World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF EUROPE: How Much Is Enough?

Berlin, Munich, Nürnberg, Stuttgart, Essen—everywhere the wings of the R.A.F. shadowed the moon and destruction followed for the Herrenvolk below.

Essen, city of some 700,000 people, which turned out precise and coldly beautiful machinery of war, was gasping with a thousand wounds. A single lightning raid, the R.A.F. reported, had razed the entire center of the city early last week, wrecked 75% of the giant Krupp arms factories (TIME, March 15). More than 450 acres of buildings, plants, machinery and human dwellings were in ruins. A week later the bombers came again,...