The Battle of Berlin: Bomber Command over the Third Reich, 1943-1945

The Battle of Berlin, the bombing of the ‘Big City’ as it was known to the crews of RAF Bomber Command, raged from 18 November 1943 to the end of the war in Europe in 1945.It is recalled here both by those in the air over capital of the Third Reich, as well as those who suffered under the bombing onslaught. At the start of the Battle of Berlin, Sir Arthur Harris had predicted that the ‘Big City’ would ‘cost between 400-500 aircraft’, but that it would also ‘cost Germany the war’.He was proved wrong on both counts. Berlin was not ‘wrecked from end to end’, as Harris predicted on 3 November 1943 - ‘if the USAAF will come in on it’ - although a considerable part of it was destroyed. And the ‘Main Battle of Berlin’ did not cost Germany the war; a grinding land campaign had yet to be fought.More than 9,000 bombing sorties were flown during the battle on round trips of about 1,200 miles to Berlin and back. Berlin was bombed by four Allied air forces between 1940 and 1945.British bombers alon