--- title: World War II Military History: Bombing of Berlin Begins Feb. 3 1945 description: The Allied bombing mission began on Feb. 3, 1945 canonical: https://time.com/3684336/bombing-of-berlin-1945/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T12:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:00.464Z article:section: History og:title: World War II Military History: Bombing of Berlin Begins Feb. 3 1945 og:description: The Allied bombing mission began on Feb. 3, 1945 og:url: https://time.com/3684336/bombing-of-berlin-1945/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1cdd9489be17369e/69877c37f887dc4399e89c78/berlin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: berlin map 1945 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World War II Military History: Bombing of Berlin Begins Feb. 3 1945 twitter:description: The Allied bombing mission began on Feb. 3, 1945 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1cdd9489be17369e/69877c37f887dc4399e89c78/berlin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See This Map of the 1945 Bombing of Berlin > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 3, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  From the Feb. 12, 1945, issue of TIME From the Feb. 12, 1945, issue of TIME TIME  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 3, 2015 12:00 PM UTC As World War II began to draw to a close in Europe, the Feb. 12, 1945, issue of TIME [reported](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,852173,00.html) that, “Through the smoke of fires set by R.A.F. and U.S. bombers, overcrowded Berlin could see the lightning and hear the thunder of Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov’s First White Russian Army guns.” On Feb. 3 — 70 years ago Tuesday — the bombing of Berlin had started. Throughout that month, the air raids, [hundreds of them in total](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/bombing/), would continue. But, as TIME [reported](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,852130,00.html) in the same issue, from which the map above is drawn, the stronghold of the Nazis was not yet prepared to surrender: --- > “” --- **_Read the rest of the story here, in the TIME Vault:_** [The Man Who Can’t Surrender](http://time.com/vault/issue/1945-02-12/page/24/) ### 'The Battered Face of Germany': Ruins of the Reich, Pictured From the Air  Caption from LIFE. Gas storage tanks of I.G. Farbenindustrie at Ludwigshaven, one of largest synthetic plants in Europe, wrecked by RAF and U.S. 8th Air Force. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Jülich is a small German frontier town (pop. 8,500) 15 miles northeast of Aachen, 25 miles west of Cologne. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mainz, not far from Frankfurt, Germany, after Allied bombing, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![The picture above shows the center of the Krupp Compound \[Essen\], with wrecked steel mills \(foreground\) and blasted gas tanks \(right background\).](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfef1f62d8db04e8c/69877765524fc0025cdeba5b/140507-germany-aerials-wwii-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. The picture above shows the center of the Krupp Compound \[Essen\], with wrecked steel mills (foreground) and blasted gas tanks (right background). Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![Nurnberg \[Nuremberg\], second largest city in Bavaria, was famous for its Gothic churches. One of them, St. Sebaldus, can be seen here.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9a4fe572830f792/698777652dce0148c99dcaf8/140507-germany-aerials-wwii-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. Nurnberg \[Nuremberg\], second largest city in Bavaria, was famous for its Gothic churches. One of them, St. Sebaldus, can be seen here. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. On June 2, 1945, RAF night raid of tremendous proportions wrecked key objectives in the center of the city (Nuremberg), leaving skeletal walls and leveled areas pictured. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![Just before the Normandy invasion last year the Reich's transport system became the No. 1 target for all bombers, day and night. One of the largest railroad marshaling yards in Germany was at Nurnberg \[Nuremberg\].](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b2268975780652/69877766e20a8754d6a843fa/140507-germany-aerials-wwii-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. Just before the Normandy invasion last year the Reich's transport system became the No. 1 target for all bombers, day and night. One of the largest railroad marshaling yards in Germany was at Nurnberg \[Nuremberg\]. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of sunken ship and bombed-out shipbuilding installation after Allied air attack on Germany's chief naval base at Kiel, near Baltic harbor. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of bomb-damaged buildings in Mainz, Germany, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Destruction by Allied air attacks, Germany, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of bomb-damaged buildings after an Allied air attack on Nuremberg, Germany, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of a bomb-damaged churches among the buildings in the center of Worms, Germany, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of bomb-damaged churches in the center of Wurzburg, northern Bavaria, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of bomb craters in the residential section of Nuremberg, Germany, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of the bomb-damaged Krupp works in Essen, 1945. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aerial view of bomb-damaged residential areas, Essen, Germany, 1945. 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