"Operation ""Moonlight Sonata"" was a German air raid on which City in December 1940?"
"bomb successfully but was killed whilst dealing with another bomb the next day. Campbell was posthumously awarded a George Cross for his actions on 17 October 1940. One notable casualty of the October raids was Ernest Hugh Snell FRSE. The raid that began on the evening of 14 November 1940 was the most severe to hit Coventry during the war. It was carried out by 515 German bombers, from ""Luftflotte 3"" and from the pathfinders of ""Kampfgruppe 100"". The attack, code-named Operation ""Mondscheinsonate"" (""Moonlight Sonata""), was intended to destroy Coventry's factories and industrial infrastructure, although it was clear that damage"
"across the Channel. On 1 November II./KG 55 was involved in three operations in one night to Bristol, Oxford and Skegness. The following night I., II. and III./KG 55 took part in the offensive against London. On 6/7, 7/8, and 11/12 December London was the target for all three groups. On the latter date, Bournemouth and Exmouth were also hit by III./KG 55. On 12/13 December the ""Geschwader"" returned to the capital. Among the most destructive attacks was Operation ""Mondscheinsonate"" (Moonlight Sonata), which was the code word for the attack on Coventry on 14 November 1940. after ""KGr"" 100 released"
"Bombing of Mannheim in World War II The German city of Mannheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg saw bombing during World War II from December 1940 until the end of the war. Mannheim saw over 150 air raids. Mannheim was the subject of allied air activity from the earliest days of the war. Although these early flights had reconnaissance as their aim rather than air raids. As The Times of 13 November 1939 notes, quoting a British official communique - During the Battle of France, the Royal Air Force raided Mannheim as part of a night of raid attacking Nazi"
"Manchester Blitz The Manchester Blitz (also known as the Christmas Blitz) was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in North West England during the Second World War by the German ""Luftwaffe"". It was one of three major raids on Manchester, an important inland port and industrial city; Trafford Park in neighbouring Stretford was a major centre of war production. Air raids began in August 1940, and in September 1940 the Palace Theatre on Oxford Street was bombed. The heaviest raids occurred on the nights of 22/23 and 23/24 December 1940, killing an estimated 684"
"heavy raid on the city, and the most serious single incident, when a hit on an air-raid shelter in Durning Road caused 166 fatalities. Winston Churchill described it as the ""single worst incident of the war"". The air assault in 1940 came to a peak with the Christmas blitz, a three-night bombardment towards the end of December. A series of heavy raids took place in December 1940, referred to as the Christmas blitz, when 365 people were killed between 20 – 22 December. The raids saw several instances of direct hits on air raid shelters; on 20 December 42 people"
"of the war showed that the targets for the raids included the Atlas Steelworks, Brown Bayley Steelworks, Meadowhall Iron Works, River Don Works, Darnall Wagon Works, Tinsley Park Collieries, East Hecla Works and Orgreave Coke Ovens. The full moon was on 14 December 1940 and both blitz nights were cold and clear. The German code name for the operation was Schmelztiegel (""Crucible""). On the afternoon of 12 December British monitoring stations detected X Verfahren (sometimes called X-Gerät) radio beams being laid across northern England and calculated that the likely target of the coming raid would be Sheffield. The yellow alert"
"by the second group which bombed Hastings the night before. All three groups were involved in Operation ""Mondscheinsonate"" (Moonlight Sonata), which was the code word for the attack on Coventry on 14 November 1940. On 20/21 November III./KG 51 was involved in the Birmingham Blitz, when it bombed Castle Bromwich and West Bromwich. All three groups supported the Liverpool Blitz on 28/29 November and then bombed Brighton with I./KG 51 in the early hours. In December, the third group bombed Derby on 23/24 and was involved in several other raids, being substantially involved in the Manchester Blitz on 22/23 and"
"Operation Solstice Operation Solstice (), also known as ""Unternehmen Husarenritt"" or the Stargard tank battle, was one of the last German armoured offensive operations on the Eastern Front in World War II. It was originally planned as a major offensive but was executed as a limited attack, due to hasty planning by the Germans and it being partially compromised by Soviet military intelligence. Intended to relieve the city of Küstrin, ""Sonnenwende"" was launched on 15 February 1945 from Stargard, Pomerania. By 18 February, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front led by Georgy Zhukov had defeated the attack, prompting the Germans to"
