Figure 1.--

"Set deep in the Reich with massive FLAK and increasingly effective night fighter defenses, the cost was very high indeed--some 500 bombers. "It was a feeling of that of being hunted yourself. We were often told that our aim wasn't to shoot down fighters, but was to get there and deiver the bombs. You were hunted all the way there and all the way back. "

--Cyril Smith, RAF Bomber Command, Squadron Leader.

The War turned decisively against the Germans at the end of 1942 with Allied victories in North Africa ans in the East. It got worst in 1943 with a steady stream of major defears in the East and the Allied invsion of Sicily and Italy. Adm. Dönitz had to withdraw his U-boats from the North Atlantic. But nothing so impacted the German public as the massive increase in Allied bombing. And then at the end of the year--the unbelievably happened, British Bolmber Command went for Berlin. And this time heavy, sustained raids. Berlin was the capital of NAZI Germany and thus seen by many as the heart of the enemy. Actually Berlin before the NAZI take over had not been a center of NAZI strength. Now as the NAZI capital it became a target of considerable importance. Air Marshal Harris from an early stage as he watched London burning wanted to hit Berlin. The Blitz on London was etched deeply on him and many other RAF commanders. The British had conducted small raids on Berlin, but these had been mere pinpricks with small numbers of bombers that had limited bomb loads. Losses had been heavy. Berlin was deep in Germany and heavily defended, it was a difficult target. But now Bomber Command had the Lancaster heavy bomber and increasing numbers of them. Harris wrote Churchill, ":We can wreck Berlin from end to end if the U.S. Army Air Forces will come in on it. It will cost between us 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war" (November 3). The 8th Air Force was still recovering from Schweinfurt. American planners were also beginning to think about the upcoming 1944 cross-Channel invasion and thus increasingly interested in targeting the Luftwaffe. hey would eventually go for Berlin as well, but not yet. The British remembering the enormous casualties of World War I, still desperately wanted to believe that Germany could be bombed out of the War. The campaign against Berlin called 'Operation Berlin' would be a British affair. The British by this point in the War had built up a powerful strategic bomber force and Harris was determined to hurl it at Berlin. Harris launched the campaign (November 18, 1943). There would be 35 raids, any with 700-800 bombrs. Only about half or 16 raids actually hit Berlin. The other raids hit other important German cities to prevent the Germans from concentrating the bulk of their defenses around Berlin. Harris' goal was to hit Berlin like Hamburg 'until the heart of NAZI Germany ceases to beat'. The RAF did not, however, achieve the same results over Berlin that they had at Hamburg. There were several reasons for this. Hamburg was an older city than Berlin with many wooden buildings as well as narrow streets. Berlin was a sprawling city with buildings constructed of brick and stone. Also their were wide avenues and streets which acted as firebreaks. British directional and bombing systems (Oboe and H2S) did not work well because of the distance and sprawling layout. The Germans built decoys and their increasingly effective night-defense system took a terrible toll on the British. The Luftwaffe shot down 43 bombers over Magdeburg (January 21, 1944), 43 bombers over Berlin (January 28), 78 over Leipzig (February 29), and 72 over Berlin (March 24). About two-thirds of the kills were achieved by Luftwaffe night fighters and the rest by Flak batteries. This varied from night to night. The German night fighters were enacting an increasing toll. The Flak batteries were especially effective during the March 24 raid n Berlin, accounting for about 50 of the 72 bombers shot down. The last raid on Operation Berlin was flow against Nuremberg (March 30). This was not a major industrial city. It was, however, the German city most associated with the NAZIs because of the annual Party Congresses held there. It was an especially large raid with 795 bombers. Harris dispatched a decoy force of obsolete Halifaxes which dropped Window, but the German ground controllers correctly deduced the target. The result was the most costly night of the War for Bomber Command. And many of the attackers entirely missed the city. The Germans shot down 95 bombers. Overall RAF losses in Operation Berlin were 1,047 bombers. Harris had not bombed Germany out of the War. In fact the Luftwaffe demonstrated the capacity to make raids without fighter escort too costly even at night. The Luftwaffe with limited resources had during a year of around-the-clock bombing, actually improved their control of the skies over Germany. Operation Berlin ended after the Nuremberg raid. The 16 raids on Berlin cost Bomber Command more than 500 bombers, with their crews killed or captured. The lossrate was high -- 5.8 perrcent. This was above the 5 percent b% threshold that Bomber Command saw as the maximum sustainable operational loss rate. 【Grayling 2006, p. 332.】 Considerable damage was done, but the Berlin was not devestated like Cologne an Hamburg, but it was powerful staement of what was to come. It was not only the cost of these raids, General Eisenhower had obtained operational control over Allied air forces to concentrate on missions aimed at supporting the cross-Channel invasion. Some Berliners may have thought that thy had survided the worse, but After D-Day, the British would be back and this time with the Americans. And when they dd, he Luftwaffe wold no nlonger be able to protect them.

Sources

Grayling, A.C. Among the Dead Cities

Created: 7:34 AM 7/29/2025
Last updated: 7:34 AM 7/29/2025