{"id":189,"date":"2024-11-29T01:08:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T06:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/?p=189"},"modified":"2024-11-29T01:17:26","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T06:17:26","slug":"project-5-strategic-attacks-on-all-of-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"Project 5: Strategic Attacks on All of Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For this post, I have brought together a few sources to produce a basic map of the World War II Allied Strategic Bombing campaign in Germany below. This map uses a modern-day map of Germany, though the locations of these cities have not changed. The data for this map comes from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) paper &#8220;Fire Raids on German Cities&#8221; and the tonnage for Dresden comes from 1953 U.S. Airforce Historical Division paper &#8220;Historical Analysis of the 14-15 February 1945 Bombings of Dresden.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe title=\"Total Bomb Tonnage Dropped on Major German Cities\" aria-label=\"Map\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-OHHpc\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/OHHpc\/1\/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"1145\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">!function(){\"use strict\";window.addEventListener(\"message\",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While this map does not include every city in Germany that was bombed, it includes the largest cities and those that I have used in my research. The first conclusion that we can reach using this map is that Berlin was hit extremely hard over the course of the war. The USSBS reports that a total of 49,835 short tons of incendiary and high explosive bombs were dropped on the city.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_1_189\" id=\"identifier_1_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"United States Strategic Bombing Survey, &ldquo;Fire Raids on German Cities,&rdquo; 1947, 6a,&nbsp;https:\/\/aul.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01AUL_INST\/u9e6on\/alma995580593406836, Accessed 28 November 2024.\">1<\/a><\/sup> This is an incredibly high number when compared to other cities such as Darmstadt or Nuremberg, however, Berlin is a much larger city in terms of size and population than other cities in Germany. To put Berlin's size into context, Hamburg, the second largest city in Germany in 1943 had a population of 1.76 million while Berlin had a population of 4.42 million the same year.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_2_189\" id=\"identifier_2_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"Ibid, 6a.\">2<\/a><\/sup> To use the statistic I used in the previous <a href=\"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/?p=167\">project post<\/a>, one ton of ordinance was dropped for every 88.7 people.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_3_189\" id=\"identifier_3_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"This number is found by taking the population of 1943 Berlin and dividing it by the total bomb tonnage dropped on the city.; Ibid, 6a.\">3<\/a><\/sup> Again referring to the previous post, this statistic shows that Berlin was hit by the most bombs per person of the cities I have calculated it for except for Dresden. The sheer size of Berlin likely saved it from being more heavily destroyed as Darmstadt and Dresden were, but the large number of bombs led to the total or severe destruction of 27% of all buildings in the city.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_4_189\" id=\"identifier_4_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"Ibid, 6a\">4<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, Hamburg with its large population, is far from the most bombed city not including Berlin. The map shows that Bremen, Kiel, and other smaller cities by population were hit much more. The interesting pattern we can also see on the map is the large cluster of cities and bomb tons in the North-Rhine Westphalia and Ruhr regions of Western Germany. North-Rhine Westphalia and Ruhr area is the around Cologne, Duisburg, and Dortmund, and was hit quite hard by Allied bombing. This area, specifically the Ruhr region, was an incredibly dense industrial region that was Germany's top producer of coal by far amongst other products essential to the war effort.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_5_189\" id=\"identifier_5_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"United States Office of Strategic Services Research and Analysis Branch, A Hundred Major German Industrial Corporations (Washington, 25 July 1944), 7, Pdf, https:\/\/lccn.loc.gov\/sd49000010, Accessed 28 November 2024.\">5<\/a><\/sup> Thus, this region was bombed extensively. The cities of Cologne, Duisburg, and Essen in the region alone were bombed more than Berlin and in less time.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_6_189\" id=\"identifier_6_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"United States Strategic Bombing Survey, &quot;Fire Raids,&quot; 6a-6b.