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The bombing of Königsberg was a series of attacks made on the city of Königsberg in East Prussia during World War II. The Soviet Air Force had made several raids on the city since 1941. Extensive attacks carried by RAF Bomber Command destroyed most of the city's historic quarters in the summer of 1944. Königsberg was also heavily bombed during the Battle of Königsberg, in the final weeks of the war. ==Allied bombing== In 1941, acting mainly in retaliation for the German bombing of Moscow, Joseph Stalin personally ordered the Soviet Air Force to bomb Königsberg. Eleven Pe-8 bombers attacked the city on 1 September 1941. The Soviets did not lose a single bomber in the raid.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Soviet bombing raids )〕 The Soviet Air Force bombed the city again on several occasions, for example on 26 July 1942,〔(Soviets bomb Prussia ) by Eddie Gilmore, Associated Press, 27 July 1942〕 27 August 1942〔Gibson, Guy and Martin, Harold (2006). ''Enemy Coast Ahead - Uncensored: The Real Guy Gibson''. MBI Publishing Company, p. 186. ISBN 0859791181〕 or 15 July 1943.〔(Russians bomb Nazi Airdrome ) by Eddie Gilmore, Associated Press, 16 July 1943,〕 On the night of 28 April 1943, a bomber dropped an 11,000 pounder on the city's area, the largest bomb in the Soviet inventory.〔Boog, Horst, Krebs, Gerhart and Vogel, Detlef (2006).''Germany and the Second World War: The strategic air war in Europe and the war in the West and East Asia 1943-1944''. Oxford University Press, p. 157. ISBN 0198228899〕 No. 5 Group carried out the first RAF attack on Königsberg on the night of 26/27 August 1944, using 174 Avro Lancasters. The target, which was at the extreme range for the planes, demanded a round trip of from bases in England. Planes from RAF Skellingthorpe (Lincs) could not return to base and diverted to RAF Tain in northern Scotland after 10:35 hours flying time (cf 11:20 return to base three days later.〔Flying Log Book of Lloyd Phillips, Wireless Operator, VN-Nan, 50 SQDN〕) Despite losing only four aircraft, the first attack was not particularly successful because most bombs fell on the eastern side of Königsberg, missing the city centre. The next RAF raid occurred three days later on the 29/30 August. This time No. 5 Group dropped 480 tons of high explosive and incendiaries on the centre of the city. RAF Bomber Command estimated that 20% of industry and 41% of all the housing in Königsberg was destroyed. Out of a force of 189 Lancasters, German night fighters shot down 15 RAF bombers.〔(RAF Bomber Command: Campaign Diary. August 1944 )〕 The historic city centre suffered severe damage and the districts of Altstadt, Löbenicht, and Kneiphof were nearly destroyed. The city's 14th-century cathedral was reduced to a shell. Extensive damage was also done to the castle, all churches in the old city, the university, and the old shipping quarter. German-Jewish author and musician Michael Wieck, a native of Königsberg, wrote in ''A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin'' that "the people of Königsberg shall never expunge these nights of terror from their memory". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bombing of Königsberg in World War II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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