Bombing of Pforzheim in World War II During the latter stages of World War II , Pforzheim , a town in southwestern Germany , was bombed a number of times . The largest raid , and one of the most devastating area bombardment s of the war was carried out by the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) on the evening of February 23 , 1945 . As many as 17 , 600 people , or 31 . 4 % of the town ' s population , were killed in the air raid . About 83 % of the town ' s buildings were destroyed , two - thirds of the complete area of Pforzheim and between 80 and 100 % of the inner city . Minor raids . The first Allied air raid on Pforzheim took place on April 1 , 1944 when the United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF ) bombers carried out a raid in which the damage was comparatively minor and 95 people were killed . Further attacks by the USAAF followed . The largest of these attacks was on 24 December . Another on 21 January 1945 caused 56 casualties . The RAF also carried out a number of nighttime nuisance raids on Pforzheim ( among other towns ) using de Havilland Mosquito light bombers . The raids , consisting of around half a dozen Mosquitos , forced the Luftwaffe , the German air force , to respond . They also helped confuse the German defences making it more difficult for the Germans to identify the major raids . In doing so , these raids diverted resources away from the main bomber stream s . These nuisance raids affected the citizens of the targeted cities , driving them into shelters and disturbing their sleep . There were three consecutive raids on the nights of October 2 , October 3 and October 4 , 1944 with a further three raids in October and one in November 1944 . Across all these raids , the RAF lost one aircraft . After the devastating air raid of February 23 , 1945 , there were smaller air raids on Pforzheim . On March 4 , USAAF B - 24 Liberator aircraft bombed the area around " Kupferhammer " . On March 14 , 16 , 18th , 19th , 20th and 24th , the railway facilities were bombed . On March 17 , the motorway at Pforzheim was bombed , and on March 23 the area in Eutingen Valley was bombed . Reasons for the main raid . A report compiled for RAF Bomber Command dated 28 June 1944 , stated that Pforzheim was " one of the centres of the German jewellery and watch making trade and is therefore likely to have become of considerable importance to the production of precision instruments [ of use in the war effort ] . " An Allied report issued in August 1944 stated that " almost every house in this town centre is a small workshop " and that there were a few larger factories in the south and one in the north of the city centre . An attack on the city would destroy the " built - up area , the associated industries and rail facilities " . There were no war - crucial targets ; only war - relevant ones . In November 1944 , Pforzheim was placed for the first time on a target list of the Allied Forces , but with the lowest priority of category five . In that report , the city was described as being very suitable for a raid , because the road and rail communications through the easily spotted old city was known to be very flammable . Pforzheim was used in the transfer of troops . Main raid . The large raid that almost destroyed the inner city district occurred on the evening of February 23 , 1945 . The first bombs were dropped at 19 : 50 and the last one at 20 : 12 . The attack on " Yellowfin " , the RAF ' s code name for Pforzheim , included 379 aircraft . The main force bombers were 367 Avro Lancaster s of No . 1 , No . 6 , and No . 8 Groups along with one Film Unit Lancaster , and 13 Mosquitos of No . 8 Group ( the Pathfinders ) . The master bomber for the raid was Major Ted Swales , DFC , a South African , aged 29 , who would be awarded Bomber Command ' s last Victoria Cross of the war for his actions on this night . Despite severe damage to his plane he remained over the target directing the raid but he was killed when his Lancaster crashed in Belgium on the return flight . The bomber stream attacked from a height of 8 , 000 feet ( 2 , 400 m ) . The bombs were , by now , a standard mix of high explosive and incendiary bombs . The town centre suffered immediate destruction and a firestorm broke out , reaching its most devastating phase about 10 minutes from the start of the raid . The smoke over the town rose to about 3 , 000 metres , and the returning bomber crews could still see the glare of the fire up to 160 km away . Twelve aircraft of the bomber fleet did not return to their bases . Eleven of them were shot down by Luftwaffe fighters stationed at Großsachsenheim ( now Sachsenheim ) , and another was assumed to have been accidentally hit by " friendly " bombs . At least two aircraft crashed not far from Pforzheim , and Swales ' aircraft , which had been hit twice , crashed in Belgium . One of the Lancasters that crashed near Pforzheim went down close to the village of Neuhausen ( Enzkreis ) . Three of its crew members bailed out , of whom two survived ; the remaining crew members were killed . The other one crashed near the village of Althengstett near the town of Calw . Impact of the attack . The German Army Report of February 24 , 1945 devoted only two lines to reporting the bombardment : " In the early evening hours of February 23 , a forceful British attack was directed at Pforzheim " . The post - war British Bombing Survey Unit estimated that 83 per cent of the town ' s built - up area was destroyed , " probably the greatest proportion in one raid during the war " . In the centre , almost 90 % of the buildings were destroyed . In an area about 3 km long and 1 . 5 km wide , all buildings were reduced to rubble . 17 , 600 citizens were officially counted as dead and thousands were injured . People died from the immediate impact of explosions , from burns due to burning incendiary materials that seeped through basement windows into the cellars of houses where they hid , from lack of oxygen and poisonous gases , and from collapsing walls of houses . Some of them drowned in the Enz or Nagold rivers into which they had jumped while trying to escape from the burning incendiary materials in the streets , but even the rivers were burning as the phosphorus floated on the water . After the attack , about 30 , 000 people had to be fed by makeshift public kitchens because their housing had been destroyed . Many Pforzheim citizens were buried in common graves at Pforzheim ' s main cemetery because they could not be identified . There are many graves of complete families . The labour office of 1942 listed 2 , 980 foreigners in Pforzheim , and one source puts the number of foreign laborers who died in the bombings at 498 ( among them 50 Italians ) . The inner city districts were almost totally depopulated . According to the State Statistics Bureau ( Statistisches Landesamt ) , in the Market Square area ( Marktplatzviertel ) in 1939 there were 4 , 112 registered inhabitants , in 1945 none . In the Old Town area ( Altstadtviertel ) in 1939 there were 5 , 109 inhabitants , in 1945 only 2 persons were still living there . In the Leopold Square area , in 1939 there were 4 , 416 inhabitants , in 1945 only 13 . Some surviving allied aircrew were killed when they fell into the hands of German civilians . Four weeks after the Pforzheim main raid , the British crew of a B - 17 Flying Fortress bailed out near Pforzheim where they were captured , and six of them were shot at the nearby village of Huchenfeld . One member managed to escape but was later recaptured and taken to a POW camp . Post war . Rather than rebuild the centre of Pforzheim on the old street plan , the main thoroughfares were widened after the war . The rubble from the destruction was heaped into a large , high mound on the outskirts of the town and covered with soil and vegetation . It is officially named the " Wallberg " . As with other German cities which have similar mounds , it remains a visible reminder of the destruction visited on the city during World War II . ( Note : The series of Pforzheimer Zeitung articles can be found at " " Pforzheimer Zeitung online archive " " under " 23 . February 1945 " )