1.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
Rome
Rome
Rome
Rome
2.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
3.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
Allies of World War II
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Poland first to fight — British wartime poster supporting
Poland after the German invasion, 1939
Allies of World War II
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Allied Powers (and their colonies)
Allies of World War II
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British
Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft (left) flying past a German
Heinkel He-111 bomber aircraft (right) during the
Battle of Britain
Allies of World War II
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British tanks during the
North African Campaign
4.
Axis powers of World War II
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The Axis powers, also known as the Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, were the nations that fought in World War II against the Allied Powers. The Axis agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not completely coordinate their activity, the Axis grew out of the diplomatic efforts of Germany, Italy, and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the treaty signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936, Mussolini declared on 1 November that all other European countries would from then on rotate on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term Axis. The almost simultaneous second step was the signing in November 1936 of the Anti-Comintern Pact, Italy joined the Pact in 1937. At its zenith during World War II, the Axis presided over territories that occupied parts of Europe, North Africa. There were no three-way summit meetings and cooperation and coordination was minimal, the war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of their alliance. As in the case of the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, at the time he was seeking an alliance with the Weimar Republic against Yugoslavia and France in the dispute over the Free State of Fiume. The term was used by Hungarys prime minister Gyula Gömbös when advocating an alliance of Hungary with Germany, when Mussolini publicly announced the signing on 1 November, he proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin axis. Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini had pursued an alliance of Italy with Germany against France since the early 1920s. He believed that Italy could expand its influence in Europe by allying with Germany against France, in early 1923, as a goodwill gesture to Germany, Italy secretly delivered weapons for the German Army, which had faced major disarmament under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. General Hans von Seeckt supported an alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union to invade and partition Poland between them and restore the German-Russian border of 1914. The discussions concluded that Germans still wanted a war of revenge against France but were short on weapons, however at this time Mussolini stressed one important condition that Italy must pursue in an alliance with Germany, that Italy must. Tow them, not be towed by them, the French government warned Italy that it had to choose whether to be on the side of the pro-Versailles powers or that of the anti-Versailles revanchists. Grandi responded that Italy would be willing to offer France support against Germany if France gave Italy its mandate over Cameroon, France refused Italys proposed exchange for support, as it believed Italys demands were unacceptable and the threat from Germany was not yet immediate. In 1932, Gyula Gömbös and the Party of National Unity rose to power in Hungary, Gömbös sought to alter Hungarys post–Treaty of Trianon borders by forming an alliance with Austria and Italy, knowing that Hungary alone was not capable of challenging the Little Entente powers. At the meeting between Gömbös and Mussolini in Rome on 10 November 1932, the question came up of the sovereignty of Austria in relation to the rise to power in Germany of the Nazi Party. Mussolini was worried about Nazi ambitions towards Austria, and indicated that at least in the term he was committed to maintaining Austria as a sovereign state. Italy had concerns over a Germany which included Austria laying land claims to German-populated territories of the South Tyrol within Italy, Mussolini said he hoped the Anschluss could be postponed as long as possible until the breakout of a European war that he estimated would begin in 1938
Axis powers of World War II
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Flags of Germany, Japan, and Italy draping the facade of the Embassy of Japan on the Tiergartenstraße (Zoo Street) in Berlin (September 1940)
Axis powers of World War II
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Allied Powers (and their colonies)
Axis powers of World War II
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Germany's
Führer Adolf Hitler (right) beside Italy's
Duce Benito Mussolini (left)
Axis powers of World War II
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Japan's
Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (center) with fellow government representatives of the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. To the left of Tojo, from left to right:
Ba Maw from Burma,
Zhang Jinghui,
Wang Jingwei from China. To the right of Tojo, from left to right,
Wan Waithayakon from Thailand,
José P. Laurel from the Philippines
Subhas Chandra Bose from India
5.
Pope Pius XII
–
Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, reigned as Pope from 2 March 1939 to his death in 1958. After the war Pius XII advocated peace and reconciliation, including lenient policies towards Axis, the Church experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the Eastern Bloc. Pius XII was an opponent of Communism and of the Italian Communist Party. He explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his 1950 Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus and his magisterium includes almost 1,000 addresses and radio broadcasts. His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici corporis, the Church as the Body of Christ, Mediator Dei on liturgy reform and he eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946. In 1954, Pius XII began to suffer ill health. The embalming of his body was mishandled, with effects that were evident during the funeral and he was buried in the Vatican grottos and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII. In the process toward sainthood, his cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by Pope Paul VI during the session of the Second Vatican Council. He was made a Servant of God by Pope John Paul II in 1990, Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was born on 2 March 1876 in Rome into a family of intense Catholic piety with a history of ties to the papacy. His parents were Filippo Pacelli and Virginia Pacelli, together with his brother Francesco and his two sisters, Giuseppina and Elisabetta, he grew up in the Parione district in the centre of Rome. Soon after the family had moved to Via Vetrina in 1880 he began school at the convent of the French Sisters of Divine Providence in the Piazza Fiammetta, the family worshipped at Chiesa Nuova. Eugenio and the children made their First Communion at this church. In 1886 too he was sent to the school of Professor Giuseppe Marchi. In 1891 Pacellis father sent Eugenio to the Liceo Ennio Quirino Visconti Institute, a school situated in what had been the Collegio Romano. He was also enrolled at the State University, La Sapienza where he studied modern languages, at the end of the first academic year however, in the summer of 1895, he dropped out of both the Capranica and the Gregorian University. According to his sister Elisabetta, the food at the Capranica was to blame, having received a special dispensation he continued his studies from home and so spent most of his seminary years as an external student. In 1899 he completed his education in Sacred Theology with a degree awarded on the basis of a short dissertation. Shortly after ordination he began studies in canon law at SantApollinaire
Pope Pius XII
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Eugenio Pacelli at the age of six in 1882
Pope Pius XII
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Pope Venerable Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
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Pacelli on the day of his ordination, 2 April 1899.
Pope Pius XII
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The Serbian Concordat, 24 June 1914. Present for the Vatican were
Cardinal Merry del Val and next to him, Pacelli.
6.
Open city
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The attacking armies of the opposing military will then be expected not to bomb or otherwise attack the city but simply march in. The concept aims at protecting the historic landmarks and resident civilians from an unnecessary battle. Attacking forces do not always respect the declaration of an open city, defensive forces will use it as a political tactic as well. According to the Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, it is forbidden for the party to attack, by any means whatsoever. This led the Mayor of Krakow to declare it a city on 5 September 1939. The German army entered the city the next day, brussels was declared an open city by the Belgian Government in 1940 during the Battle of Belgium. It was later occupied by the Germans, paris was declared an open city by the French Government in June 1940 during the Battle of France. Belgrade was declared open in April 1941 by the Government of Yugoslavia, the German Wehrmacht did not respect the open city status and heavily bombed the city. Manila was declared a city on 26 December 1941 by US general Douglas MacArthur during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The Imperial Japanese Army ignored the declaration and bombed the city, batavia was declared an open city on 5 March 1942 after the Dutch Army was evacuated. The Japanese occupied the city the next day, Rome was declared open on 14 August 1943 by the Italian government following the cessation of Allied bombing. Subsequently Allied forces entered Rome in June 1944 and retreating German forces also declared Florence, athens was declared an open city by the Germans on 11 October 1944. Hamburg was declared open on 3 May 1945 by the Germans and was occupied by the British. However, the Social Democratic Party which was the party of the ruling coalition from 1994 to 1996 supported it. Nevertheless, four wards of Tokyo and Kagoshima City, Japans southernmost port, laws of war Rome, Open City, an Italian film about Romes days as an open city
Open city
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Manila declared an open city in December 1941.
7.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
–
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and emerged as a figure in world events during the mid-20th century. He directed the United States government during most of the Great Depression and he is often rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U. S. Presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt was born in 1882 to an old, prominent Dutch family from Dutchess County and he attended the elite educational institutions of Groton School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law School. At age 23 in 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, and he entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Roosevelt was presidential candidate James M. Coxs running mate and he was in office from 1929 to 1933 and served as a reform governor, promoting the enactment of programs to combat the depression besetting the United States at the time. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency, Roosevelt took office while in the United States was in the midst of the worst economic crisis in its history. Energized by his victory over polio, FDR relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to labor union growth while more closely regulating business. His support for the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, the economy improved rapidly from 1933–37, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court, when the war began and unemployment ended, conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC. However, they kept most of the regulations on business, along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security. His goal was to make America the Arsenal of Democracy, which would supply munitions to the Allies, in March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to Britain and China. He supervised the mobilization of the U. S. economy to support the war effort, as an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented a war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and initiate the development of the worlds first atomic bomb. His work also influenced the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelts physical health declined during the war years, and he died 11 weeks into his fourth term. One of the oldest Dutch families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished themselves in other than politics. One ancestor, Isaac Roosevelt, had served with the New York militia during the American Revolution, Roosevelt attended events of the New York society Sons of the American Revolution, and joined the organization while he was president
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt in 1884, 2 years old.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The birthplace of FDR at Springwood.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Roosevelt sailing with half-niece Helen and father James, 1899.
8.
Francis Spellman
–
Francis Joseph Spellman was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York and he was named a cardinal in 1946. Francis Spellman was born in Whitman, Massachusetts, to William Spellman and his father was a grocer whose own parents had immigrated to the United States from Clonmel and Leighlinbridge in Ireland. The eldest of five children, Francis had two brothers, Martin and John, and two sisters, Marian and Helene, as a child, he served as an altar boy at Holy Ghost Church. Spellman attended Whitman High School because there was no local Catholic school and he enjoyed photography and baseball, he was a first baseman during his first year of high school until a hand injury forced him to stop playing, and later managed the team. Following his high school graduation, Spellman entered Fordham University in New York City in 1907 and he graduated in 1911 and decided to study for the priesthood. He was then sent by Archbishop William Henry OConnell to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, during his years in Rome, Spellman befriended such figures as Gaetano Bisleti, Francesco Borgongini Duca and Domenico Tardini. He suffered from pneumonia, however, leaving his state of health so poor that the administration wanted to send him home. He nevertheless remained and managed to complete his theological studies, Spellman was ordained a priest by Patriarch Giuseppe Ceppetelli on May 14,1916. Upon his return to the United States, he did work in the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal OConnell, who had earlier sent Spellman to Rome, took an apparent dislike to the young priest, OConnell referred to him as a little popinjay and later said, Francis epitomizes what happens to a bookkeeper when you teach him how to read. Spellman served a series of relatively insignificant assignments, following the United States entry into World War I in 1917, Spellman applied to become a military chaplain in the Army but did not meet the height requirement. Spellmans comparable application to the Navy was personally rejected, twice, by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, finally, OConnell assigned him to promote subscriptions for the archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot, instead. He was named assistant chancellor in 1918 and in 1924 archivist of the Archdiocese, after translating into English two books written by his friend Borgongini Duca, Spellman was made the first American attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1925. He also worked with the Knights of Columbus in running childrens playgrounds in Rome, during a trip to Germany in 1927, Spellman established a lifelong friendship with Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli, who was serving as Apostolic Nuncio. He translated Pius XIs first broadcast over Vatican Radio in 1931, on July 30,1932, Spellman was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Titular Bishop of Sila by Pope Pius XI. He had originally considered for the Dioceses of Portland, Maine. He received his consecration on the following September 8 from Pacelli, with Archbishops Giuseppe Pizzardo and Francesco Borgongini Duca serving as co-consecrators and his was the first consecration of an American bishop ever held at St. Peters
Francis Spellman
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Francis Spellman in 1946
Francis Spellman
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Styles of Francis Spellman
9.
Vatican City
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Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
Vatican City
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View of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome
Vatican City
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Flag
Vatican City
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The Vatican
obelisk was originally taken from Egypt by
Caligula.
Vatican City
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Bands of the British army's 38th Brigade playing in front of St Peter's Basilica, June 1944
10.
