During World War II, the German industrial town of Essen was a target of Allied strategic bombing. The Krupp steelworks in particular was an important industrial target, but Essen in general was a "primary target" designated for area bombing by the February 1942 British Area bombing directive. As part of the campaign in 1943 known as the Battle of the Ruhr, Essen was a "regular target".
Large-scale night-time decoys were built, like the Krupp decoy site (Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage) that was a copy of the Krupp steel works in Essen designed to divert Allied airstrikes from the actual production site of the arms factory.
In the period 1939 to 1945 the Royal Air Force (RAF) dropped a total of 36,429 long tons of bombs on Essen.[1]
- ^ "bomber command | mines laid | flight august | 1945 | 1571 | Flight Archive". www.flightglobal.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.