What Happened in History: Browse Historical Facts on Kudos 365

Operation Gomorrah begins. 791 British bombers took off under cover of darkness toward Hamburg, Germany. The air fleet was composed of British Lancaster, Stirling, Wellington, and Halifax bombers flying in six waves. Each wave had between 100 to 120 aircraft hoping to concentrate as much destruction as possible. The operation lasted for eight days, until August 1, 1943,. The operation included both nighttime raids by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and daytime raids by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) resulting in 46,000 civilian deaths, one of the worst civilian disasters of World War II.  More