The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids was a series of bombing raids in April and May 1942 by the GermanLuftwaffe on English cities during World War II. The name derives from Baedeker, a series of German tourist guide books, including detailed maps, which were used to select targets for bombing.
Luftwaffe commanders planned the raids in response to the increasing effectiveness of the Royal Air Force's (RAF) area bombing offensive against German targets as a result of the area bombing directive, starting with the bombing of Lübeck in March 1942. The aim was to begin a tit-for-tat exchange with the hope of forcing the RAF to reduce their attacks. To increase the effect on British civilian morale, bombing targets were chosen by the Germans for their cultural and historical significance rather than for any military value.
The majority of the raids took place in late April and May of 1942, but British towns and cities continued to be targeted for their cultural value over the following two years. By any measure, the raids were a failure. In the year following the Blitz of 1940 and 1941, the RAF had dramatically improved its night fighter capability and introduced the AMES Type 7 radar specifically for night-fighting operations. The raids resulted in unsustainable bomber losses for the Luftwaffe, and for a variety of reasons the damage to the targeted cities was minimal compared to the Blitz or to the contemporaneous RAF bombing campaign against Germany. Nevertheless, the raids resulted in over 1,600 civilian deaths and tens of thousands of damaged homes.
Background
By the winter of 1941, both the British and German strategic bombing campaigns had reached a low ebb. The German offensive, a nine-month period of night bombing known as the Blitz, which had left London and many other British cities heavily damaged, had come to an end in May 1941 when the Luftwaffe had switched its resources to the invasion of the Soviet Union. Thereafter it had confined itself to hit-and-run raids on British coastal towns. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force's (RAF) night bombing offensive had been shown to be largely ineffective, as revealed by the Butt Report in August 1941, and by Christmas 1941 such attacks had largely petered out.[1][2]
When the RAF offensive resumed in March 1942 with the bombing of Lübeck, there was a marked change in effectiveness. New heavy bombers (the Stirling and Halifax, followed by the unreliable Manchester from which was developed the excellent Lancaster), improved navigation systems (Gee and Oboe), new leadership (with the appointment of Air Vice-MarshalHarris) and new tactics (the bomber stream, use of incendiary bombs, and particularly area bombardment) all contributed.
Prior to this the RAF had attempted to conduct precision bombing, aiming at individual factories, power stations, even post offices, in multiple strikes across the country; this had been costly and ineffective. Following the example of the Luftwaffe's November 1940 attack on Coventry, the RAF began concentrating a single blow against an area where several worthwhile targets existed, including the homes and morale of the civilian population living there.[citation needed]
Planning
The destruction of Lübeck, and of Rostock the following month, shocked both the German leadership and population.[3][4] Up to this point they had been mostly unaffected by the RAF's bombing campaign. Now, Joseph Goebbels reported, "the damage was really enormous" and "it is horrible... the English air raids have increased in scope and importance; if they can be continued for weeks on these lines, they might conceivably have a demoralising effect on the population."[5] After the bombing of Rostock he reported "the air raid... was more devastating than those before. Community life there is practically at an end... the situation is in some sections catastrophic... seven-tenths of the city have been destroyed... more than 100,000 people had to be evacuated... there was, in fact, panic".[6]
Adolf Hitler was enraged, and demanded that the Luftwaffe retaliate. On 14 April 1942 he ordered "that the air war against England be given a more aggressive stamp. Accordingly when targets are being selected, preference is to be given to those where attacks are likely to have the greatest possible effect on civilian life. Besides raids on ports and industry, terror attacks of a retaliatory nature [Vergeltungsangriffe] are to be carried out on towns other than London".[7]
