Bombing of Berlin in World War II

Bombing of Berlin in World War II
Part of Strategic bombing during World War II

The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, extensively damaged during the RAF bombing raid of 22–23 November 1943 and preserved as a monument.
Date7 June 1940 – 21 April 1945
Location
Berlin, Germany
Result Heavy damage to the city
Soviet victory in the Battle of Berlin
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 United States
 Soviet Union
 France
 Germany
Units involved

 Royal Air Force

US Army Air Force

 Soviet Air Forces

French Air Force

Luftwaffe

Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War.[1] It was bombed by the RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and 1945, the United States Army Air Forces' Eighth Air Force between 1943 and 1945, and the French Air Force in 1940 and between 1944 and 1945 as part of the Allied campaign of strategic bombing of Germany. It was also attacked by aircraft of the Red Air Force in 1941 and particularly in 1945, as Soviet forces closed on the city. British bombers dropped 45,517 tons of bombs,[2] while American aircraft dropped 22,090.3 tons. As the bombings continued, more and more people fled the city. By May 1945, 1.7 million people (40% of the population) had fled.[3]

  1. ^ Taylor, Chapter "Thunderclap and Yalta" Page 216
  2. ^ "Target Analysis". Flight. 9 August 1945. p. 154. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015.
  3. ^ Richard Overy, The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940–1945 (2014), pp 301, 304