Bombing of Essen in World War II - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

During World War II, the industrial town of Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

, was a target of Allied strategic bombing

Strategic bombing

Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...

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The Krupp factory was an inmportant industrial target, Essen was a "primary target" designated for area bombing by the February 1942 British Area bombing directive

Area bombing directive

The Area Bombing Directive was a directive from the wartime British Government's Air Ministry to the Royal Air Force which ordered RAF bombers to attack the German industrial workforce and the morale of the German populace through bombing German cities and their civilian inhabitants.- Background...

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As part of the campaign in 1943 known as the Battle of the Ruhr

Battle of the Ruhr

The Battle of the Ruhr was a 5-month long campaign of strategic bombing during the Second World War against the Nazi Germany Ruhr Area, which had coke plants, steelworks, and 10 synthetic oil plants...

, Essen was a regular target.

Bombing

valign=top| **Essen World War II bombings**
Date	Target	Notes
March 8/9, 1942		211 RAF aircraft destroy a few Essen houses and a church, 10 people killed and 19 missing.
March 9/10, 1942		187 RAF aircraft destroy 2 buildings in Essen (72 damaged) and cause damage in 24 other Ruhr towns (particularly Hamborn and Duisburg Bombing of Duisburg in World War II Duisburg was bombed a number of times by the Allies during World War II. The most devastating air raids on Duisburg occurred during October 1944 when the city was bombed by the Royal Air Force .... ). In Essen, 10 people were killed, 19 were missing and 52 were injured. In other towns, 74 people were killed and 284 injured
March 10/11, 1942		62 crews claimed to have bombed Essen, with 2 bombs hitting on an industrial target (railway lines near the Krupp factory). 1 house was destroyed and 2 damaged in residential areas. 5 Germans were killed and 12 injured and a Polish worker Forced labor in Germany during World War II The use of forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied... was killed by a Flak shell which descended and exploded on the ground. No. 106 Squadron RAF No. 106 Squadron RAF No. 106 Squadron RAF was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force squadron active from 1917 until 1919. It was also operative during World War II and in the post war period until 1963.- Establishment and early service :... was one of the bombing units.http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=382806&rel_no=1
March 17, 1942		1 RAF Wellington on a cloud-cover raid to Essen dropped its bombs somewhere in the Ruhr.
1942-03-18, 19, & 21		RAF Wellingtons to Essen returned because of lack of cloud.
March 25/26, 1942		In the largest force sent to 1 target so far (254 aircraft), much of the Essen effort was drawn off by the decoy fire site at Rheinberg Rheinberg Rheinberg is a town in the district of Wesel, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. north of Moers and south of Wesel.... and 1 house was destroyed and 2 seriously damaged. 5 people were killed and 11 injured.
March 26/27, 1942		2 Essen houses destroyed, 6 people killed and 14 injured. 11 of the 115 RAF bombers were lost.
March 31/April 1, 1942		4 RAF Wellingtons, with selected crews, to Essen but only random targets were bombed by 2 aircraft. No losses.
March 2/3, 1943	Krupp	6 RAF Mosquitos to the Ruhr without loss. The aircraft which bombed Essen Essen - Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of... scored direct hits in the middle of the main Krupp factory.
March 5/6, 1943	Krupp	442 aircraft in the first raid of the Battle of the Ruhr Battle of the Ruhr The Battle of the Ruhr was a 5-month long campaign of strategic bombing during the Second World War against the Nazi Germany Ruhr Area, which had coke plants, steelworks, and 10 synthetic oil plants... on the night that marked RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental... 's 100,000th sortie of the war. Fourteen aircraft (4 Lancasters, 4 Wellingtons, 3 Halifaxes, 3 Stirlings were lost: 3.2 per cent of the force. A further 56 aircraft turned back early. Three of these were Oboe Oboe (navigation) Oboe was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. Oboe accurately measured the distance to an aircraft, and gave the pilot guidance on whether or not they were flying along a pre-selected circular route. The route was only 35 yards... -equipped Mosquito marker aircraft leaving five to mark the target. Marking was carried out 'blind', avoiding the effects of the industrial haze that usually concealed Essen. The Main Force bombed in 3 waves. Two thirds of the bomb tonnage was incendiary, the rest high-explosive. One third of the high-explosive bombs were fused for long delay. The attack lasted for 40 minutes. Reconnaissance photographs showed 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of destruction with buildings within the Krupp works hit by bombs.
March 10/11 1943		2 RAF Mosquitos to Essen
March 12, 1943		11 RCAF squadrons of RAF Bomber Command raid Essen with 113 planes, dropping 495.2 tons of bombs with approximately 23 bombers shot down. 196,300 square yards was destroyed and three unknown factories collapsed.
March 12/13, 1943		457 RAF aircraft fly a successful Oboe-marked Oboe (navigation) Oboe was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. Oboe accurately measured the distance to an aircraft, and gave the pilot guidance on whether or not they were flying along a pre-selected circular route. The route was only 35 yards... raid. The centre of the bombing area was across the giant Krupp factory, just west of the Essen centre, with later bombing drifting back to the north-western outskirts. Krupp received 30 per cent more damage on this night than on 5/6 March.
25/26 July 1943		Last raid on Essen during the Battle of the Ruhr. 705 aircraft of which 3.7 were lost. The raid had been planned to take advantage of the recent introduction of "Window". "The Krupps works suffered what was probably its most damaging raid of the war".
December 12/13, 1943		During the Battle of Berlin (air) Battle of Berlin (air) The Battle of Berlin was a British bombing campaign on Berlin from November 1943 – March 1944. The campaign was not limited solely to Berlin. Other German cities were attacked to prevent concentration of defences in Berlin, and Bomber Command had other responsibilities and operations to conduct... , Essen was attacked by 18 Mosquitos.
January 13/14, 1944		Small raids on Essen, Duisburg, Aachen, and Koblenz by 25 Mosquitos. One aircraft was lost.
October 8, 1944	marshalling yards	396 2- and 1250 4-engined bombers support the American XIX Corps "battle for the Westwall" by attacking Kassel, Hamm, and Cologne Bombing of Cologne in World War II The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II, including 31 times by the Royal Air Force . Air raid alarms went off in the winter/spring of 1940 as enemy bombers passed overhead. However, the first actual bombing took place on 12 May 1940... marshalling yards at the edge of the battle area.
1945-03-08	coking plant Coker unit A coker or coker unit is an oil refinery processing unit that converts the residual oil from the vacuum distillation column or the atmospheric distillation column into low molecular weight hydrocarbon gases, naphtha, light and heavy gas oils, and petroleum coke...	In Essen, 114 aircraft bombed the Emil coking plant, and 109 bombed the marshalling yards.

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