The first Allied aircraft to fly over Prague was a single bomber of the French Air Force in April , but it dropped propaganda leaflets , not bombs. Prague was then bombed three times by the United States Army Air Forces between the fall of and spring of During the Prague uprising of 5β9 May , the Luftwaffe made use of bombers against the rebels.
The bombing of Prague cost 1, lives. Ten surviving high-quality reconnaissance photographs allow a detailed assessment of the damage caused by the raids. The raids were used for anti-American propaganda purposes, both by the Nazis and the subsequent Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. On 5 October , air raid sirens went off in Prague between and in the morning. RAF bombers dropped about four firebombs over the city.
The facilities were undamaged. Four bombs exploded in front of an outhouse, however, injuring fifteen employees. In nearby homes, people standing by windows were said to have been killed by splinters. About three bombs fell into the coal stockpile of the power plant and were later defused. The November bombing was probably unintentional. According to American pilots, it was the result of a navigation mistake: at the same time, a massive bombing of Dresden was under way, km north-west from Prague.
The bombing resulted in the deaths of people and the wounding of 1, About one hundred houses and historical sites were totally destroyed and another two hundred were heavily damaged. All the casualties were civilians and not one of the city's factories, which might have been of use to the Wehrmacht , were damaged.
Many homes and national sites were destroyed, for example the Emmaus Monastery , Faust House [ cs ; eo ; es ; fr ; ru ] and Vinohrady Synagogue [ arz ; cs ; de ; pl ]. Some of Prague's famous modern buildings, such as the Dancing House or the Emauzy church, were constructed where bombs had destroyed previously existing buildings.
