The map above shows every bomb dropped by the British and Americans during World War 2, along with a limited amount of bombs dropped by the Australians, South Africans, and New Zealanders.
The data comes from the US Military’s Theater History of Operations (THOR) Data set for World War 2:
This dataset combines digitized paper mission reports from WWII. It can be searched by date, conflict, geographic location and more than 60 other data elements to form a live-action sequence of the air war from 1939 to 1945. The records include U.S. and Royal Air Force data, as well as some Australian, New Zealand and South African air force missions.
A few additional facts:
- Between 1939 and 1945, Allied planes dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs on Axis powers.
- Between 305,000 and 600,000 German and 330,000 and 500,000 Japanese civilians were killed by Allied bombs during the war.
- On the other hand, 60,595 British, 67,078 French and over 500,000 Soviet civilians were killed by Axis bombing.
To learn more strategic bombing during World War 2 have a look at the following books:
- To Destroy A City: Strategic Bombing And Its Human Consequences In World War 2
- The Firebombing of Tokyo: The History of the U.S. Air Force’s Most Controversial Bombing Campaign of World War II
- Bomber Command
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Josemjkno says
Thank you for this reminder that the “goodies” were the most cruel and remorseless of the two camps. As they still are nowadays….
A larger map would add more impact.
Korakys says
Didn’t the Germans execute or starve 11 million civilian “undesirables”, does that not count?
god says
If that was true, then by that logic Russia should be bombed back to stone age.
Check says
Probably not
EastCheamBridge says
Yeah, the Americans, Russians and Brits should have just sat by and let Auschwitz and Nanjing happen time and again.
Kogaion Kogg says
ya…..but seriously…….coz .they lost!….so they (you) were losers!…..because they lost the gaddamm war!………u see ???……and they shouldve stayed put until scelerate delano produced the gaddamm nuke, which he shouldve produced from ’36 to ’40…..since he got warned!……and not keep it for his own assssss!……..ya!….instead….after tolerating hitler, u subventioned stalin, the other dictator!……..for what ???….for ur own arogance!….u did ww12 for your reputation of global criminals in the face of all gibbons that u killed!……so ya…..u sholdve stayed fknggggh puttt!!!…….like that…..yur way…..at 10 years after, almost whole world got drenched in utopies!….coz of fkinghhh u!!!……..u stolen the bomb and ran with it!….just like brexit!….but ya kno how they say…..hell u give, hell u receive!…..or…..my hell is ur hell biatch!……u be sure of that……..god doesnt judge u after ur shiny fake…….
guinspen says
Thanks for the input, Adolph.
Say, what’s the weather like in Argentina this time of year?
AE Devereux says
80 years… and you can’t even get a name right. smh
Is all your “knowledge” of WWII this precise ?
K.S. says
What happened in the North Kazachstan during the autumn of 1944?
BARRY STEVENS says
It’s worth mentioning that about 55% of RAF Bomber Command crews lost their lives. Also — the Royal Canadian Air Force was part of this furious effort to destroy the Axis. I wonder why they are not included.
Erik Fossen says
Your map seems incomplete. It is missing the British attempt at bombing a German submarine bunker in Bergen, Norway on October 4, 1944, leading to 193 civilian deaths.
Bob says
Great
Alan says
War is war. You either fight and live or succumb and all you know is forever obliterated. Never mind the fact that Germany bombed London 56 out of 57 days before that ended. Or you just just sit on your thumbs and wait to be exterminated either by cruel means or Germany building better rockets. When war starts you are at the mercy of the raiding armies. During WWI and WWII 100 million people died because of it. Czechoslovakia for instance had 25,000 military deaths but a total of 325,000 killed. More then 90% (of total deaths)civilians outright mowed down or tortured to death. You either stop the onslaught or you no longer exist. The last to bomb the enemies into submission are the winners, period. No matter how anyone feels about bombing or atrocities it is history and never changes. Hopefully humans can learn from the past but since wars has been going on almost since the Dawn Of Man what do you think they will do in the future? You either protect what you have or someone else will gladly take it from you………
Charles Bewlay says
It would help if the maps could have a pause/slow down button as it is difficult to move the eye from the map to the dates. Also, where is the data available – I mean, was a place in West Africa really bombed in about Jan 1942, for example? There were no enemy troops of the Allies there.
Gotdon Dudgeon says
1942, Battle of Dakar.
Jay Chapel says
The interactive maps don’t do a very good job showing the millions of civilians who were shot or thrown into ovens by the Germans or, for example, what happened to the Chinese women when Japan occupied Nanking, or the numbers of occupied territories in the Far East that saw the decimation of populations by Japan. Two nations walked away from any semblance of civilized behavior. The idea of wondering why such bombings took place is naive to the point of delusional. 70 million people died in that war, over 40 million were civilians. List the number of civilians that were killed by the Axis powers and then compare that to civilians killed in bombing raids. How many civilians were being burned at the end of the war before Germany finally abandoned the death camps? Why did the Dutch East Indies have over 4 million civilian deaths? Germany and Japan used their civilians to power their war efforts. They started the war. They paid the price. I am sorry the war happened. I am not sorry those countries were bombed.
Rob says
Would love to see axis raids and soviet attacks ploted on this graph too. Both to compare the geographic reach and overall scale of western allies, soviet allies and axis powers bombing raids. Given how we never hear mch about their air-force I’d be interested to know if the soviets dropepd many. Plus some cumulative totals giving a background colour on areas as well as as the bright dots for monthly counts, so we can see where the raids stacked up over the course of the war.
Sheldon Maerz says
This is simply so much bullshit – and if the data comes from the THOR, it is even more bullshit, as it does not include anything about the RCAF – once again, Americans with their heads up their asses. By the way, No 6 Bomber Group was RCAF and many more Canadians flew on multi-national crews and with the RAF.
joseph gatt says
The 67,078, (or 68,778) French civilians killed by aerial bombings were actually victims of ALLIED bombardments of French cities, 15-20,000 on D-Day alone!!
seth betta says
if you had to guess how many bombs do you think were dropped during World War 2