The British American Air Museum has just created an animated infographic in which you can see the evolution of the allied bombings in western Europe during the Second World War .
Each point where bombs were dropped is highlighted, indicating the date, campaign and total tons. The blue dots correspond to British bombings, while the red ones correspond to those carried out by the United States.
It is the first time that the Allies' strategic bombing campaigns against the Nazis have been represented in such a graphic.
In the first years of the war the bombings were limited to the areas closest to Great Britain, France and the Netherlands. However, with the entry of the United States into the war in December 1941, the radius widened considerably, as well as the intensity and the number of tons used, and the raids on Germany began. You can see in the animation the pause that occurred in 1944, while the landing in Normandy was being prepared, and its subsequent resumption on German territory.
More than 80 percent of the raids took place in the last 18 months of the war, following the liberation of Paris and the subsequent drive into Germany.
One of the moments in which the bombing intensifies is that corresponding to D-day, the invasion of Europe in Operation Overlord, in support of the troops landed on the beaches of Normandy.
The bombing campaign greatly aided the Allied victory, not without leaving hundreds of thousands of civilian dead, largely due to inaccurate strategic bombing.
The infographic, which can only be seen in person visits to the museum, not online, has been collected on video by the Daily Mail.
Official Site:American Air Museum