During World War II, a massive air raid by the Allied Royal Air Force on October 15, 1944, destroyed most of the churches in the city of Braunschweig and the Altstadt (Old Town), the largest homogenous cluster of wooden houses in Germany. After that raid, an elderly German woman looked over the bodies of many murdered children outside a school. About 847 tons of bombs were dropped on the city of Braunschweig. About 12,000 explosive bombs bombed the center of the old wooden town, destroying wooden houses and spreading random fires in the most efficient way. The blasts blew off the roofs of the houses, exposing their interiors, blowing out window panes, destroying internal structures, breaking down walls, tearing out electricity and water, and forcing firefighters and rescue workers into basements and bunkers with the victims. After the explosive bombs, some 200,000 phosphorus and incendiary bombs were dropped. The exact number of casualties from the October 15 attack is unknown, with an estimated death toll of between 484 and 640.
The exact number of victims of the October 15 attack is unknown, but it was estimated to be between 484 and 640. After World War II, Braunschweig became part of the state of Lower Saxony after the British occupation. Braunschweig was not only an important center for the arms industry, but also, and especially, houses, which were largely destroyed and rendered uninhabitable and useless. October 15 was the 24-hour terrorist attack of the Allied hurricane campaign (October 14-15), which showed overwhelming superiority and caused massive panic.
The Luftwaffe's bombing of the German mainland was completely converted to night bombing in 941 in the face of heavy losses and poor results from daylight bombing before 1940, giving the Luftwaffe the upper hand in the Battle of Britain in 1940, and gradually reducing the Luftwaffe's strength with cumulative losses. From 1942 onward, with the participation of the U.S. Air Force, the bombing of cities became more and more intense, with the ultimate goal of demoralizing the German people. On February 14, 1942, a number of German cities were designated as bombing targets, and nighttime carpet bombing by large formations began in earnest, especially in order to reduce the will to fight by intensively bombing the urban centers.
