{"id":98309,"date":"2025-10-06T04:00:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=98309"},"modified":"2025-10-05T14:12:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T18:12:31","slug":"fire-and-fury-bomber-command-1943-the-ruhr-hamburg-berlin-and-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/10\/06\/fire-and-fury-bomber-command-1943-the-ruhr-hamburg-berlin-and-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Fury &#8211; Bomber Command 1943 &#8211; The Ruhr, Hamburg, Berlin and Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3H5Oef9RclM?si=0z4fa3j6zP3tw6hH\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>HardThrasher<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 4 Oct 2025<\/p>\n<p>The Bomber War continues \u2014 In this second part of our deep dive into RAF Bomber Command, we explore the WW2 strategic bombing campaign that raged from the Spring of 1943 to the Spring of 1944. <\/p>\n<p>This episode covers the Battle of the Ruhr, the Hamburg Firestorm, the raid on the V1 and V2 rocket research site at Peenem\u00fcnde, and the disastrous attacks on Berlin and Nuremberg. We&#8217;ll look at how these missions affected the course of World War II, the Nazi war economy, and the future of the Royal Air Force itself.<\/p>\n<p>00:00:00 \u2013 Introduction<br \/>\n00:00:23 \u2013 Quotation<br \/>\n00:00:57 \u2013 The Battle of the Ruhr and Context of the War<br \/>\n00:04:59 \u2013 Planning for Operation Gomorrah<br \/>\n00:06:29 \u2013 Window<br \/>\n00:07:42 \u2013 Gomorrah<br \/>\n00:10:00 \u2013 Firestorm<br \/>\n00:14:53 \u2013 An Old &#8220;Friend&#8221; Returns<br \/>\n00:16:00 \u2013 Germany Goes On The Defensive<br \/>\n00:18:59 \u2013 Assessing the Damage<br \/>\n00:19:54 \u2013 Killing the V1 &#038; V2s at Peenem\u00fcnde<br \/>\n00:22:51 \u2013 The Battle of Berlin<br \/>\n00:27:53 \u2013 Reality Check for Bomber Command<br \/>\n00:29:50 \u2013 Disaster over Nuremberg<br \/>\n00:31:23 \u2013 Summing Up<br \/>\n00:32:05 \u2013 Survivor&#8217;s Club<\/p>\n<p>References &#8211;<br \/>\nxvi <em>The Wages of Destruction<\/em>, Tooze, Penguin, 2006 (from the 2007 reprint) p. 590 and on<br \/>\nxvii <em>The Wages of Destruction<\/em>, Tooze, Penguin, 2006 (from the 2007 reprint) p. 597<br \/>\nxviii <em>Stalin&#8217;s War<\/em>, McMeekin, Penguin, 2022 p.470 and on<br \/>\nixx <em>Ibid<\/em> p.327<br \/>\nxx <em>The Bombing War<\/em>, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p.332<br \/>\nxxi <em>The Bombing War<\/em>, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p323<br \/>\nxxii <em>Ibid<\/em> p.334<br \/>\nxxiii <em>The Bomber Command War Diaries<\/em>, Middlebrook and Everitt, Penguin, 1990 (orig 1985) p.413<br \/>\nxxiv <em>Ibid<\/em> p.440<br \/>\nxxv <em>Speer: Hitler&#8217;s Architect<\/em>, Kitchen, Penguin, 2020 p.185<br \/>\nxxvi <em>The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force<\/em>, Arm &#038; Armour Press, 1983, p.236<br \/>\nxxvii <em>The Bomber War<\/em>, Overy, Penguin, 2020, p.336<br \/>\nxxviii <em>The Rise and Fall of the German Airforce<\/em>, Arms and Armour Press, 1983, p.235<br \/>\nixxx <em>Flak<\/em>, Westerman, University of Kansas Press, 2001 p.202 and on<br \/>\nxxx <em>The Pathfinders<\/em>, Iredale, Penguin, 2021, p.213<br \/>\nxxxi <em>Bomber War<\/em>, Hastings, Pan Military, 1977, p. 371 (2020 reprint)<br \/>\nxxxii <em>Bomber Command&#8217;s War Against Germany<\/em>, Frankland, Pen &#038; Sword, 2020 (see also original <em>AIR 41\/57<\/em>, 1951) p.89<br \/>\nxxxiii <em>AIR 16\/487 \u2013 Despatches on War Operations Feb 1942 \u2013 May 1945<\/em><br \/>\nxxxiv <em>Bomber Command&#8217;s War Against Germany<\/em>, Frankland, Pen &#038; Sword, 2020 (see also original <em>AIR 41\/57<\/em>, 1951) p.197<br \/>\nxxxv <em>Bomber Command<\/em>, Hastings, Pan, 2021 (orig. 1979) Pan, p.373<br \/>\nxxxvi <em>Bomber Command<\/em>, Hastings, Pan, 2021 (orig. 1979) Pan, p.376<\/p>\n<p>Get Your Merch Here &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?event=video_description&#038;redir_token=QUFFLUhqbTUyU2ZFZ3lBdWpYQVBNcnBMaGU3dGFKSl9fQXxBQ3Jtc0tsSU9mTWMzajlBSDYtd1lIUXdwTzZuSUNFN2VWZFVqcW9GYTMwOWtKMlJGeEFzR09CQXNiczJsVWFrdXNBN1J0bEJUb3VzN05SUDRRSVFjYnJpQ05LX3VJcGlIejNCbXJtQTViY1V0Q3QtV3VPYUo5dw&#038;q=https%3A%2F%2Fhardthrasher-shop.fourthwall.com%2Fen-gbp&#038;v=3H5Oef9RclM\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/hardthrasher-shop.fourthwall&#8230;.<\/a><br \/>\nEmail me \u2013 lordhardthrasher@gmail.com  <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HardThrasher Published 4 Oct 2025 The Bomber War continues \u2014 In this second part of our deep dive into RAF Bomber Command, we explore the WW2 strategic bombing campaign that raged from the Spring of 1943 to the Spring of 1944. This episode covers the Battle of the Ruhr, the Hamburg Firestorm, the raid on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1118,7,5,663,230],"tags":[145,878,572,1579,513,1447],"class_list":["post-98309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-germany","category-history","category-military","category-weapons","category-ww2","tag-airforce","tag-berlin","tag-leadership","tag-lordhardthrasher","tag-research","tag-strategicbombing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-pzD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98310,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98309\/revisions\/98310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}