Roma Termini railway station
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Roma Termini is the main railway station of Rome, Italy. It is named after the district of the name, which in turn took its name from ancient Baths of Diocletian. The station has train services to all major Italian cities, as well as daily international services to Munich, Geneva. With 33 platforms and over 150 million passengers each year, Roma Termini is the second largest railway station in Europe after Paris Gare du Nord, Termini is also the main hub for public transport inside Rome. Both current Rome Metro lines intersect at Termini metro station, and a bus station is located at Piazza dei Cinquecento. However, the tram lines of the city cross at Porta Maggiore. On 23 December 2006, the station was dedicated to Pope John Paul II, on 25 February 1863, Pope Pius IX opened the first, temporary Termini Station as the terminus of the Rome–Frascati, Rome–Civitavecchia and Rome-Ceprano lines. The dilapidated Villa Montalto-Peretti, erected in the 16th Century by Pope Sixtus V, was chosen as the site for new station. It was laid out according to a plan by the architect Salvatore Bianchi, the front of this station reached Via Cavour, which means it stuck some 200 metres deeper into the city than the current station. In 1937, it was decided to replace the old station, as part of the planning for the 1942 Worlds Fair, the old station was demolished, and part of the new station was constructed, but works were halted in 1943 as the Italian fascist government collapsed. The side structures of the design by Angiolo Mazzoni del Grande are still part of the current-day station, the building is characterized by the linear lobby hall, a tall space of monumental dimensions. This great hall is fronted by full height glass walls, and is covered with a roof that consists of a flattened and segmented arch. The vault is structurally integrated with a canopy that extends over the entrance drive. The end result is a gravity-defying modernist structure that recalls a similar achievement of Roman architecture. Its bold presence in the urban fabric expresses the diversity of the Citys history, the anodized aluminium frieze panels set in sequence along the length of the glass wall are the work of artist Amerigo Tot. The composition is about capturing the dynamics in sound and speed of a train, a length of the early Roman Servian Wall is preserved outside the station
Roma Termini railway station
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Roma Termini
Roma Termini railway station
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Façade of the first permanent Termini station, circa 1890. The
obelisk on the right, a memorial to Italian casualties in
battle of Dogali, is now in a nearby street, via delle Terme di Diocleziano.
Roma Termini railway station
–
Overview
11.
Winston Churchill
–
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland
Winston Churchill
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The Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill
KG OM CH TD DL FRS RA
Winston Churchill
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Jennie Jerome (1854–1921), the American-born mother of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
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Churchill, aged seven, in 1881
Winston Churchill
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Blenheim Palace, the Churchill family home
12.
Henry H. Arnold
–
Henry Harley Hap Arnold was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and General of the Air Force. Instructed in flying by the Wright Brothers, Arnold was one of the first military pilots worldwide, and one of the first three rated pilots in the history of the United States Air Force. He overcame a fear of flying that resulted from his experiences with flight, supervised the expansion of the Air Service during World War I. He was called Harley by his family during his youth, Arnold was known to his West Point classmates as Pewt or Benny. By his immediate subordinates and headquarters staff he was referred to as The Chief, born June 25,1886, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, Arnold was the son of Dr. Herbert Alonzo Arnold, a strong-willed physician and a member of the prominent political and military Arnold Family. His mother was Anna Louise Harley, from a Dunker farm family, Arnold was Baptist in religious belief but had strong Mennonite ties through both families. However, unlike her husband, Gangy Arnold was fun-loving and prone to laughter, when Arnold was eleven, his father responded to the Spanish–American War by serving as a surgeon in the Pennsylvania National Guard, of which he remained a member for the next 24 years. Arnold attended Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1903, the athletic fields at Lower Merion are named after him. Arnold had no intention of attending West Point but took the examination after his older brother Thomas defied their father. Arnold placed second on the list and received an appointment when the nominated cadet confessed to being married, prohibited by academy regulations. Arnold entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as a Juliette and his cadet career was spent as a clean sleeve. At the academy he helped found the Black Hand, a group of cadet pranksters and he played second-team running back for the varsity football team, was a shot putter on the track and field team, and excelled at polo. Arnolds academic standing varied between the middle and the end of his class, with his better scores in mathematics. He initially protested the assignment, but was persuaded to accept a commission in the 29th Infantry, Arnold arrived in Manila on December 7,1907. Arnold disliked infantry troop duties and volunteered to assist Capt. Arthur S. Cowan of the 20th Infantry, Cowan returned to the United States following completion of the cartography detail, transferred to the Signal Corps, and was assigned to recruit two lieutenants to become pilots. Cowan contacted Arnold, who cabled his interest in transferring to the Signal Corps. In June 1909, the 29th Infantry relocated to Fort Jay, New York, in 1911, Arnold applied for transfer to the Ordnance Department because it offered an immediate promotion to first lieutenant. While awaiting the results of the competitive examination, he learned that his interest in aeronautics had not been forgotten
Henry H. Arnold
–
A young Henry Arnold at the second-seat controls of a
Wright Model B airplane 1911
Henry H. Arnold
–
General Henry H. Arnold
Henry H. Arnold
–
Major Henry H. Arnold with the first
Liberty V12 aero engine completed
Henry H. Arnold
–
Maj. Gen.
Mason M. Patrick, Chief of Air Service
13.
The Blitz
–
By September 1940—two months into the battle—faulty German intelligence suggested that the Royal Air Force was close to defeat at the hands of the Luftwaffe. The German air fleets were ordered to attack London, thereby drawing up the last remnants of RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation, Adolf Hitler and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, sanctioned the change in emphasis on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, one year into the war, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days, on 15 September 1940, a large daylight attack against London was repulsed with significant German losses. Thereafter, the Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of nocturnal attacks, ports and industrial centres outside London were also attacked. The main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool was bombed, the North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, was subjected to raids in the Hull Blitz during the war. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 40,000 civilians were killed, by May 1941, the threat of an invasion of Britain had ended, and Hitlers attention turned to Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy, the eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The German offensives greatest effect was forcing the dispersal of aircraft production, British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely but exceptions like Birmingham took three months. The German air offensive failed for several reasons, discussions in OKL revolved around tactics rather than strategy. Poor intelligence on British industry and economic efficiency was also a factor, in the 1920s and 1930s, air power theorists Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell espoused the idea that air forces could win wars, without a need for land and sea fighting. It was thought there was no defence against air attack, particularly at night, enemy industry, seats of government, factories and communications could be destroyed, taking away their means to resist. It was also thought the bombing of residential centres would cause a collapse of civilian will, democracies, where the populace was allowed to show overt disapproval of the state, were thought particularly vulnerable. This thinking was prevalent in both the RAF and the United States Army Air Corps, the policy of RAF Bomber Command became an attempt to achieve victory through the destruction of civilian will, communications and industry. In the Luftwaffe, there was a view of strategic bombing. OKL did not believe that air power alone could be decisive, contrary to popular belief, evidence suggests that the Luftwaffe did not adopt an official bombing policy in which civilians became the primary target until 1942. The vital industries and transport centres that would be targeted for shutdown were valid military targets and it could be claimed civilians were not to be targeted directly, but the breakdown of production would affect their morale and will to fight. German legal scholars of the 1930s carefully worked out guidelines for what type of bombing was permissible under international law. Wever outlined five points of air strategy, To destroy the air force by bombing its bases and aircraft factories
The Blitz
–
The undamaged
St Paul's Cathedral surrounded by smoke and bombed-out buildings in December 1940 in the iconic
St Paul's Survives photo
The Blitz
–
Walter Wever
The Blitz
–
Hitler and Göring, March 1938
The Blitz
–
RAF pilots with one of their
Hawker Hurricanes, October 1940
14.
H.G. Wells
–
Herbert George H. G. Wells was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is called a father of science fiction, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Wellss earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context and he was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote science fiction. A diabetic, in 1934, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association, Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House,46 High Street in Bromley, Kent, on 21 September 1866. Called Bertie in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells and his wife, Sarah Neal. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper, the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn an income, but little of it came from the shop. Payment for skilled bowlers and batsmen came from voluntary donations afterwards, a defining incident of young Wellss life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he started reading books from the local library and he soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access, they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morleys Commercial Academy, a school founded in 1849 following the bankruptcy of Morleys earlier school. The teaching was erratic, the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, Wells continued at Morleys Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh, the accident effectively put an end to Josephs career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income. No longer able to support financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as apprentices in various occupations. From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an apprenticeship as a draper at the Southsea Drapery Emporium. Wellss parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a Protestant, when his mother returned to work as a ladys maid, one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they never divorced and remained faithful to each other, as a consequence, Herberts personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemists assistant
H.G. Wells
–
Photograph by
George Charles Beresford, 1920
H.G. Wells
–
H. G. Wells studying in London, taken circa 1890
H.G. Wells
–
In the mid-1890s Wells lived at 143 Maybury Road, Woking.
H.G. Wells
–
Statue of a
The War of the Worlds tripod, erected as a tribute to H. G. Wells in the centre of the town of
Woking, England
15.
Pope Paul VI
–
Pope Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, reigned as Pope from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. Montini served in the Vaticans Secretariat of State from 1922 to 1954, Montini later became the Secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference. John XXIII elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 1958, upon his election to the papacy, Montini took the name Paul VI. He re-convened the Second Vatican Council, which was closed with the death of John XXIII. The magnitude and depth of the reforms affecting all fields of Church life during his pontificate exceeded similar reform policies of his predecessors and successors, Paul VI was a Marian devotee, speaking repeatedly to Marian congresses and mariological meetings, visiting Marian shrines and issuing three Marian encyclicals. Following his famous predecessor Saint Ambrose of Milan, he named Mary as the Mother of the Church during the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI sought dialogue with the world, with other Christians, other religions, and atheists, excluding nobody. He saw himself as a servant for a suffering humanity and demanded significant changes of the rich in North America. His positions on birth control, promulgated most famously in the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae, Pope Benedict XVI declared that the late pontiff lived a life of heroic virtue and conferred the title of Venerable upon him. Pope Francis beatified him on 19 October 2014 after the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession and his liturgical feast is celebrated on the date of his birth on 26 September. Giovanni Battista Montini was born in the village of Concesio, in the province of Brescia and his father Giorgio Montini was a lawyer, journalist, director of the Catholic Action and member of the Italian Parliament. His mother was Giudetta Alghisi, from a family of rural nobility and he had two brothers, Francesco Montini, who became a physician, and Lodovico Montini, who became a lawyer and politician. On 30 September 1897, he was baptized in the name of Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini and he attended Cesare Arici, a school run by the Jesuits, and in 1916, he received a diploma from Arnaldo da Brescia, a public school in Brescia. His education was interrupted by bouts of illness. In 1916, he entered the seminary to become a Roman Catholic priest and he was ordained priest on 29 May 1920 in Brescia and celebrated his first Holy Mass in Brescia in the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Montini concluded his studies in Milan with a doctorate in Canon Law in the same year, afterwards he studied at the Gregorian University, the University of Rome La Sapienza and, at the request of Giuseppe Pizzardo at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici. Consequently, he spent not a day as a parish priest, in 1925 he helped found the publishing house Morcelliana in Brescia, focused on promoting a Christian inspired culture. Montini had just one posting in the service of the Holy See as Secretary in office of the papal nuncio to Poland in 1923. Of the nationalism he experienced there he worte, This form of nationalism treats foreigners as enemies, then one seeks the expansion of ones own country at the expense of the immediate neighbours
Pope Paul VI
–
Paul VI in 1963
Pope Paul VI
–
His father, Giorgio Montini
Pope Paul VI
–
Montini on the day of his ordination in 1920.
Pope Paul VI
–
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini walking in Saint Peter's Square in 1962.
16.
San Lorenzo fuori le Mura
–
The Papal Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls is a Roman Catholic Papal minor basilica and parish church, located in Rome, Italy. The Basilica is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome and one of the five patriarchal basilicas. The Basilica was assigned to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Basilica is the shrine of the tomb of its namesake, Saint Lawrence, one of the first seven deacons of Rome who was martyred in 258. Pope Pius IX are also buried at the Basilica, which is the center of a large, before the present-day Basilica was constructed, the former estate upon which it sits was once home to a small oratory built by Emperor Constantine I. The Emperor built it over the site on which it held that St. Lawrence was executed in 258. In the 580s, Pope Pelagius II commissioned the construction of a church over the site in honor of the Saint, in the 13th century, Pope Honorius III commissioned the construction of another church in front of the older one. It was adorned with frescos depicting the lives of Saint Lawrence and the first martyred deacon, St. Stephen, the two structures were later united during a program of urban renewal. Excavations have revealed several other crypts of various persons, buried below the street level. Pope St. Hilarius is also buried here, the portico of circa 1220 has Cosmatesque decoration by the Vassalletto family of craftsmen. The 13th-century frescoes, which were reconstructed, depict scenes from the lives of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, both being martyred, young deacons. There are two ancient sarcophagi in the portico, a Christian one, possibly decorated in the 7th century on a sarcophagus, has a relief depicting putti picking grapes. While vines and grapes are symbols of the Holy Eucharist, these images are probably not symbols thereof, further, two Romanesque stone lions were moved here from the old entrance. The campanile was built in the 12th century, inside, the choir enclosure and pulpit have Cosmatesque decoration, and there is also a fine Cosmatesque Paschal candlestick from the 12th or 13th century. The antique Ionic capital on the column directly behind the pulpit has carvings of a frog, on the triumphal arch are Byzantine mosaics from the 6th century, depicting Christ with saints. The confessio below the altar is entered from the nave. Here, St. Lawrence and St. Stephen are enshrined, the latter was transferred from Constantinople by Pope Pelagius II during his restoration of the Basilica. Behind the high altar is a Papal altar with an inscription of the names of the makers, namely the Cosmati family, the Basilica was home to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1374 to 1847. In 1943 the Basilica was bombed during the Second World War, restoration continued until 1948, allowing some accretions from the 19th century to be removed
San Lorenzo fuori le Mura
–
The Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura is a shrine to the martyred Roman deacon St. Lawrence. An Allied bombing on 19 July 1943, during the
Second World War, devastated the facade, which was subsequently rebuilt.
