Bombing Germany: The Final Phase

During 1942 and 1943 Bomber Command’s striking power was transformed by the arrival of heavy bombers, advanced navigation and blind-bombing systems and new tactics to concentrate the bombers over the target and swamp the German defences. By October 1944 most of Germany’s cities were in ruins, yet the bombing continued to intensify, reaching unprecedented levels in the final seven months of the air campaign.

The value of further air raids was questioned but the Allies sought to destroy the remaining cities, to hasten the end of the war. Dresden was obliterated on February 13 1945, followed 10 days later by the South German city of Pforzheim, then transformed from a centre of the German jewellery industry to a production hub for fuses and timers.

The evening attack was made by 362 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitos, dropping 727 tons of high explosive and 820 tons of incendiaries. A firestorm soon developed. Thousands were gassed in cellar shelters. Thousands of dead turned to ash as temperatures reached 1,600 deg.C. Over 90% of Pforzheim’s buildings caught fire. The countryside around the city turned grey, with vegetation covered by deposited ash. Around 7,200 bodies went into three mass graves.

Pforzheim was Bomber Command’s last mass night raid. A quarter of the city’s population died. Many of the 17,000 dead were never found. When taking account of the death toll in relation to city size, Pforzheim was worse than Hamburg and Dresden.

In this book, Tony Redding set out to tell the story from the viewpoint of the British aircrew who participated in the raid (almost all had never heard of Pforzheim until the raid briefing) and the raid survivors who lived on in the ruins. He considers Pforzheim as a representative community under National Socialist rule and the city’s fate as a consequence of “total war”.

Published by Pen & Sword Aviation, 2015. ISBN 978-1-47382-354-9