Bombing of Hamburg in World War II

"Operation Gomorrah" was the military code name for a series of air raids conducted by the British air force on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. It was the hitherto heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare.

In the night of July 27/28, the bombings culminated in the spawning of the so-called "Feuersturm" (firestorm), which burned out some eight square miles of the city, causing 45,000 deaths and leaving one million people homeless.