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Pardon my ignorance, but how involved was Munich in the entire WWII conflict? It was not too close to the front (especially to the west) and the closest borderi

Pardon my ignorance, but how involved was Munich in the entire WWII conflict? It was not too close to the front (especially to the west) and the closest bordering nations were allies.

excuse-me 14y ago
In terms of being a target - less so than the industrial cities of North-West Germany. It's a lot further away, so more dangerous to mount a raid and you can put a smaller payload on target, but it's still an important enemy city as well as a communications hub. On the ground it got off relatively lightly - by the time it was reached the war was pretty much won and it was essentially surrendered without a fight.
icegreentea 14y ago
Munich was targeted by many air raids throughout the war. This was the era were an air raid was hundreds of bombers dropping thousands of bombs. In the start, there would have been an attempt at 'precision'. Initial allied air raids nominally targeted factories and other industrial chokepoints. Turns out their accuracy was so low that at some point they just switched over to bombing the city in general. Also, towards the end of the war, the western and eastern "fronts" basically swept through all of Germany. Munich was attacked by American forces near the end of the air (they also liberated the near by concentration camp while they were at it). Fighting was not as fierce as other urban battles.
mhd 14y ago
74 air raids, 60k bombs plus a few million incendiary devices, about 90% of the city center destroyed. There was lots of industry (BMW, Dornier) in Munich, a few important airports and it was the Capital of the Movement, i.e. the place where the whole Nazi BS started[1]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch
demallien 14y ago
Munich is the home of BMW, and a major industrial centre of the southern part of Germany. As such it was a desirable target for the Allied war effort. According to Wikipedia, 42% of the city was destroyed during the bombing campaign: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#The_Battle_of_Britain_and_the_Blitz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_...

Pardon my ignorance, but how involved was Munich in the entire WWII conflict? It was not too close to the front (especially to the west) and the closest bordering nations were allies.

excuse-me 14y ago

In terms of being a target - less so than the industrial cities of North-West Germany. It's a lot further away, so more dangerous to mount a raid and you can put a smaller payload on target, but it's still an important enemy city as well as a communications hub. On the ground it got off relatively lightly - by the time it was reached the war was pretty much won and it was essentially surrendered without a fight.

icegreentea 14y ago

Munich was targeted by many air raids throughout the war. This was the era were an air raid was hundreds of bombers dropping thousands of bombs. In the start, there would have been an attempt at 'precision'. Initial allied air raids nominally targeted factories and other industrial chokepoints. Turns out their accuracy was so low that at some point they just switched over to bombing the city in general. Also, towards the end of the war, the western and eastern "fronts" basically swept through all of Germany. Munich was attacked by American forces near the end of the air (they also liberated the near by concentration camp while they were at it). Fighting was not as fierce as other urban battles.

mhd 14y ago

74 air raids, 60k bombs plus a few million incendiary devices, about 90% of the city center destroyed. There was lots of industry (BMW, Dornier) in Munich, a few important airports and it was the Capital of the Movement, i.e. the place where the whole Nazi BS started[1]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch

demallien 14y ago

Munich is the home of BMW, and a major industrial centre of the southern part of Germany. As such it was a desirable target for the Allied war effort. According to Wikipedia, 42% of the city was destroyed during the bombing campaign: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#The_Battle_of_Britain_and_the_Blitz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_...