| Bombing of Pisa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofStrategic bombing during World War II | |||||||
 ThePisa Centrale railway station, main target of the attack, after the raid | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United StatesUSAAF |  Fascist Italy | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 4 bombers | 952 civilians | ||||||
Thebombing ofPisa took place on 31 August 1943, duringWorld War II. Aimed at disabling the city's marshalling yard, it also resulted in heavy damage to the city itself (although its most famouslandmarks were left untouched) and civilian casualties.
ThePisa Centrale railway station was considered by the Allies to be of strategic importance for railway communications in central Italy, as it was the intersection point between theTurin-Genoa-Rome-Naples railway line and theLivorno-Florence railway line; this led to several Allied air raids aimed at its destruction. Additionally, the district of Porta a Mare housed several factories engaged in war production, and the nearbySan Giusto airfield was a base for theRegia Aeronautica.
The first and heaviest raid took place on 31 August 1943, when 152Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress andConsolidated B-24 Liberator of theUnited States Army Air Force, having taken off from airfields inTunisia, dropped 408 tons of bombs on the Porta a Mare district, where the railway station was located. This raid was also part of the intensified Allied bombing campaign over Italy after thefall of Benito Mussolini on 25 July 1943, aimed at pushing the newBadoglio government to surrender. The raid began at 13:01, during lunchtime, and lasted seven minutes. The air raid sirens had been sounded at noon, but owing to a number of false alarms during the previous months, a large part of the population did not go toair raid shelters, believing this to be yet another false alarm; this contributed to the high death toll.[1][2][3][4]
At 13:01, the first bombers started dropping their bombs over the Porta a Marepower station. 367 bombs were dropped on theSaint-Gobain factory, killing 56 workers while they were at lunch. Italian90 mm and German88 mm anti-aircraft guns opened fire, andMacchi C.200 fighter planes took off from the nearbyArena Metato airfield, but were unable to seriously interfere with the raid; only four of the 152 B-17s and B-24s were shot down.[5]
The railway station, the objective of the raid, was hit and badly damaged; at the same time, however, the entire part of Pisa located south of theArno river suffered heavy damage, with the Porta a Mare district being virtually razed to the ground. 2,500 homes were destroyed or damaged, and several historical buildings were also hit, such as the Palazzo Pretorio and the churches ofSan Paolo a Ripa d'Arno andSant'Antonio Abate. At least 952 inhabitants of Pisa were killed, according to the official figures; other estimates claim that the death toll was higher, up to 2,500 victims.[6][7][8][9]
After this attack, Pisa suffered further heavy raids by both theUSAAF and theRoyal Air Force on 23, 24 and 25 September, 4 October and 25 December 1943, and on 18 and 19 January and 14 February 1944.[10][11] All these raids were aimed at either the airfield or the marshalling yard, but caused further damage and casualties to the city as well. In the summer of 1944 Pisa also suffered heavyartillery shelling by the advancing Allied forces.
By the time the Allies liberated Pisa, on 2 September 1944, 48% of all homes in the city had been destroyed; most of the damage was concentrated in the districts south of the Arno, where few buildings had escaped damage.[12] Civilian deaths from air raids and shelling were 1,738.[13][14][15]
The city's most famous landmarks – theCathedral, theLeaning Tower and theBaptistery – had survived unscathed. Still, theCamposanto Monumentale, after being spared by the air raids, was hit by artillery shelling, with the loss of many of itsfrescoes. Many other less famous churches and historic palaces suffered damage, although this was repairable in most cases.[16]