17.
Lira
–
Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the name of the currencies of Lebanon. It is the currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City, all of which were replaced in 2002 with the euro, and of Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver, the libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire. When Europe resumed a monetary system, during the Carolingian Empire, the Roman system was adopted, particularly this system was kept during the Middle Ages and Modern Age in England, France, and Italy. In each of countries the libra was translated into local language, pound in England, livre in France. The Venetian lira was one of the currencies in use in Italy, during the 19th century, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire adopted the lira as their national currency, equivalent to 100 piasters or kuruş. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed in years 1918-1922, many among the successor states kept the lira as their national currency. In some countries, such as Cyprus, which have belonged to both empires, the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, the lira and pound are used as equivalents. For Turkish lira, the Turkish lira sign is used, otherwise L, sometimes in a double-crossed script form or less often single-crossed, is usually used as the symbol. The Turkish lira was introduced in 1844 during the Ottoman reign, the Turkish Lira is now the currency of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The Lebanese pound is called lira in Arabic, which is the language of Lebanon. The Syrian pound is called lira in Arabic, which is the language of Syria. The Jordanian dinar is widely called a lira, the Bulgarian and Romanian languages refer to the English pound as lira in opposition to Croatian which refers to the Italian currency as lira. Cipolla, Le avventure della lira, Bologna, Il Mulino,1975, stefano Poddi, La lunga storia della lira, stralcio, Fondazioni, n.2 marzo-aprile,2008. Stefano Poddi, La lunga storia della lira, articolo completo, Difesa e Lavoro, overview of Italian lira from the BBC
Lira
–
1 Italian lira 1863
Lira
–
1 Turkish Lira
18.
B-17 Flying Fortresses
–
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the air corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances, the B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The B-17 also participated to an extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II. From its prewar inception, the USAAC promoted the aircraft as a weapon, it was a relatively fast, high-flying. It developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base, the B-17 developed a reputation as an effective bomber, dropping more bombs than any other U. S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany, in addition to its role as a bomber, the B-17 was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft. As of May 2015, ten aircraft remain airworthy, none of them are combat veterans. Dozens more are in storage or on static display, the oldest of these is a D-series veteran of combat in the Pacific and the Caribbean. On 8 August 1934, the U. S. Army Air Corps tendered a proposal for a bomber to replace the Martin B-10. The air corps was looking for a capable of reinforcing the air forces in Hawaii, Panama. Requirements were that it would carry a useful bombload at an altitude of 10,000 ft for ten hours with a top speed of at least 200 mph. They also desired, but did not require, a range of 2,000 mi, the competition for the air corps contract would be decided by a fly-off between Boeings design, the Douglas DB-1, and the Martin Model 146 at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. The prototype B-17, with the Boeing factory designation of Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells and it combined features of the experimental Boeing XB-15 bomber with the Boeing 247 transport aircraft. The B-17s armament consisted of up to 4,800 lb of bombs on two racks in the bay behind the cockpit, and initially possessed five.30 caliber machine guns. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines each producing 750 hp at 7,000 ft, the first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test-pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. Richard Williams, a reporter for the Seattle Times, coined the name Flying Fortress with his comment, Why, when the Model 299 was rolled out bristling with multiple machine gun installations. The most unusual gun emplacement was the installation which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward almost any frontal angle
B-17 Flying Fortresses
–
B-17 Flying Fortress
B-17 Flying Fortresses
–
Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress above
Mount Rainier, 1943. Photo by
Robert Yarnall Richie.
B-17 Flying Fortresses
–
Model 299 NX13372
B-17 Flying Fortresses
–
Nose turret with gun fitted atop the Model 299's nose glazing
19.
Vatican City during World War II
–
Vatican City pursued a policy of neutrality during World War II, under the leadership of Pope Pius XII. Although the city of Rome was occupied by Germany from 1943, the Vatican organised extensive humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the conflict. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 with Italy recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City and it declared Vatican City a neutral country in international relations, and required the Pope to abstain even from mediation unless requested by all parties. In 1939, the city state was recognized by thirty-eight nations, with a corps of thirteen full ambassadors. As early as April 1939, Pius XII announced a plan for peace, the first leader contacted was Benito Mussolini, via Pius XIIs usual go-between, Jesuit Father Tacchi Venturi. With Mussolinis approval, the next day Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione contacted the nuncios in Paris, Warsaw, and Berlin and the Apostolic Delegate in London. The proposed Vatican meeting accomplished little of substance, if there was any coherent position espoused by the Vatican among its various communications. In his 24 August 1939 Radio Message, just a week before war, Pius warned, The danger is imminent, nothing is lost with peace, all can be lost with war. With Poland overrun, but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked, despite the early collapse of peace hopes, the Taylor mission continued at the Vatican. Early on, Pius XII believed that the destruction of Poland meant the end of the war. Summi Pontificatus, issued 20 October 1939, was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, According to Chadwick, Summi Pontificatus exemplified both the hesitancy and the care of the pontiff. During the drafting of the letter, the Second World War commenced with the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Catholic Poland, with Italy not yet an ally of Hitler in the war, Italians were called upon to remain faithful to the Church. The Pope wrote of anti-Christian movements bringing forth a crop poignant disasters and called for love, mercy and compassion against the deluge of discord. Following themes addressed in Non abbiamo bisogno, Mit brennender Sorge and Divini redemptoris, misled by error, passion, temptation and prejudice, have strayed away from faith in the true God. Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote, In Poland, in 1942, Pius XII delivered a Christmas message over Vatican Radio, which voiced concern for the victims of the Nazis genocidal policies. From May 1942, the Nazis had commenced their industrialized slaughter of the Jews of Europe - the Final Solution, gypsies and others were also marked for extermination. The Pope addressed the racial persecutions in the terms, The New York Times called Pius a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent. The speech was made in the context of the total domination of Europe by the armies of Nazi Germany
Vatican City during World War II
–
Members of the Canadian
Royal 22e Regiment in audience with
Pope Pius XII, following the 1944 Liberation of Rome.
Vatican City during World War II
–
The
Vatican City came into existence in 1929, only a decade before World War II
Vatican City during World War II
–
A monument to
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, among the estimated 3,000 members (18%) of the Polish clergy who were killed by the Nazis; of these, 1,992 died in concentration camps.
Vatican City during World War II
–
Josef Müller of the
German Resistance was sent to Rome in 1939/40, to seek assistance from the Pope in a plot to overthrow Hitler.
20.
Bombing of the Vatican
–
Bombing of Vatican City occurred twice during World War II. The first occasion was on the evening of 5 November 1943, the second bombing, which affected only the outer margin of the city, was at about the same hour on 1 March 1944, and caused the death of one person and the injury of another. Vatican City State was neutral throughout the war, both Allied and Axis aircraft crews were generally commanded to respect its neutrality even when bombing Rome. On 25 July 1943, after Allied forces had conquered the Italian possessions in Africa and had taken Sicily, the Fascist Grand Council removed Benito Mussolini from power. The Kingdom of Italy at first remained an ally of Nazi Germany, both bombings occurred while Rome was under German occupation. An undated eyewitness account written by Monsignor Domenico Tardini in 1944 states and it was a very clear and cloudless evening. For over half an hour an aeroplane was heard circling insistently over Rome, at about 8,10, while an Allied squadron passed over the Vatican, the aeroplane that until then had been circling over Rome dropped four bombs and flew away. If they had fallen a few metres off, they would have hit the Radio, the Government building, that of the Tribunals. They caused considerable damage, for all the windows were blown to pieces, the future cardinal Tardini continued, General opinion, and general indignation, blamed the Germans and, perhaps more, the Republican Fascists. The latter view was reinforced by notes about a conversation of Barracu that a telephone operator gave to the Holy Father. 5 November is for England, Father Hughes told me, an anti-Pope day, Monsignor Carroll did not know whether the delinquent had been punished. Perhaps we will know, when the war is over, what really happened, the message from Monsignor Walter S. Carroll that Monsignor Tardini spoke of as addressed to Monsignor Montini was in reality addressed to Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione. The German and British authorities gave similar assurances regarding aircraft of their countries, aware that the bombs used were British, the British pointed out that this proved nothing as they could have been taken from captured ordinance and used for precisely that purpose. Augusto Ferraras 2010 book 1943 Bombe sul Vaticano, declares that the attack was orchestrated by leading Italian Fascist politician, the aim was to knock out Vatican Radio, which was suspected of sending coded message to the Allies. The aircraft that delivered the bombs was a SIAI Marchetti S. M.79, a three-engined Italian medium bomber known as the Sparviero, which had taken off from Viterbo, some 80 kilometres north of Rome. One piece of evidence on which Ferrara bases his account of the responsibility of Farinacci was a call from a priest called Giuseppe to the Jesuit Pietro Tacchi Venturi. In Ferraras account, five bombs were dropped, of one did not explode. The 2007 book Venti angeli sopra Roma by Cesare De Simone speaks of an admission of responsibility by the RAF in the postwar period
Bombing of the Vatican
–
Palace of the Governatorate of Vatican City State, one of the buildings damaged by the 5 November 1943 bombing
Bombing of the Vatican
–
Map of Vatican City showing the buildings of the Governatorate, the Tribunal, and the Archpriest, and the railway station, which were damaged on 5 November 1943. The mosaic workshop, which received a direct hit, is positioned between the railway station and the residence of the archpriest.
Bombing of the Vatican
–
Effects of shrapnel on a wall of the Vatican railway station wall, which is adorned with a sculpture of
Elijah in the fiery chariot
21.
Vatican Radio
–
Vatican Radio is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican. Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave, medium wave, FM, satellite, since its inception, Vatican Radio has been maintained by the Jesuit Order. During World War II and the rise of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, a week after Pope Pius XII ordered the programming, Vatican Radio broadcast to an incredulous world that Poles and Jews were being rounded up and forced into ghettos. Today, programming is produced by two hundred journalists located in 61 different countries. Vatican Radio produces more than 42,000 hours of simultaneous broadcasting covering international news, religious celebrations, in-depth programs, the current general director is Father Federico Lombardi, S. J. Vatican Radio began broadcasting with the callsign HVJ on two shortwave frequencies using 10 kilowatts of power on 12 February 1931, with the pontificial message Omni creaturae of Pope Pius XI. In 1933, a permanent microwave link was established between the Vatican Palace and the residence of the papacy, Castel Gandolfo. In 1936, the International Telecommunication Union recognized Vatican Radio as a special case, on 25 December 1937 a Telefunken 25 kW transmitter and two directional antennas were added. Vatican Radio broadcast over 10 frequencies, during World War II, Vatican Radios news broadcasts were banned in Germany. During the war, the service operated in four languages. While some critics have said Pope Pius XII was too quiet regarding the Holocaust, Adler argues that it exposed Nazi persecution of the Church and opposed collaboration with Nazism. It appealed to Catholics to remain true to their faiths injunctions, to defend the sanctity of life, in so doing the Pope pursued a policy of spiritual resistance to Nazi ideology and racism. In 1948, services expanded to 18 languages, because of space purposes, the Holy See acquired a 400-hectare area located 18 kilometres north of Rome at Santa Maria di Galeria. The Italian Republic granted the site status in 1952. The next phase involved two 100 kW transmitters aimed at Africa and Oceania, a 250 kW mediumwave transmitter for Europe, Radio Vaticana was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. In the 21st century, Vatican Radio has experimented with digital technologies and has used electronic newsletters, podcasts. Vatican Radio and CTV began their own YouTube channel in 2010, operating in four languages, in May 2009 it was announced that Vatican Radio would begin broadcasting commercial advertisements for the first time in July. The decision was made so as to meet the rising costs
Vatican Radio
–
Administration building and
radio masts at Vatican City
Vatican Radio
–
Vatican Radio Radio Vaticana
22.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
–
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
23.
