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The Nuremberg Raid (Paperback)

30–31 March 1944

Aviation > WWII WWII

By Martin Middlebrook
Imprint: Pen & Sword Aviation
Pages: 384
Illustrations: 32 black and white
ISBN: 9781526774903
Published: 6th April 2020
Last Released: 14th October 2021

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Star review!

 

'On a clear, moonlit night in 1944, RAF Bomber Command launched a “maximum effort” raid on the German city of Nuremberg. It was a disaster. German night fighters got into the bomber stream early on, and the bombers suffered the highest losses of the war while the intended target was barely damaged. Using firsthand accounts, Mr. Middlebrook follows the planning, preparation and execution of the operation in meticulous detail, but he does more than that: Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.'

– Simon Mawer, Wall Street Journal

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This book describes one twenty-four-hour period in the Allied Strategic Bomber Offensive in the greatest possible detail. The author sets the scene by outlining the course of the bombing war from 1939 to the night of the Nuremberg raid, the characters and aims of the British bombing leaders and the composition of the opposing Bomber Command and German night fighter forces.

The aim of the Nuremberg raid was not unlike many hundreds of other RAF missions but, due to the difficulties and dangers of the enemy defences and weather plus bad luck, it went horribly wrong. The result was so notorious that it became a turning point in the campaign. The target, the symbolic Nazi rally city of Nuremberg, was only lightly damaged and 96 out of 779 bombers went missing.

Middlebrook recreates the events of the fateful night in astonishing detail. The result is a meticulous dramatic and often controversial account. It is also a moving tribute to the bravery of the RAF bomber crews and their adversaries.

"Middlebrook’s book is just as exceptional today as it was when first released. His writing style is smooth and his research and citation impeccable."

Air Power History

An outstanding book by an outstanding author.

This book goes into great detail about the ill fated daylight raid by the RAF. It is packed full of descriptive accounts which puts you in the Lancaster as part of the crew.

This author never fails to delivery and that is why this is worthy of the 5 stars.

Read the full review here

Richard Domoney-Saunders

On a clear, moonlit night in 1944, RAF Bomber Command launched a “maximum effort” raid on the German city of Nuremberg. It was a disaster. German night fighters got into the bomber stream early on, and the bombers suffered the highest losses of the war while the intended target was barely damaged. Using firsthand accounts, Mr. Middlebrook follows the planning, preparation and execution of the operation in meticulous detail, but he does more than that: Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.

Wall Street Journal

On a clear, moonlit night in 1944, RAF Bomber Command launched a “maximum effort” raid on the German city of Nuremberg. It was a disaster. German night fighters got into the bomber stream early on, and the bombers suffered the highest losses of the war while the intended target was barely damaged. Using firsthand accounts, Mr. Middlebrook follows the planning, preparation and execution of the operation in meticulous detail, but he does more than that: Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.

Simon Mawer, Wall Street Journal

This air operation was to finish over a half a year prolonged battle between RAF Bomber Command and Luftwaffe. As the whole air battle of Berlin 1943-1944 was the bloodiest part of British strategic bomber offensive in the years of World War II, the Nuremberg raid became the costliest of it – more than one hundred airplanes were shot down or written off, more than seven hundred aviators were killed or captured. Perhaps, it's symbolical that the only Victoria Cross of air battle of Berlin was won in this raid, and it was awarded posthumously.
Martin Middlebrook – one of the most known modern military historians – in his usual detailed manner, by thorough study of an eye-witnesses accounts (from both Allied and German sides) and meticulously analyzed archive sources, restored a full picture of the drama which took part in the war-thorn sky of Europe on the night of 30/31 March, 1944. The derived result shows: even though every sortie against the targets in the Third Reich was a drama itself, mistakes in planning on the Nuremberg raid made by Bomber Command HQ staff, unfavorable weather and actions of German night fighters turn this drama into tragedy

Mykhaylo Akimov

About Martin Middlebrook

Martin Middlebrook has written many other books that deal with important turning-points in the two world wars, including The First Day on the Somme, Kaisers Battle, The Peenemnde Raid, The Somme Battlefields (with Mary Middlebrook), The Nuremberg Raid 30-21st March 1944 and Arnhem 1944 (all republished and in print with Pen and Sword).
Martin Middlebrook is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and lives in Lincolnshire.

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