"Operation Winter Storm Operation ""Winter Storm"" () was a German offensive in World War II in which the German 4th Panzer Army unsuccessfully attempted to break the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. In late November 1942, the Red Army completed Operation Uranus, encircling some 300,000 Axis personnel in and around the city of Stalingrad. German forces within the Stalingrad pocket and directly outside were reorganized under Army Group Don, under the command of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. Meanwhile, the Red Army continued to allocate as many resources as possible to the eventual"
"Operation Donnerschlag During World War II, the German military planned or undertook an operation named Donnerschlag (""Thunderclap"" in German). The December 1942 German Army plan called for a breakout from the besieged city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) by the German Sixth Army and there meet up with the relief Operation Wintergewitter. ""Donnerschlag"" was to be the code word for the commencement of ""Operation Wintergewitter"". The operation was downgraded and converted into a defensive stance after Hermann Göring's boast that the ""Luftwaffe"" would resupply the surrounded troops at Stalingrad. This effort eventually failed totally, and the Sixth Army, encircled by the"
"in Mannheim city centre on the night of 16–17 December. This was the first 'area raid', but photography after the raid showed that most of the 300 bombers had missed the target, and that Bomber Command lacked the means of carrying out precision raids. Even so, a bombing campaign offered the only hope of damaging the German economy, and directives at the end of 1940 stated two objectives: precision attack on German production of synthetic oil production, and an attack on German morale by targeting industrial sites in large cities. In December 1940 Roosevelt, having won an historic third term"
"Winter Storm (""Unternehmen Wintergewitter""), undertaken between 12–23 December 1942, was the German Fourth Panzer Army's attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad. In late November, the Red Army completed Operation Uranus, which resulted in the encirclement of Axis personnel in and around the city of Stalingrad. German forces within the Stalingrad Pocket and directly outside were reorganized under Army Group Don, under the command of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. As the Red Army continued to build strength, in an effort to allocate as many resources as possible to the eventual launch of the planned Operation"
"Coventry Blitz The Coventry Blitz (blitz: from the German word ""Blitzkrieg"" meaning ""lightning war"") was a series of bombing raids that took place on the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force (""Luftwaffe""). The most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940 and continued into the morning of 15 November. At the start of the Second World War, Coventry was an industrial city of around 238,000 people which, like much of the industrial West Midlands, contained metal and wood–working industries. In Coventry's"
"Bombing of Königsberg in World War II 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. In 1941, acting mainly in retaliation for the German bombing of Moscow, Joseph Stalin personally ordered the Soviet Air Force to bomb"
"place on 12 May 1940. The attack on Cologne was the first 1,000 bomber raid on 30/31 May 1942. The first ever 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF was conducted on Cologne on the night of 30/31 May 1942. Codenamed Operation Millennium, the massive raid was launched for two primary reasons: At this stage of the war Bomber Command only had a regular front line strength of around 400 aircraft, and were in the process of transitioning from the twin engined medium bombers of the pre-war years to the newer more effective four-engined heavy bombers such as the Handley Page"
"Since 1996, the Ultra decrypts for the relevant period have been available in the UK National Archives. Between 07:35 GMT on 10 November 1940 and 05:00 on 11 November a German signal was deciphered and given the serial number CX/JQ/444, paragraph 4. The message set out code words to be used by aircraft on an operation named ""Mondschein Sonate"" but did not give Coventry as the target or a date. It said that transmission of a figure 9 would denote ""KORN"", and hindsight has recognised that to be the code name for Coventry. This was not realised at the time"
"Manfred Speck von Sternberg. Hans-Henning von Beust replaced him formally on 31 October. KG 27 flew throughout the Blitz, with all three groups operating. A full list of the targets, dates, and groups involved is known. KG 27 supported the attacks on major industrial cities: the Plymouth Blitz, Southampton Blitz, Cardiff Blitz, Manchester Blitz, Liverpool Blitz, Coventry Blitz, Birmingham Blitz, Sheffield Blitz, Portsmouth Blitz, Plymouth Blitz, Glasgow Blitz, Manchester Blitz, Bristol Blitz, Hull Blitz, Glasgow Blitz and Belfast Blitz. Specific operations were also carried out. All three groups were involved in Operation ""Mondscheinsonate"" (Moonlight Sonata), which was the code word"
