page_title: Bombing of Stuttgart in World War II
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Bombing of Stuttgart in World War II / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Skizze zur Zerstörung in der Stuttgarter Innenstadt, von Baudirektor Walter Kittel. Genaues Erstellungsdatum nicht bekannt.
context_page_description: The bombing of Stuttgart in World War II was a series of 53 air raids that formed part of the strategic air offensive of the Allies against Germany. The first bombing occurred on August 25, 1940, and resulted in the destruction of 17 buildings. The city was repeatedly attacked over the next four and one-half years by both the RAF and the 8th Air Force as it had significant industrial capacity and several military bases, and was also a center of rail transportation in southwestern Germany. Stuttgart endured 18 large-scale attacks by the Royal Air Force during the war, during which 21,016 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city, but the RAF concluded that its attacks against Stuttgart were not as effective as they could have been:
  Stuttgart's experience was not as severe as other German cities. Its location, spread out in a series of deep valleys, had consistently frustrated the Pathfinders and the shelters dug into the sides of the surrounding hills had saved many lives.
context_section_description: In totality, 53 air raids were launched against Stuttgart by the United States Army Air Force and the Royal Air Force. The latter conducted carpet bombing of civilian targets in Stuttgart according to the Area bombing directive of 14 February 1942. 4562 German citizens were killed, as were 770 foreigners, most of whom were forced laborers. An estimated 300 aircraft and 2400 Allied personnel were lost. 68% of Stuttgart's center was destroyed.
  A total of 27,000 tons of bombs fell on Stuttgart; 20,000 high explosive bombs and 1.3 million incendiary devices. An estimated 12000 bombs remain undetonated in the city limits. On 4 June 2014, a residential area near Degerloch and Sillenbuch, was evacuated so that police could disarm two 250 kg (550 lb) bombs.
  The 15,000,000 cubic meters (530,000,000 cu ft) cubic meters of rubble leftover from the war was gathered on the Birkenkopf from 1953 to 1957 to form a Schuttberg. On 9 August 2018, a monument to two teenage Flakhelfer was unveiled at the cemetery in Degerloch, a municipality of Stuttgart.
  Canadian painter Carl Schaefer, then a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force as a war artist, depicted No. 6 Squadron RAF as it prepared to leave to bomb Stuttgart on 7 October 1943. Schaefer used the date in the watercolor painting Marshalling Lancasters Against Stuttgart, 7 October 1943, though he most likely finished the piece later. This piece would become one of five of his works to be put on public exhibition.
caption: A sketch of the destruction in the city center by Walter Kittel, dated 1950.
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