Canadian Military History Volume 20 Issue 1 Article 2 2011 Destroying Hitler’s Berghof: The Bomber Command Raid of 25 April 1945 Oliver Haller Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Haller, Oliver "Destroying Hitler’s Berghof: The Bomber Command Raid of 25 April 1945." Canadian Military History 20, 1 (2011) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Haller: Destroying Hitler’s Berghof Destroying Hitler’s Berghof The Bomber Command Raid of 25 April 1945 Oliver Haller Introduction A large force of Avro Lancaster Abstract: This paper examines the heavy bombers and DeHavilland dolf Hitler celebrated his final Royal Air Force raid on Adolf Hitler’s Mosquito light bombers left England Berghof on the Obersalzberg in to attack Hitler’s mountain retreat in Abirthday in a concrete crypt April 1945. Arthur Harris, the head at the end of April 1945. The reach of Bomber Command, wanted to Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. of enemy firepower had forced emphasize air power’s decisive His Berghof represented one of the him underground to escape an role in the defeat of Nazism. most evocative symbols of Nazism approaching firestorm that had been However, Winston Churchill and and of the international community’s Bernard Montgomery, among fuelled by years of hatred, suffering others, questioned the usefulness failure to grasp opportunities to stop and death.