"in and around the city. Its value as a military target was and still is questioned due to the city's apparent lack of industrial potential in its centres and the late stage of the war. Soon afterwards, Allied forces conducted Operation Clarion. The operation sent thousands of bombers and fighters by day and night to target smaller cities and targets of opportunity. Attacks on other targets took place in March–April 1945, while desperate measures by the Luftwaffe with units like the ""Sonderkommando Elbe"" aerial ramming unit and the debut of the Heinkel He 162 ""Spatz"" light jet fighter by JG"
"Operation Nordlicht (1942) Operation Nordlicht (""Northern Light"") was devised by the German high command, the ""Oberkommando des Heeres"" (""High Command of the Army"") after a year-long battle for Leningrad when Adolf Hitler ordered a final assault on the besieged city. The main objective of the operation was to capture Leningrad using forces of Army Group North under Field Marshal Georg von Küchler, and thereby bring an end to the siege and free up hundreds of thousands of troops. Meanwhile, the Germans were also preparing for the Battle of Stalingrad. Both attacks on Leningrad in the North and on Stalingrad in"
"Red Army as a result of Operation Uranus, surrendered in early February 1943. Operation Donnerschlag During World War II, the German military planned or undertook an operation named Donnerschlag (""Thunderclap"" in German). The December 1942 German Army plan called for a breakout from the besieged city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) by the German Sixth Army and there meet up with the relief Operation Wintergewitter. ""Donnerschlag"" was to be the code word for the commencement of ""Operation Wintergewitter"". The operation was downgraded and converted into a defensive stance after Hermann Göring's boast that the ""Luftwaffe"" would resupply the surrounded troops at"
"has not found any evidence that it was bombed. Bristol Blitz The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol, England by the Nazi German ""Luftwaffe"" during the Second World War. Due to the presence of Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company the city was a target for bombing, and was easily found as enemy bombers were able to trace a course up the River Avon from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the waters into the heart of the city. Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II. Between 24 November 1940 and 11"
"The Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing offensive against Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and is the German word for 'lightning'. The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a battle for daylight air superiority between the ""Luftwaffe"" and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the ""Luftwaffe"" had failed and the German air fleets (""Luftflotten"") were ordered to attack London, to"
"heart of London again proved dangerous during World War II at the height of the ""Blitz"". On Sunday evening, December 29, 1940, the German ""Luftwaffe"" mounted a massive air raid, dropping 20,000 incendiary bombs on London. ""Luftwaffe"" command planned the raid to coincide with low tide to impede fire fighting. It worked. The shortage of water and the scale of the attack forced firemen to let parts of the city burn. At 6:45 pm, St. Mary's suffered a direct hit by an incendiary bomb, quickly setting the church ablaze. Noel Mander, a young fire warden, later recorded his observations: ""We"
"Bristol Blitz The Bristol Blitz was the heavy bombing of Bristol, England by the Nazi German ""Luftwaffe"" during the Second World War. Due to the presence of Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company the city was a target for bombing, and was easily found as enemy bombers were able to trace a course up the River Avon from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the waters into the heart of the city. Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II. Between 24 November 1940 and 11 April 1941 there were six major bombing raids. In"
"bombing on 28 March 1942 was the first major success for RAF Bomber Command against a German city, and followed the Area Bombing Directive issued to the RAF on 14 February 1942 which authorised the targeting of civilian areas. Lübeck, a Hanseatic city and cultural centre on the shores of the Baltic Sea, was easy to find under the light of the full moon on the Saturday night of 28 March 1942 and the early hours of 29 March (Palm Sunday). Because of the hoar frost there was clear visibility and the waters of the Trave, the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, ""Wakenitz"""
