![]() Hamburg suffered over 70 raids during the war, most of them directed at its shipyards, U-boat pens and oil refineries. This photograph shows the ruins of Hamburg in May 1945. But RAF Bomber Command, despite its major contribution to the Allied victory and the death of over 55,000 aircrew, remains mired in controversy to the present day. With the war over, the Americans managed to distance themselves from the public and political unease caused by bombing these cities. Dresden, Pforzheim and others were consumed by fire. Controversially, locations so far untouched were razed to the ground as they rose to the top of the target list. Enemy production was massively disrupted, and in some places ceased. A record 4,851 tons of bombs were dropped on Dortmund in a single night. Industrial cities were pounded to rubble. Starved of fuel, the German military machine ground to a halt. Raids against oil and communications proved the most effective. The RAF alone now had 108 squadrons with over 1,500 aircraft. In 1945 the bomber offensive reached the peak of its destruction. But in the spring of 1944 Allied escort fighters gained superiority over the Luftwaffe, which meant Bomber Command could also begin operating in daylight again. During 1943, American bombers had suffered unsustainable losses in their daylight attacks against the German aircraft industry. The Americans joined Bomber Command's air offensive in 1942. Pictured here are Boeing B-17s of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on a raid against the Focke-Wulf factory at Marienburg, near Danzig, on 9 October 1944. Harris continued his city attacks, still convinced they would prove decisive. Enemy troops were carpet bombed in advance of major Allied ground offensives. Bombers also flew in support of D-Day, softening up coastal defences and hitting railways to block German reinforcements. ![]() A successful offensive was launched against Germany's vulnerable fuel supplies. American escort fighters shot the Luftwaffe out of the sky. In 1944 the combined Allied bomber force began to overwhelm the Germans.
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