The Battle of Berlin
Bomber Command Over the Third Reich, 1943â1945
Martin W. Bowman
- 714 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Battle of Berlin
Bomber Command Over the Third Reich, 1943â1945
Martin W. Bowman
About This Book
"A fascinating look into the aircrews used and the effect on those who had to live through this constant bombing" by the RAF during World War II ( UK Historian ). Berlin was bombed by four Allied air forces between 1940 and 1945. British bombers alone dropped 45, 517 tons of bombs, while the Americans a further 23, 000 tons. By 1944, some 1.2 million people, 790, 000 of them women and children, about a quarter of Berlin's population, had been evacuated to rural areas. An effort was made to evacuate all children from Berlin, but this was defeated by parents and many evacuees who soon made their way back to the city. However, by May 1945, 1.7 million peopleâ40% of the populationâhad fled the city. This fitting tribute to those who died in the relentless struggle to knock Berlin, and hopefully Germany, out of the war resonates with eyewitness accounts and background information which the author has painstakingly investigated and researched. The result is a hugely fascinating and highly readable narrative containing very real and unique observations by British and Commonwealth aircrew and, equally importantly, the long-suffering citizens of Berlin, and well as the capital's defenders. Though not a defeat in absolute terms, in the operational sense The Battle of Berlin was an offensive that Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris and his aircrews could not win. "Berlin won" concluded Sir Ralph Cochrane, the Air Officer Commanding 5 Group RAF Bomber Command. "It was just too tough a nut." "An impressively informative, deftly written, exceptionally well documented, and expertly organized history... a seminal work of original scholarship." âMidwest Book Review
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Chapter 1 Berlin Season
- Chapter 2 Ordeal by Fire
- Chapter 3 While Berlin Burned
- Chapter 4 âNo Enemy Plane Will Fly Over the Reich Territory!â
- Chapter 5 âAn Orchestrated Hellâ
- Chapter 6 One Night in December
- Chapter 7 A Hymn for the Haunted
- Chapter 8 âWe wonât be home for Christmas; we know that very wellâ
- Chapter 9 âAfter Every December Comes Always a Mayâ
- Chapter 10 Unhappy Hogmanay
- Chapter 11 Berlin Back to Back
- Chapter 12 âChop Cityâ
- Chapter 13 Wild Colonial Boys
- Chapter 14 A âYankâ in Bomber Command
- Chapter 15 Once the Most Beautiful City in the World
- Chapter 16 The Winds of Change
- Chapter 17 Berlin or Bust
- Chapter 18 A Night on the Spree
- Chapter 19 The âMilk Runâ
- Chapter 20 The Cost of Victory
- Notes