Operation Steinbock (German: Unternehmen Steinbock) was a late Second World War Luftwaffe night-time strategic bombing campaign against southern England that took place from January—May 1944. It was the last strategic air offensive by the German bomber arm during the conflict.For the first years of the war German air power had not needed to invest in air defence to any appreciable degree. Foreign enemies were defeated over their own skies in the Western Campaign in 1940.