🇬🇧 "Target tonight: Berlin!" Hundreds of bombers. Hours over enemy territory. And no guarantee of coming home. During World War II, RAF Bomber Command repeatedly sent its heavy bombers against the German capital. The offensive reached its greatest intensity in 1943–44, with Lancasters and Halifaxes forming the backbone of the attacking force. Across 19 major raids between August 1943 and March 1944, the RAF Museum records 10,813 sorties, an average of roughly 570 aircraft dispatched per raid. About 9,560 reached the target area. The bomb load totaled 33,390 tons, including at least five million incendiaries. Ahead of the main force, specialist Pathfinder crews marked aiming points with colored target indicators. Radar helped them locate the city through darkness and cloud, but finding and marking the right spot remained difficult. Errors could scatter bombing across wide areas. On November 22–23, 1943, a force of 764 aircraft was dispatched. Around 2,300 tons of bombs fell in just 30 minutes. An estimated 2,000 people were killed and 175,000 left homeless. High explosives shattered buildings. Incendiaries started fires among the wreckage. Below, civilians crowded into shelters while firefighters struggled through blocked streets. Above them, bomber crews faced searchlights, antiaircraft fire, German night fighters, and exhausting winter flights. For the broader August–March offensive, the RAF Museum lists 625 aircraft lost, 2,960 aircrew lost, and another 987 taken prisoner. It records 10,305 deaths among civilians and military personnel on the ground. Yet the destruction did not deliver the surrender Bomber Command had hoped for. Follow @Vanguard_WW2 for the history behind the wartime footage. CGI: Piotr Forkasiewicz.