Strategic bombing during World War II
–
Strategic bombing during World War II was the sustained aerial attack on railways, harbours, cities, workers housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory during World War II. Strategic bombing is a strategy which is distinct from both close air support of ground forces and tactical air power. As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the Axis and the Allies increased significantly, in September 1940, the Luftwaffe began targeting British cities in The Blitz. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and eventually, when the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced these efforts and controversial firebombings were carried out against Hamburg, Dresden, and other German cities. In the Pacific War, the Japanese bombed civilian populations throughout the war, the effect of strategic bombing was highly debated during and after the war. Both the Luftwaffe and RAF failed to deliver a blow by destroying enemy morale. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which address the codes of conduct on land. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts to update international humanitarian law to include aerial warfare, many reasons exist for the absence of international law regarding aerial bombing in World War II. Most nations had refused to ratify laws or agreements because of the vague or impractical wording in treaties such as the 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare. Also, the major powers possession of newly developed advanced bombers was a military advantage. Article 25 of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions on Land Warfare also did not provide a guideline on the extent to which civilians may be spared. Consequently, cyclical arguments, such as advanced by Italian general and air power theorist Giulio Douhet. Before World War II began, the pace of aviation technology created a belief that groups of bombers would be capable of devastating cities. For example, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin warned in 1932, when the war began on 1 September 1939, Franklin D. If the Luftwaffe confined attacks to purely military targets, the RAF should launch an attack on the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven, the first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 15/16 May 1940 while the Battle of France was still continuing. During the German invasion of Poland, the Luftwaffe engaged in air raids against Polish cities, bombing civilian infrastructure such as hospitals. Notably, the Luftwaffe bombed Warsaw, Wieluń, and Frampol, in his book, Eyes on the Sky, Wolfgang Schreyer wrote, Frampol was chosen as an experimental object, because test bombers, flying at low speed, werent endangered by AA fire. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an orientation point for the crews
Strategic bombing during World War II
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A B-24 on a bomb run over the Astra Romana refinery in
Ploiești, Romania, during
Operation Tidal Wave
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Wieluń, the first Polish city destroyed by
Luftwaffe bombing, on 1 September 1939. In one of the first acts of the German aggression during World War II, German bombers destroyed 75% of all the buildings, including a clearly marked hospital and the historic Gothic church, killing approximately 1,200 civilians.
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Polish mothers with their newborn infants in a makeshift maternity ward inside a hospital basement during the
Bombing of Warsaw by the German Luftwaffe.
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Warsaw burning after a German
bombardment of the city. The Luftwaffe air campaign resulted in the deaths of over 25,000 civilians.
24.
Area bombardment
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In military aviation, area bombardment is a type of aerial bombardment that targeted indiscriminately at a large area, such as a city block or an entire city. The term area bombing came into prominence during World War II, the British Royal Air Force began area bombing at Monchengladbach on 11 May 1940. Area bombing is a form of strategic bombing, other terms for area bombing are carpet bombing, saturation bombing, and obliteration bombing. At the time, area bombing was contrasted with precision bombing, Aerial bombardment and international law Aerial bombing of cities Civilian casualties of strategic bombing Firestorm High-level bombing Precision-guided munition Tactical bombing
Area bombardment
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This Tokyo residential section was virtually destroyed after a massive
firebombing raid by the
U.S. Army Air Forces B-29s on March 9–10, 1945, the single most destructive raid in military aviation history. The
bombing of Tokyo in World War II cut the city's industrial productivity in half.
Area bombardment
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"Usual" British area bombing load of a
4000 pound blast bomb and 12 SBCs containing 2,832 4 lb incendiary bombs, seen in an
Avro Lancaster, World War II
25.
Aerial bombing of cities
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The aerial bombing of cities in warfare is an optional element of strategic bombing which was first seen in World War I. The bombing of cities grew to a vast scale in World War II, civilian and non-combatant casualties in bombed cities have variously been a purposeful result of the bombings, or unavoidable collateral damage depending on intent and technology. A number of efforts have been made to restrict the use of aerial bombardment so as to protect non-combatants. The first bombs delivered to their targets by air were launched on unmanned balloons, carrying a bomb, by the Austrians against Venice in 1849. The first ever air raid was conducted during the Italo-Turkish War by Italian forces against the Ottoman province of Libya on November 1,1911, giulio Gavotti dropped 1.5 kg of bombs on Ain Zara, a village 8 km west of the capital Tripoli. Adrianople was bombed by Bulgaria in 1912 in the First Balkan War, historically, it was the first bombardment of a city from a heavier-than-air aircraft. In the morning of 29 October 1912 at 9,30 a. m. the plane Albatros F-3 took off from an airfield near the village of Mustafa Pasha - present day Svilengrad, the pilot was captain Radul Mikov with spotter and bombardier Prodan Tarakchiev. The airfield was created to carry out the take off. According to the weather conditions were perfect. The flight lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes and the altitude was 500m, during the flight the crew flew over the city of Edirne, discovered hidden Ottoman forces in the nearby villages and flew towards to city railroad station, near the village of Karaagach. The plane was equipped with two bombs, which were released at 10,00 am over the station, the crew landed successfully at the airfield with 4 holes on the hull. A number of journalists and military attended the site. The bomb landed not on target but in a city street, the first civilian target to be bombed from the air was the Belgian city of Antwerp. This city, at that moment the National Redoubt of Belgium, was bombed during the night of 24–25 August 1914, instead of targeting the surrounding fortresses, the Zeppelin LZ 25s intention was to bomb the clearly distinguishable historical centre of the city. After dropping approximately ten bombs, ten people were killed and forty injured, the British Royal Naval Air Service undertook the first Entente strategic bombing missions on 22 September 1914 and 8 October, when it bombed the Zeppelin bases in Cologne and Düsseldorf. The aeroplanes carried twenty-pound bombs, and at least one airship was destroyed on the ground, London was bombed for the first time on 30 May 1915. In July 1916, the German government allowed directed raids against urban centers, sparking 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people, gradually British air defenses improved and the Germans also introduced large bomber aircraft for bombing Britain. By the end of the war,51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people, in the course of the Zeppelin raids the Germans lost more than half their airships and 40% of their crew
Aerial bombing of cities
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The remains of German town of
Wesel after intensive
Allied area bombing in 1945 (destruction rate 97% of all buildings).
Aerial bombing of cities
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German
airship Schütte Lanz SL2 bombing
Warsaw in 1914.
Aerial bombing of cities
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Casualties of a mass panic during a Japanese
air raid in Chongqing (Chungking).
Aerial bombing of cities
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A raid by the
8th Air Force on the
Focke Wulf factory at
Marienburg, Germany (1943).
26.
Firestorm
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A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires, although the word has been used to describe certain large fires, the phenomenons determining characteristic is a fire with its own storm-force winds from every point of the compass. The Black Saturday bushfires and the Great Peshtigo Fire are possible examples of forest fires with some portion of combustion due to a firestorm. A firestorm is created as a result of the effect as the heat of the original fire draws in more and more of the surrounding air. This draft can be increased if a low-level jet stream exists over or near the fire. As the updraft mushrooms, strong inwardly-directed gusty winds develop around the fire and this would seem to prevent the firestorm from spreading on the wind, but the tremendous turbulence created may also cause the strong surface inflow winds to change direction erratically. A firestorm may also develop into a mesocyclone and induce true tornadoes/fire whirls and this occurred with the 2002 Durango fire, and probably with the much greater Peshtigo Fire. The greater draft of a firestorm draws in greater quantities of oxygen, the intense heat of a firestorm manifests largely as radiated heat, which may ignite flammable material at a distance ahead of the fire itself. This also serves to expand the area and the intensity of the firestorm, the very high temperatures ignite anything that might possibly burn, until the firestorm runs low on fuel. Thus the fire front is essentially stationary and the spread of fire is prevented by the in-rushing wind. At Hiroshima, this inrushing to feed the fire is said to have prevented the firestorm perimeter from expanding, large wildfire conflagrations are distinct from firestorms if they have moving fire fronts which are driven by the ambient wind and do not develop their own wind system like true firestorms. In Australia, the prevalence of eucalyptus trees that have oil in their leaves results in forest fires that are noted for their extremely tall, hence the bush fires appear more as a firestorm than a simple forest fire. Sometimes, emission of gases from swamps has a similar effect. For instance, methane explosions enforced the Peshtigo Fire, for example, the black rain that began to fall at ~20 minutes after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima produced in total 5–10 cm of black soot-filled rain in a 1–3 hour period. Moreover, if the conditions are right, a large pyrocumulus can grow into a pyrocumulonimbus and produce lightning, apart from city and forest fires, pyrocumulus clouds can also be produced by volcanic eruptions due to the comparable amounts of hot buoyant material formed. The same underlying combustion physics can also apply to structures such as cities during war or natural disaster. Firestorms are thought to have part of the mechanism of large urban fires, such as accompanied the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Firestorms were also created by the raids of World War II in cities like Hamburg
Firestorm
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View of one of the
Tillamook Burn fires in August 1933.
Firestorm
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Picture of a pyro-cumulonimbus taken from a commercial airliner cruising at about 10 km. In 2002 various sensing instruments detected 17 distinct pyrocumulonimbus cloud events in North America alone.
Firestorm
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Braunschweig burning after aerial firebombing attack in 1944. Notice that a firestorm event has yet to develop in this picture, as single isolated fires are seen burning, and not the single large mass fire that is the identifying characteristic of a firestorm.
Firestorm
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Hiroshima after the bombing and firestorm. No known aerial photography of the firestorm exists.
27.
Strategic bombing
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One of the aims of war is to demoralize the enemy, so that peace or surrender becomes preferable to continuing the conflict. Strategic bombing has been used to this end, because the term has pejorative connotations, some, including the Allies of World War II, have preferred to use euphemisms such as will to resist and morale bombings. The theoretical distinction between tactical and strategic air warfare was developed between the two world wars, some leading theorists of strategic air warfare during this period were the Italian Giulio Douhet, the Trenchard school in the United Kingdom, and General Billy Mitchell in the United States. One of the aims of war is to demoralise the enemy, facing continual death, when such attacks were tried in the 1930s—in the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War—they were ineffective. Commentators observed the failures and some air forces, such as the Luftwaffe, Terror bombing is an emotive term used for aerial attacks planned to weaken or break enemy morale. Use of the term to refer to aerial attacks implies the attacks are criminal according to the law of war, or if within the laws of war are nevertheless a moral crime. The Allied governments usually described their bombing of cities with other such as area bombing or precision bombing. He then added in a remark that the raid also helped destroy what is left of German morale. Howard Cowan, an Associated Press war correspondent, filed a story about the Dresden raid, there were followup newspaper editorials on the issue and a longtime opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes, MP, asked questions in the House of Commons on 6 March. The first bombing of a city was on the night of 24–25 August 1914, the first effective strategic bombing was pioneered by the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914. The mission was to attack the Zeppelin production lines and their sheds at Cologne, led by Charles Rumney Samson the force of four aircraft inflicted minor damage on the sheds. The raid was repeated a month later with more success. Within a year or so, specialized aircraft and dedicated bomber squadrons were in service on both sides. These were generally used for bombing, the aim was that of directly harming enemy troops, strongpoints, or equipment. Eventually, attention turned to the possibility of causing harm to the enemy by systematically attacking vital rear-area resources. The most well known attacks were those done by Zeppelins over England through the course of the war, in all, four people were killed and sixteen injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740. German airships also bombed on other fronts, for example in January 1915 on Liepāja in Latvia, in 1915 there were 19 more raids, in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 181 people and injuring 455. London was accidentally bombed in May, and in July the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centers, there were 23 airship raids in 1916, in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691
Strategic bombing
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Tokyo after the massive
firebombing attack on the night of March 9–10, 1945, the single most destructive raid in
military aviation history. The
bombing of Tokyo in World War II cut the city's industrial productivity by half.
Strategic bombing
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A 1918 Air Raid rehearsal, evacuating children from a hospital.
Strategic bombing
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German airship bombing
Calais on the night of 21–22 February 1915
Strategic bombing
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Ruins of Guernica (1937)
28.
V-weapons
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This article is about the offensive use of the V-weapons and the military campaign in which they were employed. For descriptions of the weapons, see V-1 flying bomb, V-2 rocket. For other German superweapons, see Wunderwaffe and they comprised the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile, the V-2, a liquid-fuelled ballistic missile, and the V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a campaign against Britain, though only the V-1. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly Britain. The V-terrorbombing killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians, the cities London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets. They were part of the range of the so-called Wunderwaffen of Nazi Germany, following the relative failure of the Baedeker Raids on Britain in 1942, development of both flying bomb and rocket accelerated, with Britain designated as the target. On September 29,1943, Albert Speer publicly promised retribution against the bombing of German cities by a secret weapon. Then the official 24 June 1944 Reich Propaganda Ministry announcement of the Vergeltungswaffe 1 guided missile implied there would be another such weapon, after the first operational A-4 launch in September 1944, the rocket was renamed the V-2. However, the V-2 operations manual distributed to firing batteries continued to use the A-4 name for the rocket, beginning in October 1943, launch sites for the V-1 were constructed in Northern France, along the coast from Calais to Le Havre. Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful, prompted by the Normandy Landings of June 6, in the early morning of June 13,1944, the first V-1 flying bomb attack was carried out on London. Ten missiles were launched of which four reached England, the first of these impacted near Swanscombe, causing no casualties. At Bethnal Green, however, a bridge was destroyed and six people killed, after the 15th the attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day. With the first attack the British put their pre-planned Operation Diver into action, the buzzing sound of the V-1s pulse jet engine was likened by some to a motor cycle in bad running order. At least one business in London advertised how quickly a patron could access a nearby shelter, despite this, the cloudy and rainy conditions of June and July aided the effectiveness of the weapon and casualties were high. By late August a million and a people had left London. By the late summer and autumn, however, increasingly effective countermeasures against the V-1 were taken and people started returning to London. A total of 9,251 V-1s were fired at targets in Britain, with the vast majority aimed at London,2,515 reached the city, killing 6,184 civilians and injuring 17,981
V-weapons
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V-2 rocket on
Meillerwagen.
V-weapons
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V-2 rocket victim in
Antwerp, Belgium, November 27, 1944.
V-weapons
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A V-1 is rolled out
V-weapons
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The aftermath of
V-2 strike at
Battersea, London (27 January 1945)
29.
Bombing of Akita in World War II
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This was reportedly the farthest-range and also the last bombing mission in World War II, coming only hours before Japan announced its surrender. The town of Tsuchizaki was a port on the Sea of Japan coast, railway nexus. The town was incorporated into the city of Akita on April 1,1941. Despite its military significance, it had not been attacked during the stages of the strategic bombing campaign. The bombs completely destroyed the oil refinery belonging to Nippon Oil and adjacent port facilities, the estimated civilian casualties were more than 250 people killed, and an estimated 200 were severely injured. Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire, washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press. Contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII, the Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, 1941-1945. The Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan, downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany, new York, Walker Publishing Company Inc. Hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Pacific War Chronology Japanese government site
Bombing of Akita in World War II
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Tsuchizaki air raid memorial
30.
Bombing of Aomori in World War II
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Although the city of Aomori lacked major targets of military significance and was a minor city in terms of population, it was a prefectural capital and a major regional transportation hub. Aomori Station was the terminus for the Tōhoku Main Line and Ōu Main Line railways. In terms of industry, the city had a factory owned by Toyo Seikan. On the night of July 27,1945, two Boeing B-29 Superfortresses dropped flares and a total of 60,000 leaflets on the city of Aomori. The leaflets, depicting a bomber dropping bombs, listed 11 cities, and stated that at least 5-6 of these cities would soon be destroyed, and urged the civilian population to leave. As in other cities, the Japanese government decreed that citizens must turn such leaflets over to the police without reading the contents on pain of 3 months imprisonment or a fine of 10 Yen. Discussion of the contents could result in imprisonment, and the restrictions were to be enforced by the kempeitai. The bombers released a total of 83,000 new M74 incendiary devices on the wooden city. The resultant firestorm destroyed most of the city, the estimated civilian casualties in the July 29 raid was an estimated 1,767 killed and 18,045 homes destroyed. A year after the war, the United States Army Air Forcess Strategic Bombing Survey reported that 88 percent of the city had been totally destroyed, however, the Toyo Seikan factory was undamaged. The B-29 bombers continued on Tinian in the Mariana Islands without damage or loss, Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire. Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, the Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan. Downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan. New York, Walker Publishing Company Inc, hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, March 9 – August 15,1945. Shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. 青森空襲を記録する会 ISBN 4-87373-047-3 Pacific War Chronology Mission Diary of Charles A Smith 67 Japanese Cities Firebombed in World War II Recollection of B-29 Record of the Aomori bombing
Bombing of Aomori in World War II
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Aomori after the 1945 air raid
31.
Bombing of Augsburg in World War II
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The bombing of Augsburg in World War II included two British RAF and one USAAF bombing raids against the German city of Augsburg on 17 April 1942 and 25/26 February 1944. To take advantage of the capabilities of the new Avro Lancaster, the target was a long distance inside Germany, and a night-time attack would not have been as accurate, so the plan was to attack by day and cross enemy territory at low level. The bomber force was drawn from No.44 Squadron at RAF Waddington, each provided a flight of six aircraft. They practised low flying for a week, thirty Douglas Boston medium bombers and a large Fighter Command effort were dispatched to targets in Northern France intending to draw off German fighters. One Boston was lost in these diversionary activities, Flying at around 50 ft, the bombers crossed France but the aircraft of 44 Squadron, under Squadron Leader John Dering Nettleton, flew close by an airfield of II Gruppe/Jagdgeschwader 2. German fighters coming in to set off in pursuit and shot down four Lancasters. The two remaining bombers flew on and attacked the target with four 1,000 lb bombs each, one was hit by flak and crash-landed with the loss of three of the crew. The second six, from 97 Squadron, attacked shortly after in two sections of three, the first attacked at roof height, flying lower after dropping their load to evade flak on the way out but one was hit and crashed exploding. Of the last three aircraft, two were hit and caught fire, one exploded after completing the attack, the others had also completed the bomb run and were able to return home. In the course of the raid, seven of the 12 Lancasters had been shot down with the loss of 49 crewmen,37 killed and 12 taken prisoner, seven bombers were claimed by Hpt. Only two of the first formation of Lancasters dropped their bombs on the factory, five of the next dropped their bombs. After attacking the surviving Lancasters flew home at higher level under cover of darkness, Squadron Leader Nettleton returned in a badly damaged aircraft, landing near Blackpool. For his outstanding determination and leadership, Nettleton, who had nursed his crippled Lancaster aircraft back to England, many of the other officers and men who had survived the mission received recognition with the award of Distinguished Service Orders, Distinguished Flying Crosses and Distinguished Flying Medals. The operation had propaganda value to the British public, however, Lord Selborne, the Minister of Economic Warfare, was infuriated that the target had not been one of those specified by his Ministry for attack. Post-war analysis indicated the damage inflicted on the enemy was minor, eight machine tools were destroyed out of a total of 2,700, and five cranes out of 558. Courageous men and valuable aircraft had been lost although Bomber Command had already learned not to send unescorted bombers on such sorties, another lesson was that the Lancaster bombers rifle-calibre machine guns had proved quite inadequate against enemy fighters that were fitted with self-sealing fuel tanks. In a final Big Week mission, the Eighth Air Force bombed the Augsburg Messerschmitt works during the day on 25 February 1944 and that night, RAF Bomber Command followed with 594 aircraft and destroyed large parts of the centre of Augsburg. 21 RAF aircraft,3. 6% of the force was lost, during the Christmas holiday of 2016,50,000 Augsburg residents were evacuated to remove a 3.8 tonne dud bomb
Bombing of Augsburg in World War II
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Bomb shelter in Wittelsbacherpark
32.
Bombing of Bahrain in World War II
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The bombing of Bahrain in World War II was part of an effort by the Italian Royal Air Force to strike at the British interests wherever possible in the Middle East. While the mission caused little damage, it was successful in forcing the diversion of already-limited Allied resources to a theater originally thought to be safe. On 10 June 1940, the Kingdom of Italy declared war on the French Republic, the Italian invasion of France was short-lived and the French signed an armistice with the Italians on 25 June, three days after Frances armistice with Germany. This left the British and the forces of the Commonwealth of Nations for the Italians to contend with in the Middle East. In summer 1940, the Italian leader and Prime Minister Benito Mussolini received a plan to destroy the oil fields in Bahrain in order to disrupt the oil supplies to the British Navy, the plan was suggested by the Italian test pilot, Air Force Captain Paolo Moci. Early on October 19,1940, four Italian SM. 82s bombers attacked American-operated oil refineries in the British Protectorate of Bahrain, the raid also struck Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, but causing only some minor damage. Each aircraft carried a load of 1,500 kg and this long-range action was successful, taking the target totally by surprise, and the SM. 82s landed without problems at Zula, Eritrea. The Italian airplanes started their flight from Europe, attacked refineries in Asia, during the attack were dropped 132 bombs of 15 kgs, that heavily damaged 2 refineries The raid caused the Allies some concerns, forcing them to upgrade their defences. This, more than the amount of damage caused, further stretched Allied military resources. The Italian Command intended to employ the special SM82s to bomb the English oil plants of Manama, in the Persian Gulf and it was a long and difficult mission involving a 4,000 kilometre flight. During the very long flight, the role of Mutis SM82 pathfinder proved its essential function in leading the squadron. As bombardier Raina later told the operation of spotting the target was easy thanks to the illumination of the extractive. Alberto Rosselli Rome declared that their bombers had set a new distance record, american Magazine Time wrote that the Italians insisted that the planes had been refueled from submarine tankers though in actuality, the planes had simply been loaded with fuel. Ettore Muti, Party Secretary of the National Fascist Party, took part in the Bahrain raid and this caused the British considerable logistical problems but also forced them to divert resources to defend the Middle East which were badly needed elsewhere. It also helped relieve the threat to the lanes in the Mediterranean. Even a commercial aerial trip was done between Rome and Tokyo in summer 1942, Italian Royal Air Force Bombing of Palestine in World War II Lembo, Daniele. Parma, Italy, West-ward Edizioni,2002, p. 10-31
Bombing of Bahrain in World War II
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SM82s similar to those used in the Italian raid and bombing of Bahrain
33.
Barrow Blitz
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The Barrow Blitz is the name given to the Luftwaffe bombings of Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom during World War II. They took place primarily during April and May 1941, although the earliest Luftwaffe bombing occurred in September 1940, VSEL shipyard was the main target for bombing alongside Barrows steelworks which were formerly the largest in the world. During the Second World War, Walney Island was home to two of the many coastal artillery installations, numerous pillboxes can to this day be found littered across the Walney coastline. They were used as lookouts and contained rifles and light guns that could be used to defend Barrow against the Luftwaffe. The entrance to a large underground air-raid shelter that was used by shipyard workers can be found in the car park of the Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness development. A large unit of the Royal Air Force was based at Barrow/Walney Island Airport which was expanded during the war in an effort to aid Britains air defences, surrounding towns and villages were often mistaken for Barrow and were attacked instead, while many streets in Barrow were severely damaged. Bombing during mid-April 1941 caused significant damage to a portion of Abbey Road, completely destroying the Waverley Hotel as well as Christ Church. The towns main public baths and Essoldo Theatre were also severely damaged, hawcoat Lane is a street that is most noted for taking a direct destructive hit in early May 1941. This shortage of shelters was believed to have led to high casualties. Two fire watchers were killed in May 1941 when the hammer head crane they were stationed in at Vickers Shipyard was bombed by the Luftwaffe, in May 1941 it was attacked and badly damaged by the Luftwaffe. Most of the hotel was demolished and the remaining part became a public house/restaurant known as The Abbey Tavern. Her memoirs were adapted for television. Barrows main war memorial is a located in Barrow Park. It bears the names of hundreds of Barrovians who died in combat during various wars, including 616 in the First World War,268 in the Second World War, the Dock Museum in Hindpool contains an exhibit about the Barrow Blitz. In 2016, filmmaker and Barrow Sixth Form student Matthew Dodd created a documentary to commemorate the Barrow Blitzs 75th anniversary, Timeline of events during the Barrow Blitz. September 1940 The first compulsory blackout in Barrow,300 incendiaries are dropped on Salthouse, and a 5 year old child becomes the first victim of the Barrow Blitz. May 1941 Bombing intensifies as the Luftwaffe drops land-mines, incendiaries, Barrow Central railway station is completely destroyed by bombing. Some 2,250 children are evacuated from the town, june 1941 A further 4,000 children are evacuated as the death toll from bombing exceeds 80
Barrow Blitz
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The
Hindenburg Zeppelin flying over
Walney Island in 1936.
Barrow Blitz
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Damage caused by bombing during 1941 on Newland Street looking towards Hindpool Road.
Barrow Blitz
–
Barrow was one of the most successful shipbuilding centres in Europe, the main reason it became a target. Aircraft carrier
HMS Indomitable was launched by
Winston Churchill in the town in 1940.
34.
Bath Blitz
–
The term Bath Blitz refers to the air raids by the German air force on the British city of Bath, Somerset, during World War II. The city was bombed in April 1942 as part of the so-called “Baedeker raids”, in which targets were chosen for their cultural and historical, rather than their strategic or military, value. Bath was largely untouched during the Blitz, the German night bombing offensive against Britains cities, Bath was subject to numerous air raid warnings as raiders flew overhead on their way to Bristol, but no bombs were dropped on Bath at this point. Over the weekend of 25–27 April 1942, Bath suffered three raids, from 80 Luftwaffe aircraft which took off from Nazi occupied northern France. As the city sirens wailed, few citizens took cover, even when the first pathfinder flares fell, during the previous four months Bristol had been hit almost every night, so the people of Bath did not expect the bombs to fall on them. The first raid struck just before 11 pm on the Saturday night, the German aircraft then returned to France, refuelled, rearmed and returned at 4.35 am. Bath was still on fire from the first raid, making it easier for the German bombers to pick out their targets, the third raid, which only lasted two hours but caused extensive damage, commenced in the early hours of Monday morning. The bombers flew low to drop their high explosives and incendiaries,417 people were killed, another 1,000 injured. Over 19,000 buildings were affected, of which 1,100 were seriously damaged or destroyed, houses in the Royal Crescent, Circus and Paragon were destroyed and the Assembly Rooms were burnt out. A500 kilograms high explosive bomb landed on the side of Queen Square. The Francis Hotel lost 24 metres of its frontage. Casualties on the Square were low considering the devastation, with the majority of hotel guests, the majority of Baths churches were greatly damaged including St Andrews Church which had to be demolished and the site is now a park. The buildings have subsequently restored, although there are still some signs of the bombing. After the raid, a shelter was provided for Queen Square occupants in the then private central garden. In 1948, the residents gave the garden to the people of Bath with the intention it would become a memorial to the victims of the enemy attacks, today the square plays host to a variety of community activities including the Jane Austen Festival and the annual Bath Boules Tournament. Willi Schludecker,87, who more than 120 sorties for the Luftwaffe, including the Bath Blitz. Willi Schludecker died in a hospital in Cologne on 17 June 2010, among the firefighters assigned to the scene in Bath was Harry Patch, who in the 2000s became the last surviving British army veteran from the First World War. In 2016 a live 500 pounds bomb was discovered by workmen under the playground of the former Royal High School, Bath site
Bath Blitz
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View of the centre of Bath in 1958, still with signs of war damage.
Bath Blitz
–
Willi Schludecker at the 25 April 2008 memorial service in Bath, with his remembrance wreath.
35.
Bombing of Bangkok in World War II
–
Bangkok was bombed by both the Japanese during their invasion of Thailand, and on numerous occasions by the Allies during World War II. It was also the target for the first combat mission by Boeing B-29 Superfortresses in June 1944, military targets at and near Bangkok were first attacked by 3rd Air Groups Mitsubishi Ki-30s of the 31st Sentai under Lt Col Hayashi Junji as part of the Japanese invasion of Thailand. Prior to the start of the invasion, fighters from the 77th Sentai, on the morning of 8 December 1941, they were ordered to attack Aranyaprathet airfield on their way to Bangkok. Nine 31st Sentai bombers, escorted by 11 Nakajima Ki-27s of the 77th Sentai led by Japanese air ace Major Yoshio Hirose, on their approach they were intercepted by three Thai Air Force Curtiss Hawk III fighters from 43 Squadron. These were flown by Flight Lieutenant Chin Chiramaneemai, Flight Lieutenant Chai Sunthornsing and Flying Officer Sarit Potivetchagul and were based at Watana Nakorn airfield in Prachinburi Province and they had been advised not to engage the superior aircraft, but they took off anyway as a matter of national pride. Major Hirose, Lieutenant Yoshiro Kuwabara and Lieutenant Tsuguo Kojima shot down all three planes, killing the Thai pilots, on 21 December 1941, Thailand signed an alliance with Japan. On 25 January 1942, the Thai government declared war on the United States, on December 8,1941, at dawn, the Japanese forces invaded the eastern part of Thailand. Sentoki fighter aircraft attacked Wattana Nakhon Airfield, damaing the control tower, buildings, the other point of invasion was Wing 5, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. Officers, enlisted men and conscripts numbering 120 under the command of Wing Commander Mom Luang Prawas Jumsai withstood the attack with bravery, over four hundred Japanese soldiers were killed while forty men at Thai side died in the battle and only four suffered casualties. The fighting went on until the Government ordered a cease fire, RTAF personnel assisted the resistance against the Japanese. After World War II, the Thai Air Force sent three C-47s to support the United Nations in Korean War, during World War II Japan ask Thai Air Force joining occupying part of Burma. The first raid came on 7 January 1942, when Royal Air Force aircraft flying from Rangoon, the American Volunteer Group, together with seven No.113 Squadron RAF and three No.45 Squadron RAF Bristol Blenheim bombers, were involved in the first raid. No.113 Squadrons planes were piloted by No.60 Squadrons air crew, the second night raid was carried out by eight Blenheims on 24–25 January and included No.60 Squadron RAF aircrew. A final raid was three days later by four Blenheims. This was the last raid by Blenheims until May or June 1945, after Rangoon fell to the Japanese on 7 March, heavy bombers, such as the RAF and American Tenth Air Force Consolidated B-24 Liberators, based in India and China, attacked Thailand. The raids were carried out because Bangkok by then had become a centre for the Japanese on the Southeast Asian front. RAF and USAAF bombers carried out the raids as part of the Pacific campaigns, the major targets were the newly completed Port of Bangkok and the Thai railway system. Blenheim bombers and Mustangs operated out of Rangoon against Bangkok in this phase of the bombing
Bombing of Bangkok in World War II
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Allies bombed
Rama VI Bridge
Bombing of Bangkok in World War II
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Mitsubishi Ki-30 of the 31st Sentai
Bombing of Bangkok in World War II
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B-24s in formation
Bombing of Bangkok in World War II
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B-29 Superfortress
36.
Belfast Blitz
–
The Belfast Blitz was four attacks of high-casualty German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II. The first was on the night of 7–8 April 1941, an attack which probably took place only to test Belfasts defences. The next took place on Easter Tuesday,15 April 1941, two hundred bombers of the Luftwaffe attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured, High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz, the third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 4–5 May 1941,150 were killed. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid, the fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 5–6 May. In total, more than half the housing stock was rendered uninhabitable by the bombings. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories, Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort, producing many naval ships, aircraft and munitions, therefore, the city was deemed a suitable bombing target by the Luftwaffe. Meanwhile, unlike Northern Ireland, southern Ireland was no part of the UK. Under the leadership of Éamon de Valera, it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War, the Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940 and his death came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. Richard Dawson Bates, was the Home Affairs Minister, Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the Hiram Plan to evacuate the city and it was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. He said, I have heard speeches about Ulster pulling her weight, and the government has been slack, dilatory and apathetic. Craigavon died on 24 November 1940 and he was succeeded by John Miller Andrews, then 70 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign and he was replaced by Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Harland and Wolff was one of the largest shipbuilding yards in the world, up to 35,000 people were employed
Belfast Blitz
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Rescue workers searching through rubble after an air raid on Belfast
Belfast Blitz
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Sir James Craig, former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
HMSO image
Belfast Blitz
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John Miller Andrews Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. HMSO image
Belfast Blitz
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Junkers Ju-88
37.
Operation Retribution (1941)
–
Operation Retribution also known as Operation Punishment, was the April 1941 German bombing of Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It occurred in the first days of the World War II German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, the British Royal Air Force carried out two bombing raids on Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, in retaliation for the attacks on Yugoslavia. The invasion resulted in the surrender of Yugoslav forces on 17 April, in April 1939, Yugoslavia gained a second frontier with the Kingdom of Italy when that country invaded Albania. Between September and November 1940, Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact, Italy invaded Greece, from that time, Yugoslavia was almost surrounded by Axis powers or their client states, and her neutral stance toward the war was under tremendous pressure. Two weeks later, Bulgaria joined the Pact, the next day, German troops entered Bulgaria from Romania, closing the ring around Yugoslavia. Further pressure was applied by Hitler on 4 March 1941, when the Yugoslav Regent, Prince Paul, visited Berchtesgaden, but Prince Paul delayed a decision. On 6 March, the Royal Yugoslav Air Force was secretly mobilised, the VVKJ began dispersing to auxiliary airfields on 12 March, and this dispersal was completed by 20 March. Hitler, wanting to secure the flank of his impending invasion of the Soviet Union, demanded that Yugoslavia sign the Pact. Two days later a military coup détat was carried out by a group of VVKJ and Yugoslav Royal Guard officers, Prince Paul was deposed and replaced by the 17-year-old King Peter II who was declared to be of age. On the same day as the Yugoslav coup détat, Hitler issued Directive 25 and he ordered that even if Yugoslavia at first should give declarations of loyalty, she must be considered as a foe and therefore must be destroyed as quickly as possible. After the coup, German reconnaissance aircraft frequently violated Yugoslav airspace, the German incursions showed that the Yugoslav ground observation post network and supporting radio communications were inadequate. Hitler decided that Belgrade would be bombed as punishment for the coup against the government that had signed the Pact, on 27 and 28 March 1941 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring transferred about 500 fighter and bomber aircraft from France and northern Germany to airfields near the Yugoslavian border. The commander of Luftflotte IV, Generaloberst Alexander Löhr, allocated these aircraft to attack the Yugoslav capital in waves by day, Löhr issued his orders for the bombing on 31 March, but the decision to bomb Belgrade was not confirmed by Hitler until 5 April. Although Hitler ordered the destruction of Belgrade, Löhr replaced these general directions with specific military objectives within the city at the last minute. On the afternoon of 5 April, a British colonel visited Mirković at the VVKJ base in Zemun and confirmed that the attack on Belgrade would commence at 06,30 the following morning. German ground forces crossed the border at 05,15 on 6 April, the VVKJs 51st Fighter Group at Zemun had been alerted before dawn, and when reports began to be received about Luftwaffe attacks on VVKJ airfields, the first patrol was sent into the air. At first, no aircraft could be seen approaching Belgrade. The first wave closed on Belgrade at 06,45, and consisted of 74 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers,160 Heinkel He 111 medium bombers and Dornier Do 17 light bombers between 8, 000–10,000 feet
Operation Retribution (1941)
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Bomb-damaged buildings in Belgrade in April 1941
Operation Retribution (1941)
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The bomb-damaged
Old Palace in central Belgrade. The royal palaces located in the city centre and the southern suburb of
Dedinje were among the targets of the Luftwaffe during the first wave of bombing on 6 April 1941.
Operation Retribution (1941)
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The site of the National Library of Serbia, bombed on 6 April 1941
Operation Retribution (1941)
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Monument to the Royal Yugoslav Air Force defenders of Belgrade, located in
New Belgrade
38.
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. It was also attacked by aircraft of the Red Air Force, British bombers dropped 45,517 tons of bombs, the Americans dropped 23,000 tons. As the bombings continued more and more people moved out, by May 1945,1.7 million people had fled. When the Second World War began in 1939, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United Kingdom had a policy of using aerial bombing only against military targets and against infrastructure such as ports and railways of direct military importance. The first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 10 –11 May, although killing German civilians was never an explicit policy, it was obvious that area bombing must lead to large-scale civilian casualties. With the technology available at the time, the bombing of military targets was possible only by daylight. Before 1941, Berlin, at 950 kilometres from London, was at the range attainable by the British bombers then available to the Allied forces. It could be bombed only at night in summer when the days were longer and it has been argued that this action may actually have saved Britain from defeat. During 1940 there were raids on Berlin, all of which did little damage. The raids grew more frequent in 1941, but were ineffective in hitting important targets. The head of the Air Staff of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, justified these raids by saying that to get four million people out of bed, the Soviet Union started a bombing campaign on Berlin on 8 August 1941 that extended into early September. Navy bombers, operating from the Moonzund Archipelago conducted 8 raids to Berlin with 3-12 aircraft in each raid, Army bombers, operating from near Leningrad, executed several small raids to Berlin. In total in 1941,33 Soviet aircraft dropped 36,000 kilograms of bombs on Berlin, combat and operational losses for the Soviets tallied 17 aircraft destroyed and 70 crewmen killed. On 7 November 1941, Sir Richard Peirse, head of RAF Bomber Command, launched a raid on Berlin. More than 20 were shot down or crashed, and again little damage was done and this failure led to the dismissal of Peirse and his replacement by Sir Arthur Travers Harris, who believed in both the efficacy and necessity of area bombing. Harris said, The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to everyone else. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places and they sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind. At the same time, new bombers with longer ranges were coming into service, particularly the Avro Lancaster, during most of 1942, however, Bomber Commands priority was attacking Germanys U-boat ports as part of Britains effort to win the Battle of the Atlantic
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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The ruins of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, heavily damaged in an Allied bombing and preserved as a monument
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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US Air Force over Berlin, 19 May 1944.
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Bombing victims laid out in an exhibition hall, autumn 1944
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Buildings on fire after an air raid in 1944
39.
Birmingham Blitz
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The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe of the city of Birmingham and surrounding towns in the United Kingdom, beginning on 9 August 1940 and ending on 23 April 1943. It is considered a part of the greater Blitz, which was part of the Battle of Britain, situated in the Midlands, Birmingham, Englands most populous British city outside London, is an important industrial and manufacturing location. Around 1,852 tons of bombs were dropped on Birmingham, making it the third most heavily bombed city in the United Kingdom in the Second World War, behind only London and Liverpool. There was also significant bombing of towns in the neighbouring Black Country, particularly in Dudley, Tipton and West Bromwich, as with most provincial cities bombed during the Blitz, reports of the bombing were kept low key. Wartime censorship meant that Birmingham was not mentioned by name in contemporary reports about the bombing, being referred to instead as a Midland Town. This was done in order to keep the Germans from knowing the outcome of their raids, overall, there were 365 air raid alerts, and 77 actual air raids on Birmingham, eight of which were classified as major. Official figures state that 5,129 high explosive bombs and 48 parachute mines landed on the city, along with many thousands of incendiary bombs. Of the high explosive bombs, around one fifth failed to detonate, in total,2,241 people were killed, and 3,010 seriously injured. A further 3,682 sustained lesser injuries,12,391 houses,302 factories and 239 other buildings were destroyed, with many more damaged. The first air raid on the city took place on 9 August 1940, one person was killed, and six injured. On 13 August the aircraft factory in Castle Bromwich which produced Spitfires was attacked, eleven bombs hit the main target causing significant damage. 7 people were killed, and 41 injured, regular small raids followed over August, September, October and early November. The city centre was hit between 25–30 October. Among the buildings hit were Birmingham University, the Art Gallery, the roof of the Council House was damaged by fire, and on the 29th, St Philips Cathedral suffered serious fire damage after being hit by an incendiary. In November 1940, a series of air raids on Birmingham took place. Between the 19th and 28th of that month around 800 people were killed and 2,345 injured, around 400 tonnes of high explosives were dropped during the raid, including 18 parachute mines. The raid turned out to be the most severe attack on Birmingham in the course of the war, a number of factories were badly damaged in the raid, including the Lucas Industries and GEC works. The Birmingham Small Arms Company factory was damaged, causing loss of production
Birmingham Blitz
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High Street, looking towards the
Bull Ring area after heavy bombing, on 10 April 1941.
Birmingham Blitz
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A severely bomb damaged street in
Aston Newtown.
Birmingham Blitz
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A ruined factory building.
Birmingham Blitz
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New Street after bombing
40.
Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II
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During World War II Braunschweig was attacked by Allied aircraft in 42 bombing raids. The attack on the night of 14/15 October 1944 by No.5 Group Royal Air Force marked the point of the destruction of Henry the Lions city in the Second World War. Moreover, the attack destroyed Braunschweigs mediaeval city centre thereby changing the citys appearance right down to the present day. The RAF first bombed Braunschweig on 17 August 1940, killing 7 people, as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive, Braunschweig was a regular target for RAF and American bombers, including two Big Week attacks on 20 and 21 February 1944. The first major British raid against Braunschweig was on 14/15 January 1944 when nearly 500 Lancasters attacked but faced a strong defence by German fighters, as a relatively small target, most of the bombing missed the city. In an experimental raid on to see if bombing by radar alone was effective, there was no effective concentration of the bombs and nearby towns were bombed by mistake. Between these dates there were occasions when fast Mosquito bombers were sent on nuisance raids and diversions against Braunschweig. On October 14,1944, No.106 Squadron RAF bombed Brunswick, Braunschweig was subjected to 42 World War II air raids, and the city was ringed by anti-aircraft guns. In January 1944 Bomber Commands raids against Stettin, Brunswick and Magdeburg were taking 7. 2% losses - more than in raids against Berlin that month. The targets included machine and munitions works, the harbour, research institutions, canneries, railway stations and the maintenance works. Nearby targets included the Reichswerke Hermann Göring in Salzgitter and the KdF-Stadt Volkswagen factory near Fallersleben, the nearby Oflag 79 prisoner-of-war camp was attacked on 24 August 1944. On 13 October, the RAF received orders to carry out Operation Hurricane, the purpose of this action was to demonstrate the Allied bomber forces destructive might, and to make clear Allied air superiority. Operation Hurricane foresaw Duisburg as its goal for the RAFs thousand or so bombers. A further 233 RAF bombers were detailed for Braunschweig, which in October 1944 had about 150,000 inhabitants, the planning for the attack on Braunschweig was finalized as of 15 August 1944. Darmstadt had been attacked on the night of 11 September 1944 using a new targeting technique, fan-shaped flying formation, staggering of explosive, a largely unprepared town, the resulting fires caused about 11,500 deaths. The Allies now turned their attention to Braunschweig, Braunschweig was to be largely destroyed not only as an important centre of the armament industry, but also, and above all, as a living place, thereby making it uninhabitable and useless. The means whereby the goal was to be reached would be the aforesaid firestorm, whose production was no accident, the next day, Air Marshal Arthur Bomber Harris issued the orders to carry out the attack on Braunschweig and other cities. Brunswick was codenamed Skate by RAF Bomber Command, all German cities being given names of fish, actual city names were never used in operational orders for security reasons
Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II
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map of Braunschweig city centre
Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II
Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II
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Mosquito
Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II
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A
Lancaster drops bundles of incendiary bombs (left), incendiary bombs and a “
cookie ” (right) on
Duisburg on 15 October 1944; the same night, Braunschweig was likewise bombarded.
41.
Bombing of Bremen in World War II
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In addition to Wesermünde/Bremerhaven, targets were also in Farge and Vegesack. Bremen also included concentration camps such as Bremen-Farge and Bremen-Vegesack, the city of Bremen was captured in April 1945. In the 1939-45 period the RAF dropped 12,831 long tons of bombs on Bremen, in June 1942, Bremen was the target for the RAFs third thousand bomber raid
Bombing of Bremen in World War II
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U-bootbunker Valentin, a
U-boat shelter built on the River Weser, after RAF bombing March 1945.
42.
Siege of Breslau
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The Battle of Breslau, also known as the Siege of Breslau, was a three-month-long siege of the city of Breslau in Lower Silesia, Germany, lasting to the end of World War II in Europe. From 13 February 1945 to 6 May 1945, German troops in Breslau were besieged by the Soviet forces which encircled the city as part of the Lower Silesian Offensive Operation. The German garrisons surrender on 6 May was followed by the surrender of all German forces two days after the battle, in August 1944, Adolf Hitler declared the city of Breslau to be a fortress, ordering that it must be defended at all costs. He named Karl Hanke to be the citys Battle Commander, on 19 January 1945, the civilian population was forced to leave. The German Army, aided by the Home Guard and slave labourers, then turned the city into a military fortress, a large area of the city center was demolished and turned into an airfield. Late in January, a regiment of Hitler Youth was sent to reinforce the garrison of Festung Breslau, SS regiment Besslein also took part. On 2 February 1945, Hanke presented colors to the newly formed Home Guard units in Breslau, on the same day, Major General Hans von Ahlfen became the garrison commander of Fortress Breslau. Ahlfen, who commanded for three weeks, had been personally selected by the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center, Ferdinand Schörner. On 2 March 1945, Infantry General Hermann Niehoff replaced Ahlfen as garrison commander, Niehoff held the position until the final surrender on 6 May 1945. The 1st Ukrainian Front forces besieged the city with the 22nd and 74th Rifle Corps,50,000 German troops defended the city. The Siege of Breslau consisted of destructive house-to-house street fighting, the city was bombarded to ruin by artillery of the Soviet 6th Army, as well as the Soviet 2nd Air Army and the Soviet 18th Air Army, and the destruction caused by the German defenders. On 15 February, the German Luftwaffe started an airlift to the besieged garrison, for 76 days, until 1 May, the Luftwaffe made more than 2,000 sorties with supplies and food. More than 1,638 short tons of supplies were delivered, on 22 February, the 6th Army occupied three suburbs of Breslau, and during the next day, the 6th Army troops were in the southern precincts of the city itself. By 31 March there was heavy fire into the north, south. On 4 May the clergy of Breslau — Pastor Hornig, Dr. Konrad, Bishop Ferche, Hanke ordered Niehoff not to have any further dealings with the clergy. Local German communists called for an end to the resistance of the city in flyers, in a pamphlet titled the Freiheits-Kämpfer it called for an end to the fighting and told the local population not to be afraid of the Red Army who came as liberators. Seventeen of the members of the group were executed on Gauleiter Hankes orders. On 6 May, after 82 days of siege and shortly before the surrender of Germany in World War II
Siege of Breslau
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German troops in Breslau on 2 February 1945.
Siege of Breslau
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Delegation of German officers walking for negotiations before capitulation of Festung Breslau, 6 May 1945.
Siege of Breslau
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Villa Colonia at Rapacki Street 14 (former Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse), where the instrument of surrender of the Breslau garrison was written.
43.
Bristol Blitz
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The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during World War II. Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II, between 24 November 1940 and 11 April 1941 there were six major bombing raids. In a night raid on 2 November 1940,5,000 incendiary and 10,000 high explosive bombs were dropped on the old city, on 24 November 148 Luftflotte 3 bombers left Germany to bomb Bristol. Park Street was smashed and the Bristol Museum hit,207 people were killed, the area that is now Castle Park was extensively damaged. The Jacobean St Peter’s Hospital was destroyed, and the 17th century timber-framed Dutch House was damaged, four of Bristols ancient churches were also badly damaged. The St James Presbyterian Church of England, Bristol was gutted, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Alderman Thomas Underwood, described the effect of the raids as The City of Churches had in one night become the city of ruins. On 3 –4 January 1941 Bristol had its longest raid, lasting 12 hours and it was nicknamed Satan, and weighed 2,000 kilograms, measuring over 8 feet long, and 26 inches in diameter. It did not explode, and was recovered in April 1943, the bomb disposal crew had to dig down 29 feet to get to it. The bomb was later paraded through the streets of London during the VE Day Victory Parade at the end of the war. The infamous Good Friday air raids caused damage to the centre of the city, Knowle, Hotwells, Cotham and Filton. Winston Churchill visited the ruins on 12 April 1941, the last air raid of the Blitz on Bristol was on 25 April 1941, when Brislington, Bedminster and Knowle were bombed. It is speculated that these suburbs were not the targets themselves, the last raid on Bristol was on 15 May 1944. Bristol was in danger of being hit by V-1 flying bombs, however, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 saw these launching platforms on Cotentin being quickly overrun and consequently no V1 or V2s landed on Bristol. The main decoy for Bristol was at Black Down on the end of the Mendip Hills. A smaller one was in the parish of Chew Magna and these were known as starfish sites, and were designed to simulate Bristol under blackout conditions, even to the extent of mimicking the flickering lights of railway marshalling yards. In the event of an imminent air raid, beacons were lit at the decoy sites, – WW2 Peoples War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc. co
Bristol Blitz
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A German
World War II 1 kilogram
incendiary bomb dropped in
clusters
Bristol Blitz
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The ruins of
Temple Church
44.
Operation Charnwood
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Operation Charnwood was an Anglo-Canadian offensive that took place from 8 to 9 July 1944, during the Battle for Caen, part of the larger Operation Overlord, in the Second World War. The operation was intended to at least partially capture the German-occupied city of Caen, the British and Canadians advanced on a broad front and by the evening of the second day had taken Caen up to the Orne and Odon rivers. Supported by three armoured brigades, the British I Corps made gradual progress against the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division. By the end of the day the 3rd Canadian Division and the British 3rd Infantry Division and 59th Infantry Division had cleared the villages in their path and reached the outskirts of the city. Moving into Caen at dawn the following morning, the Allies encountered resistance from remnants of German units who were beginning a withdrawal across the Orne. Carpiquet airfield fell to the Canadians during the morning and by 18,00. The remaining bridges were defended or impassable and with German reserves positioned to oppose their crossing, with the capture of northern Caen and the many casualties inflicted on the German defenders, Operation Charnwood was a mutually costly tactical success for the Allies. Operationally, the Germans retired from north of the Orne River, the Germans established another defensive line along two ridges to the south of the city. The Allies maintained the initiative and began Operation Jupiter the next day and Operation Goodwood and Operation Atlantic a week later, the Norman city of Caen was one of the D-Day objectives for the British 3rd Infantry Division which landed on Sword Beach on 6 June 1944. The terrain between Caen and Vimont was especially attractive to Allied planners, being open, dry and conducive to swift offensive operations, since the Allies greatly outnumbered the Germans in tanks and mobile units, creating the conditions for a fluid, fast moving battle was to their advantage. The 3rd Infantry Division came ashore as planned but was hampered by congestion in its beachhead, diversions en route, the division was unable to assault Caen in force and its lead elements were brought to a halt short of the outskirts. Later attacks failed as the German defenders were reinforced by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, on 7 June the British began Operation Perch, a pincer attack by I Corps and XXX Corps, to encircle Caen from the east and west flanks. The I Corps attack south of the Orne River was halted by the 21st Panzer Division, in the Battle of Villers-Bocage the 7th Armoured Division vanguard was ordered to retire and the Panzer-Lehr Division held its positions until XXX Corps captured Tilly-sur-Seulles on 19 June. The next British offensive, codenamed Operation Epsom, was launched by VIII Corps on 26 June, after Operation Martlet a preliminary attack on 25 June, VIII Corps advanced to the west of Caen on a 4-mile front from Rauray to Carpiquet. Once across the Odon and Orne rivers, VIII Corps was to make for high ground near Bretteville-sur-Laize, the objective was to seize the German-occupied Château la Londe and Château le Landel. The initial evening assault, led by the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment was repulsed but the morning further attacks gained the objectives. Contest, Authie and Cussy but this operation was cancelled by Crocker. The area of the Châteaux was later called the bloodiest square mile in Normandy. and 268 men, on 4 July, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division conducted Operation Windsor, to seize Carpiquet and the adjacent airfield from the 12th SS-Panzer Division
Operation Charnwood
–
Troops of
British I Corps pick their way through the rubble of Caen
Operation Charnwood
–
A
Panzer IV of the 1/22nd Panzer Regiment in a
dug-in defensive position, photographed near Lébisey
Operation Charnwood
–
A
Handley Page Halifax bomber, of
No. 4 Group RAF, over northern Caen after the bombing of 7 July
Operation Charnwood
–
Men of the 2nd Battalion,
Royal Warwickshire Regiment, of the
185th Brigade of the
British 3rd Division, advancing through a wheat field during the final assault on Caen.
