 4 Mosquitos (677 aircraft) despatched to Berlin. Western and Southern districts, covered by partial cloud, were hit in what the RAF records state was the most concentrated attack of this period. German records do not fully support this mentioning that were 77 places outside the city were hit. Deception raids and routing over Northern Denmark did not prevent the German air defences from reacting. 46 aircraft, 6.8 per cent of the force. Just over 100 other aircraft attacked a number of other targets.[27] |
30–31 January 1944 | RAF | Berlin was the main target. 440 Lancasters, 82 Halifaxes, 12 Mosquitos (534 aircraft), despatched to Berlin. RAF losses were 33 aircraft, 6.2% of the total.[27] |
15–16 February 1944 | RAF | Berlin main target. 561 Lancasters, 314 Halifaxes, 16 Mosquitos (891 aircraft), despatched to Berlin. Despite cloud cover most important war industries were hit, including the large Frankfurt-on-the-Oder failed to confuse the Germans. RAF lost 43 aircraft – 26 Lancasters, 17 Halifaxes, which was 4.8 per cent of the force. A further 155 sorties were flown against other targets.[28]
|
4 March 1944 | USAAF | Target: Berlin. Attempted raids had been halted by bad weather on 3 March. A maximum effort raid by 730 (504 B-17s and 226 B-24s) bombers and 644 fighters of the Eighth Air Force. Resulted in 37 losses.[65][66] |
6 March 1944 | USAAF | 69 US bombers were lost. 11 Me 410 heavy fighters.[67]
|
8 March 1944 | USAAF | Raid against Berlin by 623 bombers. 37 US bombers were lost and 18 fighters were also lost. The Luftwaffe lost 42 fighters, with 3 killed, 26 missing and 9 wounded (includes the Me 410 and Bf 110 multiple manned aircraft)[68] |
24–25 March 1944 | RAF | Berlin main target. The bomber stream was scattered and those that reached Berlin bombed well out to the south-west of the city. The RAF lost 72 aircraft, 8.9% of the attacking force.[37] |
Notes
- ^ Taylor, Chapter "Thunderclap and Yalta" Page 216
- ^ "Target Analysis". Flight. 9 August 1945. p. 154. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015.
- ^ Richard Overy, The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940–1945 (2014), pp 301, 304
- ^ President Franklin D. Roosevelt Appeal against aerial bombardment of civilian populations, 1 September 1939.
- ^ Taylor, Chapter "Call Me Meier", Page 105
- ^ A.C. Grayling, Among the Dead Cities (Bloomsbury 2006), p. 24.
- ^ https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/4401/Bombardment-of-air-base-H%C3%B6rnum-19-20-March-1940.htm
- ^ ISBN 83-7237-016-8.
- ^ Donald A. Bertke, Don Kindell, Gordon Smith, "World War II sea war: France falls, Britain stand alone: Day-to-Day Naval Actions April 1940 through September 1940", p.205 [1]
- ^ Hastings 1981, p. 114.
- ^ Hastings 1981, pp. 111–15.
- ^ a b Moss, p. 295
- ^ a b c Quester p. 115
- ^ Quester p. 116.
- ^ Grayling, 47
- ^ Taylor, Chapter "Call Me Meier", p. 114.
- ^ ISBN 978-5-699-46226-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-5-699-36247-9.
- ^ Kamenir, Victor, "Soviet Navy Over Berlin", WWII History Magazine, August 2013, pp. 60–65, 74.
- ^ ISBN 978-83-7020-664-2.
- ^ a b Robin Cross, Fallen Eagle (London, John Wiley and Sons 1995), p. 78.
- ^ Reinhard Rürup, Berlin 1945: A Documentation (Verlag Willmuth Arenhövel 1995), p. 11
- ^ Grayling, p. 62
- ^ "Bomber Command War Diary April 1943", Bomber Command 60th Anniversary, archived from the original on 6 July 2007, retrieved 30 October 2015
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b c d e f RAF Campaign Diary November 1943 Archived 11 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Royal Air Force. 6 April 2005. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Campaign Diary December 1943
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Campaign Diary January 1944
- ^ a b Campaign Diary February 1944.
