What resulted in a series of raids appositely titled Operation Gomorrah was the single largest loss of civilian life in one city throughout the whole European war, exceeded only by the 250,000 Japanese killed in the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The destruction of Hamburg in an uncontrollable firestorm on the night of July 27–28, 1943, is often presented as if it were an accident, the result of exceptional meteorological conditions and the failure of German defenses, and not a product of deliberate intention. This is to misunderstand entirely the
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