"some Royal Air Force members that day-time air raids on the city were suicidal, substantial damage to the city's industrial capacity still occurred, such as the 25 August bombing of the Daimler AG plant in 1940 that killed five people. With the war increasingly turning against the Third Reich, more and more troops were pulled from the defense of the city in 1943 to fight on the Eastern Front. In 1944, the city centre was entirely in ruins due to British and American bombers that could now more easily attack the city. The heaviest raid took place on 12 September"
"Moonsund Landing Operation The Moonsund Landing Operation (; ), also known as the Moonzund landing operation, was an amphibious operation and offensive by the Red Army during World War II, taking place in late 1944. It was part of the Baltic Offensive, and was designed to clear German forces of Army Group North from the islands in East Baltic Sea, the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago). The attacking forces were from the 8th Army of the Leningrad Front. The Estonian islands were occupied largely by units of the German 23rd Infantry Division, which had been split across the three islands"
"Birmingham. It was KG 1's first operation in the Birmingham Blitz. The following night, 9/10 November, KG 1 flew two operations, both in full strength, against London. In the early hours of the 12 November I./KG 1 carried out five operations, the only group of KG 1 to do so. It bombed Brighton, London, Worthing, Dover and Horsham. III./KG 1 did the same on 13 November, against Woodford in Gloucester and Newton Heath. On 14/15 November KG 1 flew in full strength in a highly effective attack on Coventry, codenamed Operation ""Mondscheinsonate"" (Moonlight Sonata). I ""Gruppe"" flew three further operations:"
"German bombing of Rotterdam The German bombing of Rotterdam, also known as the Rotterdam Blitz, was the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the ""Luftwaffe"" on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch to surrender. Even though preceding negotiations resulted in a ceasefire, the bombardment took place nonetheless, in conditions which remain controversial, and destroyed almost the entire historic city centre, killing nearly 900 people and making 85,000 others homeless. The psychological and physical success"
"ÖLAG (Austrian Aviation AG). In one of the earlier incidents Luft Hansa, which flew the London-Brussels-Frankfurt-Munich-Vienna route with Sabena, made a forced landing in Salzburg. 1939 saw the introduction of the Berlin-Prague-Salzburg-Venice and Munich-Salzburg-Klagenfurt-Ljubljana-Rijeka routes which were planned for the summer schedule. At the start of World War II, on 1 September 1939, Salzburg Airport was seized and in 1943 the ""Luftgaukommando VII"" in Munich was put in charge of it. In the autumn of 1944 the newly developed fighter jet Messerschmitt Me 262 appeared. When the United States Air Force first bombed the city of Salzburg on 16 October"
"was the ultimate goal of the Red Army for Operation Saturn. In December 1942, plans for Operation Saturn had to be altered. The German Operation Wintergewitter, led by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Army Group Don, made an attack on the Stalingrad Front in an effort to relieve the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. Thus, Operation Saturn was changed to Operation Little Saturn, which was to be a counter-attack that would be launched as soon as Operation Wintergewitter ended. The German forces, spearheaded by Army Group Hoth, made rapid initial advances but was stalled at the Myshkova River. Colonel-General Hermann Hoth's"
"retaliated by mounting a forty aircraft raid on Berlin, with a second attack three days later. The Luftwaffe changed its strategy from attacking shipping and airfields to attacking cities. The City and West End were designated 'Target Area B'; the East End and docks were 'Target Area A'. The first raid occurred at 4:30 p.m. on 7 September and consisted of 150 Dornier and Heinkel bombers and large numbers of fighters. This was followed by a second wave of 170 bombers. Silvertown and Canning Town bore the brunt of this first attack. Between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941,"
"Bombing of Freiburg on 10 May 1940 The German city of Freiburg was bombed erroneously on 10 May 1940 by the ""Luftwaffe"", killing 57 inhabitants. The ""kette"" (three aircraft) involved, commanded by Leutnant Paul Seidel, were from ""8. Staffel"", ""Kampfgeschwader 51"" ""Edelweiss"" (8./KG51) operating the Heinkel He 111 medium bomber. They had taken off at 14:27 from Landsberg-Lech Air Base, to bomb the French city of Dijon, or the alternative target Dole–Jura Airport, as part of the Battle of France. However, due to navigation errors they lost orientation and never arrived there. Although they were not able to determine their"