1943: Bomber Command began what Sir Arthur Harris called "The Battle of the Ruhr", with a sustained series of attacks on the German industrial heartland.

The first attack was on Essen, home of the Krupps armaments complex and much other heavy industry. 442 aircraft were sent against the city, one of the aircraft clocking up Bomber Command's 100,000th sortie of the war. Essen was always one of Bomber Command's most difficult targets, since it was very heavily defended, and usually hidden under a heavy industrial haze. On this occasion, however, the new Oboe precision bombing system, fitted to Pathfinder Mosquitoes, allowed the target to be marked accurately, and 160 acres were destroyed, with heavy damage caused to the Krupps works.

1945: Rifleman Bhanbhagta Gurung of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles successfully hunted down a Japanese sniper who had kept his section under fire at Snowdon East in Burma. He then went forward alone and killed the defenders in four enemy positions, including a machine-gun team in a bunker. Supported now by three other Gurkhas, he defended the captured bunker against a Japanese counter-attack, driving the enemy back with very heavy losses. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.