British forces dropped the very first allied bombs on the city of Berlin during World War II in 1940, but the initial payload completely failed to hit any strategic military targets.

A closer look

British forces dropped the very first allied bombs on the city of Berlin during World War II in 1940, but the initial payload completely failed to hit any strategic military targets. Instead, the bombs crashed through the roof of the Berlin Zoological Garden and managed to kill the zoo's only elephant, instantly making an innocent pachyderm the first casualty of the bombing campaign. The tragic irony of launching a highly sophisticated aerial raid across enemy lines just to accidentally assassinate a captive herbivore was likely not lost on the Royal Air Force. German propaganda predictably used the dead elephant to highlight the sheer incompetence of British targeting, while also quietly mourning the loss of a very expensive zoo attraction. It serves as a darkly absurd reminder that even the most meticulously planned military operations usually just end up causing collateral damage to completely unrelated innocent bystanders