A large port and industrial center that includied u-boat pens and oil refineries was bombed throughout the war. An air attack in July 1942 created one of the largest firestorms of WW II, killing 42,600 civilians, wounding 37,000 and practically destroying the city.
General Eisenhower and Allied Officer Shaking Hands
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces in the European Theater during World War II, is greeted by an unidentified officer. Eisenhower toured several Nazi Concentration Camps immediately after they were liberated in order to personally testify to the heinous Nazi war crimes.
German Rail Center Blasted By Allied Air Attacks, Heilbronh, Germany
Date:
ca. 1945
Description:
Information with the photograph, "A lone soldier of the 100th Infantry Division, Seventh U.S. Army, walks through the ruins of Heilbronn, Germany, cleared of the enemy April 12, 1945. Forty miles southeast of Mannheim and the Rhino, Heilbronn, an important road and rail center was blasted by Allied Planes. U.S. Signal Corps Photo."
Information included with the photograph,"Debris spilled from bombed buildings of Mainz fills a street of the ancient Rhine River city captured by troops of the 80th Division, Third u.S. Army, March 23, 1945. Mainz, birthplace of Johannes Gutemberg, credited with the development of printing in the 15th Century, was a strategic Nazi manufacturing center of machinery and chemicals."
U.S. Army troops pushed through German resistance in the Spring of 1945. Many towns such as this were bombed from the air and assualted by ground forces.