\">6<\/a><\/sup> Those are only three of the cities in the N. Rhine Westphalia region out of quite a few that were also bombed in large amounts, showing that it was a main priority for Allied bombing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In comparison, despite the damage dealt to the city as discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/?p=131\">in this post<\/a>, Dresden and the rest of Saxony were not nearly as large of a strategic priority as other regions. The late attacks on Dresden further prove this point. The first major attack on Dresden began on the 14th of February 1945, much later in the war than the bombings in the N. Rhine region.<sup><a href=\"#footnote_7_189\" id=\"identifier_7_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-identifier-link\" title=\"As an example, the USSBS data for Essen counts bombs dropped before December 13th 1944 with the first raids occurring several years earlier.; Ibid, 6a-6b.\">7<\/a><\/sup> What is interesting is that Berlin is not that far from Dresden. Dresden is less than 120 miles away from Berlin using Google Maps, though that may not have been as easy of a trip as it sounds. It may have not been possible for bombers to get that far until later in the war for a number of reasons including fuel range, enemy interception, and anti-air fire from flying over all of Germany could have deterred bombing runs on Dresden prior to the major attacks we have discussed across this site. For future research, I would be interested in looking into the priorities that kept Dresden off the list for so long as well as which decisions led to the city being bombed at all so late in the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google Maps. Alphabet Corporation. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\">https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">United States Air Force Historical Division. \u201cHistorical Analysis of the 14-15 February 1945 Bombings of Dresden.\u201d 13 April 1953. Air University.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20130218171142\/http:\/www.afhso.af.mil\/shared\/media\/document\/AFD-110208-030.pdf.%20Accessed%2024%20November%202024\">https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20130218171142\/http:\/\/www.afhso.af.mil\/shared\/media\/document\/AFD-110208-030.pdf. Accessed 28 November 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">United States Office of Strategic Services Research and Analysis Branch. <em>A Hundred Major German Industrial Corporations.<\/em> Washington, 25 July 1944. Pdf. <a href=\"https:\/\/lccn.loc.gov\/sd49000010\">https:\/\/lccn.loc.gov\/sd49000010<\/a>. Accessed 28 November 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">United States Strategic Bombing Survey. \u201cFire Raids on German Cities.\u201d 1947.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aul.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01AUL_INST\/u9e6on\/alma995580593406836,%20Accessed%205%20October2024.\">https:\/\/aul.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01AUL_INST\/u9e6on\/alma995580593406836<\/a>, Accessed 28 November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<ol class=\"footnotes\"><li id=\"footnote_1_189\" class=\"footnote\">United States Strategic Bombing Survey, \u201cFire Raids on German Cities,\u201d 1947, 6a,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aul.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01AUL_INST\/u9e6on\/alma995580593406836,%20Accessed%205%20October2024.\">https:\/\/aul.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01AUL_INST\/u9e6on\/alma995580593406836<\/a>, Accessed 28 November 2024.<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_1_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><li id=\"footnote_2_189\" class=\"footnote\">Ibid, 6a.<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_2_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><li id=\"footnote_3_189\" class=\"footnote\">This number is found by taking the population of 1943 Berlin and dividing it by the total bomb tonnage dropped on the city.; Ibid, 6a.<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_3_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><li id=\"footnote_4_189\" class=\"footnote\">Ibid, 6a<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_4_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><li id=\"footnote_5_189\" class=\"footnote\">United States Office of Strategic Services Research and Analysis Branch, <em>A Hundred Major German Industrial Corporations<\/em> (Washington, 25 July 1944), 7, Pdf, <a href=\"https:\/\/lccn.loc.gov\/sd49000010\">https:\/\/lccn.loc.gov\/sd49000010<\/a>, Accessed 28 November 2024.<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_5_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><li id=\"footnote_6_189\" class=\"footnote\">United States Strategic Bombing Survey, \"Fire Raids,\" 6a-6b.<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_6_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><li id=\"footnote_7_189\" class=\"footnote\">As an example, the USSBS data for Essen counts bombs dropped before December 13th 1944 with the first raids occurring several years earlier.; Ibid, 6a-6b.<span class=\"footnote-back-link-wrapper\"> [<a href=\"#identifier_7_189\" class=\"footnote-link footnote-back-link\">&#8617;<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For this post, I have brought together a few sources to produce a basic map of the World War II Allied Strategic Bombing campaign in Germany below. This map uses a modern-day map of Germany, though the locations of these cities have not changed. The data for this map comes from the United States Strategic&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjaminspraker.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}