WWII GREATEST AIR STRIKES
This site intends to make a brief roundup of the greatest air strikes of the world war 2, the bulk of them aimed against cities in which the civilian population took heavy casualties.
In the first stages of the war the axis forces had air superiority until the battle of England in Europe and Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre. The axis forces main effort was against the armed forces, and sometimes against cities and civilian population. In the second stage when the allied gained control of the air a systematic campaign aimed to destroy the axis industry and morale took place. The main targets where the cities of Germany and Japan which caused heavy civilian casualties.
The greatest air strikes of ww2:
September 24, 1939: The germans bombed Warsaw with 1150 airplanes. The reason was the heavy polish resistance in the city. A few days after Poland surrendered to the germans.
May 14, 1940: The Luftwaffe (german air force) strikes against Rotterdam in an indiscriminate attack aimed to terrify civilian population and 30,000 civilians were killed. This bombing caused the Netherlands to surrender.
August 13, 1940: The eagle day. The battle of England begins. The german assault used 1485 aircraft in one day. After this day England was bombed every day for several months.
September 7, 1940: Heavy german bombing against London. 300 bombers and 600 fighters were involved in the strike.
November 14, 1940: The Luftwaffe almost destroyed Coventry. In the following months until May 1941 several English cities suffered raids like Southampton, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast and a lot more.
May 30-31, 1941: The RAF strikes against Germany.1,046 airplanes bombed the city of Koln which was half destroyed. 40,000 people died and many more were left homeless.
December 7 1941: A Japanese strike force attacks Pearl Harbor, sinking almost all the American Pacific Fleet and pushing the US to enter the wwii.
July 28, 1943: The RAF attacks Hamburg with 791 airplanes. The bombers carried Fire-bombs which causes a huge fire hurricane in the city that took the lives of 50,000 german civilians.
October 14, 1943: The american air force strikes with 291 bombers against the german city of Schweinfurt which had a bearings factory, very important for the production of several weapons. The americans lost 60 planes. The heavy casualties forced them to cancel the day strikes against Germany.
November 18-19, 1943: The RAF bombs Berlin with 444 planes. It was the first of 16 attacks against Berlin which totalled 9000 sorties.
March 8, 1944: The amercans strike against a Bearings factory in Berlin with 590 planes. The bombers where escorted by the P-51 fighters which reduced the american casualties to only 37 planes.
March 30-31, 1944: The RAF strikes Nuremberg with 795 planes. 95 of them were shot down by the german fighters. The heavy casualties forced the English to suspend the long range air strikes until the total air superiority over Germany was achieved.
February 14-15, 1945: Night indiscriminate bombing against the city of Dresden. 805 RAF bombers dropped fire bombs causing a huge Fire Hurricane. Between 35.000 and 135.000 civilians are estimated to be killed. Many people think this massacre was not justified due to the war situation (The german defeat was only a matter of days). No massacre is ever justified of course.
March 10, 1945: Tokio is bombed by the americans with fire bombs. 100,000 people were killed and 375,000 left homeless. This was one of many attacks to Japanese cities during 1945.
August 6, 1945: Hiroshima is attacked with a nuclear device which destroyed all the city. The radiation killed people for many years mainly due to cancer.
August 9, 1945: Nagasaki is attacked with a second nuclear device. A few days after both nuclear attacks Japan surrenders.
WWII AIR WAR RELATED BOOKS
Missions Remembered: Recollections of the World War II Air War | Eighth Air Force Bomber Stories: Eye-Witness Accounts from American Airmen and British Civilians of the Perils of War | Aircraft of Wwii |