1,000 British bombers attack Cologne 70 years ago this hour (1942)


Video: Cologne bombed (at 12:06)

(Sunday, May 31, 1942, 12:47 a.m. local time, during World War II) — Three-fourths of Cologne, Germany, was set afire and a great area of the German Rhineland metropolis of 756,000 population was flattened early this morning by tremendous weights of explosives delivered by 1,047 Royal Air Force (RAF) planes tonight in the greatest raid in all aerial warfare to date.

The total tonnage of bombs dropped was 1,455 tons with two-thirds of that being incendiaries.


Video: Cologne bombed (continued)