 Bomber Command was only able to emulate the Hamburg firestorm of 28 July once, at Kassel in October.In the winter of 1943, the attacks on Berlin began, which Tooze called "fruitless",

Berlin was a big manufacturing city but the Ruhr was the principal supplier of coal and steel to Germany.Isolating the Ruhr could strangle the rest of the German war economy; in the campaign against Berlin, the British caused much damage but the evolution of German anti-aircraft defences, particularly night fighters, was able to counter the Bomber Command threat on its long flights to Berlin in winter weather.