After doing some quick research, yes, Cologne was pretty much leveled. However, I was thinking of Hanover or Nuremberg.
I'm no expert on WWII, but the above cities were legitimate targets because Germany had countless factories, ammo depots, and transport systems all over the country. All fair targets.
I've read some about how Hitler came to power, but it's still confusing to me how he pulled Germany together in such a short time after WWI. It's probably a case study regarding political charisma building on patriotic sensibilities.
One of my biggest problems with WWII in Europe and the Pacific, is that we gave Germany, Italy, and Japan their sovereignty back after all the death and destruction they caused. Used to be the winner would claim conquered nations/territories as their own.
America could have claimed Japan as a territory. America could have claimed Italy as a territory. If not for the Soviets taking East Germany, we could have claimed all of Germany as a territory. We sorta got West Germany, but gave control back to them. I'm sick of our good guy policies of giving beaten enemies their country back. AND THEN, AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS HELP TO REBUILD THESE WARRING NATIONS.
Pretty sure we did the same with Iraq and obviously Aftganiscrap to the Taliban of all people. If the USA is not going to benefit from the blood and treasure we spend on trying to expand liberty, I say no more and that includes the Ukraine. Let Russia have them. It's Europe's fight.
Hitler just piggybacked on Hindenburg.
If Hindenburg and Ludendorff had been executed after WW1, the Kaiser would have unified a peaceful Germany. Wilson was a wicked person who guaranteed WW2.
“Used to be the winner would claim conquered nations/territories as their own”...
which is exactly what the Soviets did with Poland, Romania etc. Imagine had they gotten a nuclear weapon first..GERMANOV...BELGUMNOV..ENGLANOV. They’d have went wild.
If you haven't read it, I recommend William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich", which does shed light on this.
From his perspective (He lived in Germany as a reporter from early 1933 right up to December 1940. He actually followed the Germans into France, and actually witnessed the French Armistice being signed and reported it to the world before the Nazi media did. He left in 1940 when the Nazis began to pressure him to report events that weren't true.
He not only watched it happen with his own eyes, from nearly start to end, he was able to personally interview many Germans both civilian, diplomatic, governmental, and military who were directly involved in many of decisions and actions, but also had access to much of the remaining official German documentation before it disappeared into all the memory holes.
If, like many people, you are puzzled by how an intelligent, sophisticated, well educated population like Germany could fall under the spell of a tyrant, Shirer's book gives a window into it.