Bombing of Treviso in World War II Bombing of Treviso in World War II The bombing of Treviso took place on 7 April 1944, during World War II. 159 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress of the United States Army Air Force (escorted by Lockeed P-38 Lightning fighters) dropped over 2,000 bombs during an attack which lasted five minutes (from 1.24 PM to 1.29 PM); the target was the local marshalling yard, but the inaccuracy of the bombing caused most of the bombs to fall all over the city, destroying most of it. Out of 4,600 buildings, 700 were destroyed, 1,100 heavily damaged and 1,962 slightly damaged. A large
RAF Bomber Command aircrew of World War II Airmen's memoirs mention flying over target areas below which were like "Dante's Inferno", with acres of red and orange flame punctuated by percussions shock waves as bombs exploded and, while sympathy with anybody on the ground is sometimes expressed, mention is usually made of the prior German Blitz bombing of Coventry and London. Wartime reports and aircrew memoirs make regular mention of intense brightly coloured violent explosions within the bomber stream which often showered clouds of sparks which aircrew referred to as "scarecrows" and believed were a type of pyrotechnic shell designed to scare aircrew. Post-war assessment confirmed that these