 The figure was higher than in the initial reports, but reports of 40,000 dead in the three-day raid are not credible.As air-raid shelters in the city were extremely inadequate for the population of the Soviet metropolis and large portions of the suburban buildings were made of easily flammable wood, the death toll and destruction from the bombing was comparable to the British bombing of Darmstadt on 11/12 September 1944, when 900 tons of bombs from 226 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers killed 12,300 German citizens of the city.Wietersheim's isolated Panzer Corps was subjected to heavy Soviet counterattacks, which threatened to destroy it.