Bombing of Essen in World War II
Essen, a town of the Ruhr area in Germany was bombed about 50 times by the Allies in World War II.
March 1942
Some of the earliest air raids were in March, 1942 by the RAF Bomber Command. The town was attacked on the nights of 9, 10, 25 and 26 March each by more than 100 planes. The largest of these was on March 25 by 254 planes.
April 1942
More raids followed on the nights of 6, 10 and 12 April.
June 1942
A huge raid took place on the night of June 1 by 956 RAF bombers. It was supposed to be 1000 bomber raid. It failed miserably.
March 1943
On March 12, 1943 raid was cconducted by all 11 squadrons of the Canadian Air Force, totalling 113 planes. 89 of them bombed the city but 3 disappeared. 495.2 tons of bombs were dropped. 23 bombers were shot down.
The damage
The area of the buildings of the Krupps Works destroyed or damaged was more than 196,300 square yards, as compared to the 136,000 square yards of damage in a previous raid. Three unknown factories collapsed.
Trivia
- Following the raid on March 12, 1943, an aircraft of No. 405 Squadron, returned with two hundred holes, seven of them in the petrol tanks.
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