Eighty years ago RAF Bomber Command launches the Battle of Berlin

 

What came to be known as the Battle of Berlin got properly underway with raids on four nights: 440 RAF aircraft in the first, then 764 bombers two days later, followed the next night by one of 383 and three nights later,  443 Lancasters. After the devastation wrought on Hamburg that summer Bomber Command had staged one large raid in August, but its commander, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, was determined to obliterate the whole city, which he believed would win the war for the allies. He was prepared for a campaign that would involve several raids and the loss of 300-400 of his aircraft. 123 were lost in the November raids, a loss rate of 4.9%, heavy but sustainable. A total of  some 7,000 tons of bombs were dropped, killing perhaps 3,000 people and ravaging most of the city's central district, destroying or severely damaging many famous buildings including the Kroll Opera House which had housed the German parliament since the Reichstag was burned out in 1933.

The US began its drive against Japan in the central Pacific with the ultimate goal of attacking the Japanese home islands. The first stepping stone was the atoll of Tarawa defended by some 2,500 Japanese naval landing troops. Despite an immense bombardment by the US Navy the Japanese were able to put up a ferocious defence. Apart from the tracked LVT vehicles the US landing craft were caught on the coral reef that surrounded the island. The attacking US Marines lost 1,000 killed and 2,000 wounded; the soubriquet 'bloody Tarawa' was richly deserved. All the defenders and some 2,000 Japanese and Korean construction workers were killed.

Lebanon won effective independence from France. Its president Bechara El Khouy and his prime minister Riad al-Solh had unilaterally declared the French mandate to be at end but they and other leaders had been arrested by the French colonial authorities. Under pressure from the British who were the dominant military power,  the French were forced to release their prisoners in a major affront to General de Gaulle. The date is still celebrated in the country as national independence day.