Citizendia

Cologne in 1945
Cologne in 1945

The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids[1] by the Allies during World War II. In general allies are people groups or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

During the war the Royal Air Force ("RAF") bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. The most notable raid occurred on the night of 30 May/31 May 1942 when Cologne was the target of the first Allied 1,000 bomber raid. Events 1416 - The Council of Constance, called by the Emperor Sigismund a supporter of Antipope John XXIII burns Jerome of Prague following Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Contents

First 1,000 bomber raid

Cologne in 1945
Cologne in 1945

The first 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF was codenamed Operation Millennium, Cologne was chosen as the target and the raid took place on the night of 30/31 March 1942. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Thousand bomber raid was launched for several reasons:

At this stage of the war RAF Bomber Command only had a regular front line strength of around 400 aircraft, and were in the process of transitioning from the twin engined medium bombers of the pre-war years to the newer more effective 'heavies'. RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAF 's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968 A medium bomber is a Bomber aircraft designed to operate with medium bombloads over medium distances primarily to distinguish them from the much larger Heavy bombers By using bombers and men from Operational Training Units (OTU's), 250 from RAF Coastal Command and from Flying Training Command, Harris could easily make up the 1,000 aircraft. RAF Coastal Command was an organization within the Royal Air Force which defended the United Kingdom from naval threats and countered German U-boats Training Command was the RAF's command responsible for flying and ground training However, just before the raid took place, the Royal Navy refused to allow the Coastal Command aircraft to take part in the raid. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) The Admiralty perceived the propaganda justifications too weak an argument against the real and pressing threat of the U-boats in the Second Battle of the Atlantic. The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot ( undersea boat) and refers The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous Military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval Military campaigns Harris scrambled around and, by crewing 49 more aircraft with pupil pilots and instructors, 1,047 bombers eventually took part in the raid, two and a half times more than any previous raid by the RAF. In addition to the bombers attacking Cologne, 113 other aircraft on intruder raids harassed German night-fighter airfields. A night fighter (also all-weather fighter) is a Fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility

This was the first time that the tactic of a bomber stream was used and most of the tactics used in this raid would remain the basis for standard Bomber Command operations for the next two years and some elements would remain in use until the end of the war. The bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF It was expected that such a large number of bombers flying in a bomber stream through the Kammhuber line would overwhelm the German night fighters, keeping the number of bombers shot down to an acceptable proportion. The bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF The Kammhuber Line was the name given to the German night Air defense system established in July 1940 by Colonel Josef Kammhuber. A night fighter (also all-weather fighter) is a Fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility The recent introduction of GEE allowed the bombers to fly a given route at a given time and height. GEE or AMES Type 7000 was a British Radio navigation system used by the Royal Air Force during World War II. The British night bombing campaign had been in operation for some months, and a statistical estimate could be made of the number of bombers likely to be lost to enemy night fighters and flak, and how many would be lost through collisions. Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging hostile military Aircraft in defence of ground objectives, ground or naval forces Minimising the former demanded a densely packed stream, as the controllers of a night fighter flying a defensive 'box' could only direct a maximum of six potential interceptions per hour, and the flak gunners could not concentrate on all the available targets at once. Earlier in the war four hours had been considered acceptable for a mission; for this raid all the bombers would pass over Cologne and bomb in a window of 90 minutes, the first arriving at 00:47 of March 31. Events 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor It was anticipated that the concentration of bombing over such a short period would overwhelm the Cologne fire brigades and cause conflagrations similar to those inflicted on London by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz

In the raid, 868 aircraft bombed the main target with 15 aircraft bombing other targets. A fire station (also called stationhouse) is a structure or other area set aside for storage of firefighting apparatus (i London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. ( German 'luftvafe is a generic German term for an Air force. The Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941 in World War II. The total tonnage of bombs dropped was 1,455 tons with two-thirds of that being incendiaries. Incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are Bombs designed to start Fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as Napalm, Thermite Two and a half thousand separate fires were started with 1,700 classed by the German fire brigades as "large". The action of fire fighters and the width of the streets stopped the fires combining into a firestorm, but nonetheless most of the damage was done by fire and not directly by the explosive blasts. A firestorm is a Conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system 3,330 non-residential buildings were destroyed, 2,090 seriously damaged and 7,420 lightly damaged, making a total of 12,840 buildings of which 2,560 were industrial or commercial buildings. Among the buildings classed as totally destroyed were: 7 official administration buildings, 14 public buildings, 7 banks, 9 hospitals, 17 churches, 16 schools, 4 university buildings, 10 postal and railway buildings, 10 buildings of historic interest, 2 newspaper offices, 4 hotels, 2 cinemas and 6 department stores. The only military installation damaged was the flak barracks. The damage to civilian homes, most of them apartments in larger buildings, was considerable: 13,010 destroyed, 6,360 seriously damaged, 22,270 lightly damaged.

The number reported killed was between 469 and 486, of which 411 were civilians and 58 military. Over 5,000 people were listed as injured and 45,132 as "bombed out". It was estimated that from 135,000 to 150,000 of Cologne's population of nearly 700,000 fled the city after the raid. The RAF lost 43 aircraft, 3. 9 per cent of the 1,103 bombers sent on the raid. The losses were 22 aircraft were lost over or near Cologne, 16 shot down by flak, 4 by night fighters, 2 in a collision and 2 Bristol Blenheim light bombers lost in attacks on night fighter airfields. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout A posthumous Victoria Cross was awarded to Flying Officer Leslie Thomas Manser. See below the section "Separate Commonwealth awards" Note that since Leslie Thomas Manser VC ( 11 May 1922 - 31 May 1942) was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious

Time line of Cologne air raids during World War II

References

Notes

^ Stadtlandschaften versus Hochstadt at www. koelnarchitektur. de "Internet portal for the architecture of Cologne". (In German).

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic