The bombing of Munich (''Luftangriffe auf München'') took place mainly in the later stages of World War II.

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

was, and is, a significant German city, as much culturally as industrially.

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

, thirty-seven miles to the west, was a main centre of

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

production (and still is today), and was also heavily bombed during the war. Although some considerable distance from the United Kingdom, Munich is not a difficult city to find from the air, mainly due to its size, and possibly its proximity to the Austrian Alps to the south-east as a visual reference point. Munich was protected (initially) by its distance from the United Kingdom. There were seventy-four air raids on Munich, with 6,632 people killed and 15,800 wounded. Around 90% of the ''Altstadt'' (old city) was severely damaged due to the policy of

carpet bombing Carpet bombing, also known as saturation bombing, is a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase evokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in th ...

(''Flächenbombardement''). Munich was considered a special target of allies bombings also for propaganda purposes, in that it was the " movement's capital city",

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

's birthplace. At the start of the ''Großdeutsches Reich'' in 1939, Munich had a population of around 830,000, and was the fourth-largest city in Germany.

Air force units involved

Munich was bombed by

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

and the USAAF.

24–25 April 1944 attack

USAAF

During the day of 24 April 1944 the city and the surrounding area was heavily attacked by the USAAF. Over seven hundred bomber aircraft took part in the attack, and were escorted by P-51B, P-38J, and P-47D aircraft, with around eight hundred fighter aircraft. The

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Thea ...

and

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

bomber aircraft came from the 8th and 9th Air Forces. The attack was intended to limit production of the

Dornier Do 335 The Dornier Do 335 ''Pfeil'' ("Arrow") was a heavy fighter built by Dornier for Germany during World War II. The two-seater trainer version was called ''Ameisenbär'' ("anteater"). The ''Pfeil''s performance was predicted to be better than oth ...

Dornier Flugzeugwerke Dornier Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in Friedrichshafen in 1914 by Claude Dornier. Over the course of its long lifespan, the company produced many designs for both the civil and military markets. History Originally ...

Oberpfaffenhofen Oberpfaffenhofen is a village that is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is located about from the city center of Munich. Village The village is home to the Oberpfaffenhofen Airport and ...

and turbine blades for the

Junkers Jumo 004 The Junkers Jumo 004 was the world's first production turbojet engine in operational use, and the first successful axial compressor turbojet engine. Some 8,000 units were manufactured by Junkers in Germany late in World War II, powering the Mess ...

axial-flow turbojet. Oberpfaffenhofen is now the home of the mission control center '' Deutsches Raumfahrt-Kontrollzentrum'' of the ''Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.'' (

German Aerospace Centre The German Aerospace Center (german: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany ...

RAF

April 24, 1944, 234 Lancasters and 16 Mosquito aircraft from the RAF attacked Munich. It was a devastating and concentrated attack, and around 80% of the buildings in the target area were destroyed. The attack was noted for a new method of target marking at low level from 700 feet.

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, further to the north-west, was also heavily bombed by the RAF that night. Nine Lancaster aircraft were lost in the raid.

Damage

The city received around 450 large bombs (''Luftminen'', around 4,000lb), 61,000 high-explosive bombs, and around 3,316,000 4lb magnesium

incendiary bombs Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...

(''Stabbrandbombe'', developed by ICI). Around 50% of all of Munich was damaged. 81,500 houses were completely or partially destroyed, de-housing around 300,000 inhabitants, 4,185 wounded, 139 killed. (The deadliest bombing took place on 16 July 1944, with 1,453 killed and 4,525 wounded).

References

* ''Fliegeralarm – Luftangriffe auf München von 1940 bis 1945'', Hugendubel, Munich, 1987, Richard Bauer * ''Ruinen-Jahre. Bilder aus dem zerstörten München 1945–1949'', Hugendubel, Munich, 1988, Richard Bauer * ''Bomber über München. Der Luftkrieg 1939 bis 1945, dargestellt am Beispiel der 'Hauptstadt der Bewegung' '',

Hans-Günter Richardi Hans-Günter Richardi (born 1939, Berlin) is a German author and journalist, residing in Dachau. Life Richardi, a long-time editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, was very engaged in his books on the history of Nazism. For his research, the author h ...

, 1992 * ''Der Luftkrieg über München 1942–1945. Bomben auf die Hauptstadt der Bewegung'', Aviatic, Oberhaching, 1996,

External links

Der Luftkrieg gegen München
{{WWII city bombing 1940s in Munich 1944 in Germany

Events in Munich Germany–United Kingdom military relations