This photograph depicts a devastating air raid by the Allied Powers in Germany on August 17, 1943. During the January 14–24, 1943, multinational Casablanca Conference, the Allied Powers publicly committed to the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. Secretly, this conference would determine the future strategy of the war effort. During the meeting, American and British leaders decided to combine aerial bomber forces, with the Americans bombing during the day and the British bombing at night. Allied leaders directed these air forces to focus on “the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial, and economic system, and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened.” Primary targets were German aircraft and submarine manufacturing facilities, transportation hubs, oil production facilities, and other war-supporting industries.