|
| casualties2 = | notes = }} The Battle of Berlin was the British bombing campaign on Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944. Not limited solely to Berlin, the campaign targeted other German cities as well, to prevent the concentration of defences in Berlin. The campaign was launched by Arthur "Bomber" Harris, AOC of RAF Bomber Command in November 1943. Harris believed this could be the blow that broke German resistance: "We can wreck Berlin from end to end if the USAAF come in with us. It will cost us between 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war".〔Technical and Military Imperatives: A Radar History of World War 2, by L. Brown, p 309, CRC Press, 1999〕 By this time he could deploy over 800 long-range bombers on any given night, equipped with new and more sophisticated navigational devices such as H2S radar. Between November 1943 and March 1944, Bomber Command made 16 massed attacks on Berlin. It is generally accepted that the Battle of Berlin was a failure for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as it was not the knockout blow that Harris had predicted. The RAF lost 1,047 bombers, with a further 1,682 damaged, and well over 7,000 aircrew, culminating in the raid on Nuremberg on 30 March 1944, when 94 bombers were shot down and 71 were damaged, out of 795 aircraft.〔"Bomber Command lost 1047 aircraft missing—5.1 per cent of sorties dispatched—and a further 1682 damaged or written off" .〕 There were many other raids on Berlin by the RAF and the USAAF Eighth Air Force in the strategic bombing campaign of 1940–45 and this is reflected in the RAF battle honour, which is for the bombardment of Berlin by aircraft of Bomber Command from 1940–45. In response to attacks on German cities, the ''Luftwaffe'' began Operation ''Steinbock'' (ibex)—a series of attacks on London. The Germans suffered heavy losses, but they persisted until May 1944. Over every mission during ''Steinbock'', attacking formations suffered a higher loss percentage than the RAF sustained over Germany. Although primarily a British operation, Australian and Canadian bomber squadrons also took part in the battle, under the command of RAF Bomber Command. ==Battle== The first raid of the battle occurred on the night of 18/19 November 1943. Berlin was the main target and was attacked by 440 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers and four de Havilland Mosquitos. The city was under cloud and the damage was not severe. The second major raid was on the night of 22/23 November. This was the most effective raid on Berlin by the RAF of the war, causing extensive damage to the residential areas west of the centre, Tiergarten and Charlottenburg, Schöneberg and Spandau. Because of the dry weather conditions, several firestorms ignited. Both the Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, now serving as a war memorial, and the New Synagogue (then used as a store house by the ''Wehrmacht''), were badly damaged on 22 November. In the next nights Bethlehem's Church, John's Church, Lietzow Church, and Trinity Church and on other nights Emperor Frederick Memorial Church, Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz and St. Hedwig's Cathedral followed. Several other buildings of note were either destroyed or damaged, including the British, French, Italian and Japanese embassies, Charlottenburg Palace and Berlin Zoo, as were the Ministry of Munitions, the ''Waffen SS'' Administrative College, the barracks of the Imperial Guard at Spandau and several arms factories. On 17 December, extensive damage was done to the Berlin railway system. By this time the cumulative effect of the bombing campaign had made more than a quarter of Berlin's total living accommodation unusable.〔 There was another major raid on 28–29 January 1944, when Berlin's western and southern districts were hit in the most concentrated attack of this period. On 15–16 February, important war industries were hit, including the large Siemensstadt area in the west, 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.〔〔.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Berlin (RAF campaign)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|