- ^ Grayling, pp. 309–10
- ^ Rürup, p. 11
- ^ Grayling, p. 332, footnote 58.
- ^ a b Daniel Oakman, Wartime Magazine: "The Battle of Berlin", Australian War Memorial website. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ Webster & Frankland 1961, p. 193.
- ^ Quoted by Mike Davis in Chapter 3 of his work Dead Cities, books.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 8 December 2014; see "Design and Construction of Typical German and Japanese Test Structures at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah", 27 May 1943 Archived 28 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine, by the Standard Oil Development Company. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
- ^ Video: Blast Berlin By Daylight, 1944/03/20 (1944). Universal Newsreel. 1944. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
- ^ Russell, Edward T. (1999), "Big Week", Leaping the Atlantic Wall Army Air Forces Campaigns in Western Europe, 1942–1945, The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, Air Force history and museums program, archived from the original on 19 September 2017
- ^ a b Campaign Diary March 1944
- ^ a b "Army Air Forces in World War II". 31 May 2012. Archived from the original on 31 May 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ^ McInnis 1946, p. 115.
- ^ Taylor, p. 215
- ^ Staff. "Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces: February 1945". usaaf.net. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
- ^ Addison p. 102, gives the political background to the raid
- ^ a b Beevor, p. 74. claims 3,000
- ^ "100th Bomb Group Foundation – Personnel – LT COL Robert ROSENTHAL". 100thbg.com. 100th Bomb Group Foundation. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
Rosenthal, mission Command Pilot, listed on John P. Ernst MACR (#12046) & Casualty Report
- ^ ISBN 3-9804686-0-7.
- ^ "100th Bomb Group Foundation – Personnel – LT COL Robert ROSENTHAL". 100thbg.com. 100th Bomb Group Foundation. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
- ^ Davis, p. 511
- ISBN 0-312-42392-6.
- ISBN 0-7603-1240-0, p. 47.
- ^ "1940s Berlin Germany After Nazi Occupation Post WW2 Time Travel Documentary". Upscale History.
- ^ Rürup, p. 13
- ^ Selden, Mark (2 May 2007). "A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities & the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq". Japan Focus.
- ^ This section is based on Rürup, chapter 1
- ^ Green 1968, p. 19.
- ^ "Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary Campaign Diary 1941". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- ISBN 83-86208-44-9.
- ^ "Campaign Diary 1941". Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- ^ "Campaign Diary 1941". Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- ISBN 978-5-699-38276-7.
- ^ Richards 1994, pp. 268–69.
- ^ Richards 1994, p. 269.
- ^ Bomber Command Campaign Diary August 1943
- ^ Richards 1994, p. 270.
- ^ RAF Campaign Diary September 1943 Archived 29 September 2004 at the Wayback Machine. Royal Air Force. 6 April 2005. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ Hess 1994, pp. 80–84. [verification needed]
- ^ Caldwell & Muller 2007, p. 168.
- ^ Caldwell & Muller 2007, pp. 172–73.
- ^ Caldwell & Muller 2007, pp. 173–74.
References
- Addison, Paul; Crang, Jeremy A. (2006), Firestorm, Pimlico, ISBN 1-84413-928-X
- Beevor, Antony (2002). Berlin: The Downfall 1945. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-88695-5.
- Caldwell, Donald; Muller, Richard (2007). The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-85367-712-0.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Craven, Wesley; Cate, James, eds. (1951). The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol. III Europe:Argument to VE-Day. University of Chicago Press.
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- ISBN 978-0-7475-7671-6
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- ISBN 0-330-26236-X.
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- ISBN 0-7475-7084-1.
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- Yonnet, Henri (1957), Le 'Jules Verne', avion corsaire, Paris: France-Empire