RAF firebomb Lübeck, destroying 60 percent
of the old city.
30/31 May
RAF attack Cologne with their first
1,000-bomber raid.
4 July
USAAF fly their first mission in Europe,
against German airfields in Holland.
4 November
The ‘end of the beginning’ of the war: the
British win their first major land victory
against the Germans at El Alamein.
1943
14–26 January
The Casablanca Conference, where Churchill
and Roosevelt outline their bombing strategy.
They agree on a policy of accepting nothing
less than unconditional surrender from the
Axis powers.
27 January
First USAAF raid against a German target: Wilhelmshaven.
2 February
The surrounded German army at Stalingrad finally surrenders.
18 February
Reichspropagandaminister Goebbels declares ‘total war’.
20 April
Hamburg leaders draw up a disaster plan in case of heavy air raids.
27 May
Sir Arthur Harris unveils plans to destroy Hamburg.
10 June
Pointblank Directive is issued, and the
‘Combined Bomber Offensive’ against
Germany begins: the USAAF bombing by
day, the RAF by night.
19/20 June
Hamburg defences carry out rehearsal for their
disaster plan in Altona. Their worst-case
scenario involves some 3,000 dead, 1,000
wounded and 110,000 homeless.
25 June
USAAF fly on Hamburg, but never reach the
city; eighteen planes are shot down.
5–13 July
The last German counter-offensive in the east
fails at Kursk.
6–12 July
A week of consultation by Hamburg’s leaders
over the city’s disaster plan, concluding in
another rehearsal.
10 July
British and American troops land in Sicily.
24 July – 2 August
Operation Gomorrah destroys Hamburg (see
Appendix C).
25 July
Mussolini is deposed.
1 August
Goebbels orders the evacuation of women and
children from Berlin.
6 August
Goering visits the ruins of Hamburg.
17 August
Goebbels, Interior Minister Frick and half a
dozen gauleiters visit Hamburg.
Disastrous USAAF attack on Schweinfurt and
Regensburg, in which they lose sixty aircraft.
Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff,
commits suicide.
3 September
The Allies begin the invasion of the Italian
mainland. Italy surrenders unconditionally.
13 October
Italy swaps sides, and declares war on
Germany.
14 November
RAF begins the ‘Battle of Berlin’.
1944
6 June
D-Day: the Allies land on the beaches of
Normandy.
13 June
The Germans launch their first V-1 flying
bombs on London.
20 July
Hitler survives assassination attempt.
8 September
The first V-2 rocket hits London.
16 October
Soviet forces enter East Prussia.
6 November
President Roosevelt is re-elected for a fourth
term despite failing health.
16 December
Opening of the German Ardennes
counter-offensive.
1945
26 January
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
3 February
Berlin suffers its worst air raid of the war
when 1,500 USAAF bombers drop more than 2,000 tons of bombs on the city.
4 February
Yalta Conference begins.
13–15 February
Dresden is bombed, killing tens of thousands
in a firestorm similar to that at Hamburg.
7 March
The Americans cross the Rhine into Germany.
9/10 March
Tokyo is firebombed, destroying sixteen
square miles of the city and killing almost
90,000 people.
18 March
RAF drop an incredible 4,000 tons of bombs
on Berlin.
11 April
Concentration camp at Buchenwald is
liberated by the Americans.
12 April
President Roosevelt dies.
13 April
Concentration camp at Belsen is liberated by
the British.
16 April
Russians begin their final push across the river
Oder towards Berlin.
30 April
Hitler commits suicide.
3 May
Hamburg surrenders to the Allies without a fight.
7 May
Unconditional German surrender.
8 May
VE Day.
6 August
The first atomic bomb is dropped on
Hiroshima.
9 August
The second atomic bomb is dropped on
Nagasaki.
15 August
The Japanese emperor informs his people that
he will surrender.
2 September
VJ Day: the signing of the Japanese surrender
brings the Second World War to an end.
After the war
30 September 1946
Nuremburg Tribunal on war crimes delivers its verdicts.
Winter 1945–6
Cold temperatures cause problems across occupied Germany.
Winter 1946–7
Severe and sustained freeze across Germany sees temperatures drop to –28°C.
27 May 1947
The British and American zones of control in Germany merge to form the ‘Bizone’.
July 1947
Sixteen western European nations form the Committee for European Economic Co-operation. The Marshall Plan begins to take effect.
20–21 June 1948
The Deutschmark is introduced in Germany, signalling the beginning of the Wirtschaftswunder.
Appendix C
Chronology of ‘Operation Gomorrah’
24 July
12.18
Public air-raid warning, set off by American B-17s heading for Norway.
Night of 24/25 July: first RAF raid
22.00
791 British aircraft set out for Hamburg.
00.19
Air-raid danger (thirty minutes) sounded.
00.30 approx
RAF begin dropping ‘Window’, creating confusion for German radar.
00.33
Main air-raid alarm.
00.57
Marker flares ( Tannenbaum) rain down on western suburbs of Hamburg.
01.02
The first bombs begin to fall.
01.50
The last handful of 2,300 tons of bombs falls on the city.
03.01
The all-clear is sounded in Hamburg.
25 July: first USAAF raid
13.20