Battle of Berlin (air)

Battle of Berlin
Part of Strategic bombing during World War II
The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Date 18 November 1943 – 31 March 1944 Location Berlin, Nazi Germany Result German victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Canada  Australia  New Zealand  Poland	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Arthur Harris Ralph Cochrane Don Bennett Roderick Carr	Hermann Göring Hans-Jürgen Stumpff Joseph Schmid Günther Lützow Max Ibel Walter Grabmann Gotthard Handrick
Casualties and losses
Bomber Command 2,690 crewmen KIA "over Berlin" nearly 1,000 POW 500 aircraft a 5.8% loss rate	~4,000 killed 10,000 injured 450,000 homeless

The Battle of Berlin was the British bombing campaign on Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944. Not limited solely to Berlin, the campaign targeted other German cities as well, to prevent the concentration of defences in Berlin. The campaign was launched by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, AOC of RAF Bomber Command in November 1943. Harris believed this could be the blow that broke German resistance: "We can wreck Berlin from end to end if the USAAF come in with us. It will cost us between 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war". By this time he could deploy over 800 long-range bombers on any given night, equipped with new and more sophisticated navigational devices such as H2S radar. Between November 1943 and March 1944, Bomber Command made 16 massed attacks on Berlin. The USAAF, having recently suffered heavy losses in its attacks on Schweinfurt from which it was still recovering, was unable to participate.

It is generally accepted that the Battle of Berlin was a failure for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as it was not the knockout blow that Harris had predicted. The RAF lost 1,047 bombers, with a further 1,682 damaged, and well over 7,000 aircrew, culminating in the raid on Nuremberg on 30 March 1944, when 94 bombers were shot down and 71 were damaged, out of 795 aircraft.

There were many other raids on Berlin by the RAF and the USAAF Eighth Air Force in the strategic bombing campaign of 1940–45 and this is reflected in the RAF battle honour, which is for the bombardment of Berlin by aircraft of Bomber Command from 1940–45.

In response to attacks on German cities, the Luftwaffe began Operation Steinbock (Capricorn)—a series of attacks on London. The Germans suffered heavy losses, but they persisted until May 1944. Over every mission during Steinbock, attacking formations suffered a higher loss percentage than the RAF sustained over Germany.

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