45.
Cardiff Blitz
–
The Cardiff Blitz refers to the bombing of Cardiff, Wales during World War II. Between 1940 and the raid on the city in March 1944 approximately 2,100 bombs fell. Cardiff Docks became a bombing target for Luftwaffe as it was one of the biggest coal ports in the world. Consequently, it and the area were heavily bombed. Llandaff Cathedral, amongst many other civilian buildings caught in the raids, was damaged by the bombing in 1941, during 1940 the Luftwaffe targeted Cardiff on 3,10 and 12 July and 7 August. This was followed in 1941 with raids on 2,3 and 10 January, over 100 bombers attacked the city over a 10-hour period beginning at 6.37 pm on the night of 2 January 1941. Dropping high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs and parachute mines, the Riverside area was the first to be bombed, in Grangetown, the Hollyman Brothers bakery was hit by a parachute mine and 32 people who were using the basement as a shelter were killed. When the raid was over 165 people had killed and 427 more injured. Chapels and the nave of Llandaff Cathedral were also damaged, western Cardiff was the worst hit area, particularly Canton and Riverside, where 116 people were killed, an estimated 50 of which were killed in one street in Riverside, De Burgh Street. The 10-hour air raid had started at 18,37 and Grangetown was the first area to be hit by 100 German aircraft. Further raids followed on 27 February, through 1,4,12,20 March and 3,12,29,30 April and 4 to 11 May. One landed harmlessly in the Castle grounds, narrowly missing the Civic shelter, ten died in Lewis Street in Riverside from one mine. The other two fell in Cathays on Llanbleddian Gardens and Wyverne Road, killing 23 people, in 1942 fewer raids occurred but two occurred on 30 June and 2 July. On the final raid, one of the bombers mistook the Irish Sea for the River Severn and bombed Cork in Ireland
Cardiff Blitz
–
Cardiff Docks, shown in pre-1900 photo
46.
Bombing of Chongqing
–
A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, with more than 11,500, mainly incendiary, bombs dropped. The targets were usually residential areas, business areas, schools, hospitals and these bombings were probably aimed at cowing the Chinese government, or as part of the planned Sichuan invasion. In the first two days of the campaign, the raids of May 1939 killed more than five thousand Chinese civilians, on 5 June 1941, the Japanese flew more than 20 sorties, bombing the city for three hours. About 4,000 residents who hid in a tunnel were asphyxiated, the majority of the air raids conducted against Chongqing were made with squadrons of medium-heavy bombers composed of Mitsubishi G3Ms, known as Nells, Ki-21s Sallys, Fiat BR. The introduction of the Zero-sen fighter plane in 1940, the most advanced fighter aircraft at the time. The last recorded air raid of the campaign took place on 19 December 1944, three-thousand tons of bombs were dropped on the city between 1939 and 1942. A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, in March 2006,40 Chinese who were wounded or lost family members during the bombings sued the Japanese government demanding 10,000,000 yen each and asked for apologies. By filing a lawsuit, we want the Japanese people to know about Chongqing bombings, memorial site Bombing of Chongqing, Nippon News, No.2. in the official website of NHK
Bombing of Chongqing
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The city after bombing
Bombing of Chongqing
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Casualties of a mass-panic during a Japanese air raid in Chongqing in 1941. Photo by
Carl Mydans.
Bombing of Chongqing
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Volunteer army leaving Chongqing
47.
Clydebank Blitz
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The Clydebank Blitz refers to two devastating Luftwaffe air raids on the shipbuilding town of Clydebank in Scotland which took place in March 1941. As a result of the raids on the nights of 13 and 14 March 1941,528 people died,617 people were seriously injured, and hundreds more were injured by blast debris. Out of approximately 12,000 houses, only seven remained undamaged — with 4,000 completely destroyed and 4,500 severely damaged, over 35,000 people were made homeless. Clydebanks production of ships and munitions for the Allies made it a target, major targets included the John Brown & Company shipyard, ROF Dalmuir and the Singer Corporation factory. A total of 439 bombers dropped over 1,000 bombs, RAF fighters managed to shoot down two aircraft during the raid, but none were brought down by anti-aircraft fire. He claims that while the raid on 13 March was not intended as a terror attack, but the bombing the following night was indeed a terror attack as it was intended to crack morale and force the people to call for an end to the war. However, it had quite the opposite effect, strengthening resolve for the war in Scotland, despite the devastation in the town itself, the Clydebank air raids were far from a military success. Among the primary targets were the John Brown Shipyard and Beardmores Diesel Works, the only plant completely destroyed was the Strathclyde Hosiery Company. A war memorial is dedicated to the crew of a Polish destroyer, ORP Piorun and it is located directly opposite from the Town Hall, which has itself a shrine dedicated to those in Clydebank who died during World War I and World War II. There is another war memorial on Graham Avenue, a recording made in May 1941 by bombed-out civilian Tom Wright features on The Blitz, an archive audiobook CD issued in 2007. Macleod, John, River of Fire, The Clydebank Blitz, the Clydebank Blitz, West Dunbartonshire Libraries & Museums,2007,118 pages. ISBN 0-9537736-2-0 Taylor Les, Luftwaffe over Scotland, a history of German air attacks on Scotland, 1939-45, ISBN 1-84995-000-8 Post-Blitz Clydebank — a documentary about Clydebank, Scotland from 1947 to 1952 Full list of casualties The Blitz audiobook featuring Tom Wright
Clydebank Blitz
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A defused, German 1000kg Luftmine (
Parachute mine). Glasgow, 18 March 1941
Clydebank Blitz
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The building on the right was one of the few which survived the blitz
48.
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the RAF. While air raid alarms had gone off in the winter/spring of 1940 as British bombers passed overhead, the most notable attack on Cologne was the first 1,000 bomber raid on 30/31 May 1942. The first ever 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF was conducted on Cologne on the night of 30/31 May 1942, the raids were useful propaganda for the Allies and particularly for RAF Bomber Command head Arthur Harriss concept of a Strategic Bombing Offensive. Bomber Commands poor performance in bombing accuracy during 1941 had led to calls for the force to be split up and diverted to other urgent theatres i. e. Battle of the Atlantic. By using bombers and men from Operational Training Units,250 from RAF Coastal Command and from Flying Training Command, however, just before the raid took place, the Royal Navy refused to allow the Coastal Command aircraft to take part in the raid. The Admiralty perceived the propaganda justifications too weak an argument against the real, in addition to the bombers attacking Cologne,113 other aircraft on Intruder raids harassed German night-fighter airfields. Cologne was not Harriss first choice, he wanted to bomb Hamburg, the recent introduction of GEE allowed the bombers to fly a given route at a given time and height. In the raid,868 aircraft bombed the target with 15 aircraft bombing other targets. The total tonnage of bombs dropped was 1,455 tons with two-thirds of that being incendiaries, 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. 3,330 non-residential buildings were destroyed,2,090 seriously damaged and 7,420 lightly damaged, the only military installation damaged was the flak barracks. The damage to 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 whom 411 were civilians and 58 combatants,5,027 people were listed as injured and 45,132 as bombed out. It was estimated that from 135,000 to 150,000 of Colognes population of nearly 700,000 fled the city after the raid, the RAF lost 43 aircraft,3. 9% of the 1,103 bombers sent on the raid. 22 aircraft were lost over or near Cologne,16 shot down by flak,4 by night fighters,2 in a collision, a posthumous Victoria Cross was awarded to Flying Officer Leslie Thomas Manser who sacrificed himself so his crew could abandon the aircraft
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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Cologne in 1945
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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Innenstadt, Cologne in 1945
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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Official British war art imagining a bombing raid on Cologne. The city's
cathedral is clearly visible. It survived the war, despite being hit dozens of times by Allied bombs.
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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RAF bomber
H2S radar display from the 30/31 October 1944 Cologne attack with post-attack annotations
49.
Coventry Blitz
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The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place on the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force, the most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940. At the start of the Second World War, Coventry was a city of around 238,000 people which, like much of the industrial West Midlands. In Coventrys case, these cars, bicycles, aeroplane engines and, since 1900. In the words of the historian Frederick Taylor, Coventry. was therefore, in terms of what little law existed on the subject, however, it developed many large interwar suburbs of both private and council housing, which were relatively isolated from industrial buildings. There were seventeen small raids on Coventry during the Battle of Britain between August and October 1940 during which around 198 tons of bombs fell, together, the raids killed 176 people and injured around 680. The most notable damage was to the new Rex Cinema which had opened only in February 1937 and had already been closed by an earlier bombing raid in September. War production in two factories had ceased on a temporary basis because of it, with a number of people living nearby having to be evacuated. Campbell found that the bomb was fitted with a delayed action fuse that was impossible to remove and that was done by lorry, and he lay alongside the bomb so that he could hear if it started ticking and could warn the driver to stop and run for cover. Having taken it to a distance, he disposed of the bomb successfully but was killed whilst dealing with another bomb the next day. Campbell was posthumously awarded a George Cross for his actions on 17 October 1940, the raid that began on the evening of 14 November 1940 was the most severe to hit Coventry during the war. It was carried out by 515 German bombers, from Luftflotte 3, the initial wave of 13 specially modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft of Kampfgruppe 100, which were equipped with X-Gerät navigational devices, accurately dropped marker flares at 19,20. The British and the Germans were fighting the Battle of the Beams and these later waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of bomb, those made of magnesium and those made of petroleum. Coventrys air defences consisted of twenty-four 3.7 inch AA guns, however, only one German bomber was shot down. At around 20,00, Coventry Cathedral, was set on fire by incendiaries for the first time. During the same period, more than 200 other fires were started across the city, most of which were concentrated in the area, setting the area ablaze. The raid reached its climax around midnight with the all clear sounding at 06,15 on the morning of 15 November
Coventry Blitz
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Winston Churchill visiting the ruins of
Coventry Cathedral in September 1941
Coventry Blitz
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Broadgate, Coventry in 1917
Coventry Blitz
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Coventry Cathedral, in ruins after the
Luftwaffe air raid.
Coventry Blitz
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The
Holy Trinity Church rises above a scene of devastation
50.
Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II
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Darmstadt was bombed a number of times during World War II. The most devastating air raid on Darmstadt occurred on the night of 11/12 September 1944 when No.5 Group of the Royal Air Force bombed the city,66,000 of the 110,000 inhabitants of Darmstadt at the time became homeless. Darmstadt lost between 12,500 and 13,500 inhabitants during World War II, the calligraphic memorial Darmstädter Brandnamen lists about 4,000 names. Darmstadt had several major industrial targets including Merck and Rohm and Haas chemical works as well as military communications networks. On the night of 24/25 April 1944, some RAF planes bombed Darmstadt and other towns when, due to low cloud, they failed to find the main target of the night which was Karlsruhe. An attack on the night of 25/26 August 1944 by No.5 Group RAF failed when the Master Bomber had to return to base, the pathfinder Illuminating Force flares fell too far west. As a result, most of the Main Force did not bomb at all, the few bombs which hit the town hit 95 buildings and killed 8 people. Following the main raid another diversionary raid by 4 Mosquitos was made on the night of 23/24 February 1945 to draw night fighters away from the target of Pforzheim. The raid was to incorporate a new technique where, instead of flying along a single path across the target. The intention was to spread the bombload. The attack started a fire in the centre and in the districts immediately to the south. The destruction of dwellings in this area was almost complete, the raid killed as many as 12,300 inhabitants and rendered 66,000 homeless from a population of 110,000. The RAF lost 12 Lancasters,5.3 per cent of the bomber force, among industries known to the RAF in Darmstadt, the Rohm and Haas chemical works was not destroyed, while the E. Merck chemical works was damaged, and additional damage resulted in a loss of production of about 1 months work by the local metal production and fabrication industry. Hastings, Max, Bomber Command, ISBN 0-7181-1603-8 James Stern, eine Reise im besetzten Deutschland 1945. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-8218-0749-0, dokumente von der Zerstörung Darmstadts am 11. Friedrich, Jörg, Titel, Der Brand,2002,11, the maasgrave and memorial site at the Darmstadt Waldfriedhof Pictures of the destroyed city Durmstädter Brandnamen, a calligraphic memorial
Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II
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The Luisenplace in Darmstadt (Citycenter) after the bombing raid
Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II
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Aerial photograph of the western part of Darmstadt(Poststrike)
