Bombing of Pforzheim in World War II

During the latter stages of World War II, Pforzheim, a town in southwestern Germany, was bombed a number of times. The largest raid, and one of the most devastating area bombardments of the war was carried out by the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the evening of February 23, 1945. As many as 17,600 people, representing 31.4% of the town's population, were killed in the air raid. About 83% of the town's buildings were destroyed, two-thirds of the complete area of Pforzheim and between 80 and 100% of the inner city.

The first Allied air raid on Pforzheim took place on April 1, 1944 when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bombers carried out a raid in which the damage was comparatively minor and 95 people died. Further attacks by the USAAF followed. The largest of these attacks was on 24 December. Another on 21 January 1945 caused 56 casualties.

The RAF also carried out a number of nighttime nuisance raids on Pforzheim (among other towns) using de Havilland Mosquito light bombers. The raids, consisting of around half a dozen Mosquitos, forced the Luftwaffe, the German air force, to respond. They also helped confuse the German defences making it more difficult for the Germans to identify the major raids. In doing so, these raids diverted resources away from the main bomber streams. These nuisance raids affected the citizens of the targeted cities, driving them into shelters and disturbing their sleep. There were three consecutive raids on the nights of October 2, October 3 and October 4, 1944 with a further three raids in October and one in November 1944. Across all these raids, the RAF lost one aircraft.

After the devastating air raid of February 23, 1945, there were smaller air raids on Pforzheim. On March 4, USAAF B-24 Liberator aircraft bombed the area around "Kupferhammer". On March 14, 16, 18th, 19th, 20th and 24th, the railway facilities were bombed. On March 17, the motorway at Pforzheim was bombed, and on March 23 the area in Eutingen Valley was bombed.

A report compiled for RAF Bomber Command dated 28 June 1944, stated that Pforzheim was "one of the centres of the German jewellery and watch making trade and is therefore likely to have become of considerable importance to the production of precision instruments [of use in the war effort]." An Allied report issued in August 1944 stated that "almost every house in this town centre is a small workshop" and that there were a few larger factories in the south and one in the north of the city centre. An attack on the city would destroy the "built-up area, the associated industries and rail facilities". There were no war-crucial targets; only war-relevant ones.

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