Bombing of Vienna in World War II Bombing of Vienna in World War II The city of Vienna in Austria was bombed 52 times during World War II, and 87,000 houses of the city were lost (20% of the entire city). Only 41 civilian vehicles survived the raids, more than 3,000 bomb craters were counted. and the Schwarzenberg Palace was bombed but later rebuilt. After a lone Soviet air raid conducted on 4 September 1942, Vienna was finally reached by western Allied bombers in 1944, when the Allied invasion of Italy allowed them to establish an air base at Foggia. Following the Normandy Invasion the greater part
Allied invasion of Italy 8 September. With such short notice to create plans, Operation Slapstick was soon nicknamed Operation Bedlam. The Avalanche plan using less than half the troops landed during Operation Husky was daring, considering possible resistance by six German divisions. The Fifth Army would be landing on a very broad front, using only three assault divisions (one American, the 36th, under Major General Fred L. Walker, in VI Corps, and two British, the 46th, under Major-General John Hawkesworth, and 56th, under Major-General Douglas Graham, in X Corps), and the two corps were widely separated, both in distance () and by the Sele