In the west, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s (1889-1945) desperate counteroffensive against the Allies in Belgium’s Ardennes forest had ended in total failure. © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. On February 15, another 200 U.S. bombers continued their assault on the city’s infrastructure. Such attacks, Allied command reasoned, would ravage the German economy, break the morale of the German people and force an early surrender. Bombing raids were conducted on the same lines as U.S. operations in Europe: high-altitude attacks in daylight seeking to strike industrial and military targets. The bombing was controversial because Dresden was neither important to German wartime production nor a major industrial center, and before the massive air raid of February 1945 it had not suffered a major Allied attack. During the conflict, Royal Air Force (RAF) and other Allied planes could carry much more weight than their counterparts in the German Luftwaffe. From February 4 to February 11, the “Big Three” Allied leaders–U.S. In 1944, Hitler named the world’s first long-range offensive missile V-1, after “vergeltung,” the German word for “vengeance” and an expression of his desire to repay Britain for its devastating bombardment of Germany. Painstakingly put together by experts at the University of York and the National Archives, 'Bombing Britain' shows a staggering volume of explosives dropped in World War II. The bombings were so intense that, according to new research, they sent shockwaves all the way to the edge of space and briefly weakened the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere, known as the ionosphere. The Japanese later called this the “Night of the Black Snow.”. Two aid workers are dead after a World War II-era ordinance they were working on exploded in the Solomon Islands. In February 1945, refugees fleeing the Russian advance in the east took refuge there. "The effects on the ionosphere would only have lasted until the heat dissipated.". The famed “Doolittle Raid” by 16 medium-sized aircraft under Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle had bombed Tokyo on April 18, 1942. An armada of 334 B-29 bombers followed from bases in the Mariana Islands, with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of incendiaries, including a half-million cylinders of napalm and white phosphorus. The British/American bombing of Dresden took place between February 13-15, 1945 during the final months of World War II. Interested in participating in the Publishing Partner Program? During World War II, Allied bombing raids left their devastating mark on Germany, killing more than 400,000 civilians and laying waste to entire cities, from Berlin to Hamburg to Dresden. Although these articles may currently differ in style from others on the site, they allow us to provide wider coverage of topics sought by our readers, through a diverse range of trusted voices. Other than deciding on what German territory would be conquered by which power, little time was given to military considerations in the war against the Third Reich. Research into how the volatile particles that make up the ionosphere react to such events is critical, as many modern technologies—including radio communications systems and GPS—can be affected when the ionosphere is disturbed. The unexploded bomb was … By the morning, some 800 British bombers had dropped more than 1,400 tons of high-explosive bombs and more than 1,100 tons of incendiaries on Dresden, creating a great firestorm that destroyed most of the city and killed numerous civilians. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Such an attack ideally leads to a quick victory, limiting the loss of soldiers and ...read more, The Battle of Britain in World War II was between Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Luftwaffe, Nazi Germany’s air force, and was the first battle in history fought solely in the air. Bombing of Tokyo, (March 9–10, 1945), firebombing raid (codenamed “Operation Meetinghouse”) by the United States on the capital of Japan during the final stages of World War II, often cited as one of the most destructive acts of war in history, more destructive than the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki. Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn! Germany was the first to employ area bombing tactics during its assault on Poland in September 1939.