After the raid on Bath, Goebbels reported that Hitler intended to "repeat these raids night after night until the English are sick and tired of terror attacks" and that he "shared [Goebbels'] opinion absolutely that cultural centres, health resorts and civilian centres must be attacked... there is no other way of bringing the English to their senses. They belong to a class of human beings with whom you can only talk after you have first knocked out their teeth."[8]
The raids were referred to on both sides as "Baedeker raids",[7] derived from a comment by a German propagandist. Gustav Braun von Stumm[de], a spokesman for the German Foreign Office, is reported to have said on 24 April 1942, "We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide",[9] a reference to the popular travel guides of that name. Goebbels was furious. Keen to brand British attacks as "terror bombing", he was equally keen to designate German efforts as "retaliatory measures".[10] Stumm's off-the-cuff remark "effectively admitted the Germans were targetting cultural and historic targets, just what the German leadership did not want to do, and Goebbels took steps to make sure it did not happen again".[11]
Raids
The task of carrying out the attacks was given to bomber groups of Luftflotte 3. These were KG 2 and KG 6, formed from the earlier Küstenfliegergruppe 106 maritime aviation group,[12] to be led by the pathfinders of I./KG 100. Each raid involved 30 to 40 aircraft, and to increase their effectiveness it was planned each would fly two sorties per night. Each raid involved two periods of 60 to 90 minutes, separated by two or three hours.[7]
Watercolour by Olive Wharry circa 1942 of St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter, after the Blitz. In the early hours of 4th May 1942 a 250kg bomb fell directly on St Sidwells. The church tower was left standing but was so badly damaged that it was pulled down shortly after. A replacement church was built on the site.
The first raid of the Baedeker Blitz was directed against Exeter, the ancient county town of Devon with its immense heritage of historic buildings, on the night of Saint George's Day, 23/24 April 1942. While this raid caused little damage, a second raid the following night was more severe, with over 80 fatalities. On the nights of 25/26 and 26/27 April, the bomber force attacked Bath, causing widespread damage and some 400 casualties. These raids came a month after the Lübeck raid and coincided with the RAF's four-night offensive against Rostock. On 27/28 April, the Luftwaffe attacked Norwich, dropping more than 90 tons of bombs and causing 67 deaths. On 28/29 April, they attacked York, causing limited damage but 79 deaths.[13]
St Lawrence Church, High St, Exeter painted by an unknown author. This painting depicts Exeter's High Street. St Lawrence Church is in the background. St Lawrence Church, which predated the thirteenth-century, was destroyed on 4 May 1942.
On the night of 3/4 May the Luftwaffe returned to Exeter, causing heavy damage to the city centre, considerable damage to the south side of the Cathedral and 164 deaths. The following night they attacked Cowes, a target of both cultural and military value, being the home of the J. Samuel White shipyard. On 8/9 May Norwich was attacked again, though the raid was ineffective despite more than 70 aircraft taking part. During May the Luftwaffe also bombed Hull, a major port, and thus a military target, Poole, Grimsby and, at the end of May, Canterbury. This raid, which coincided with the RAF's first thousand-bomber raid on Cologne, involved 77 bombers, dropping 40 tons of bombs, which resulted in 43 deaths.[13]
Across all the raids in this period a total of 1,637 civilians were killed and 1,760 injured, and over 50,000 houses were destroyed.[14] Some notable buildings were destroyed or damaged, including York's Guildhall and the Bath Assembly Rooms, but on the whole most escaped– the cathedrals of Norwich, and Canterbury and the minster at York included.
Exeter Cathedral was hit in the early hours of 4 May with the complete destruction of St James Chapel on the south side and considerable damage to the South Quire Aisle. The German bombers suffered heavy losses for minimal damage inflicted, and the Axis's need for reinforcements in North Africa and on the Eastern Front meant further operations could only continue at a reduced scale. Intermittent hit-and-run raids on coastal towns by Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers continued.[citation needed]
On 27 April, Winston Churchill told the War Cabinet that the government should do all it could to "ensure that disproportionate publicity was not given to these raids" and "avoid giving the impression that the Germans were making full reprisal" for British raids.[15]
Aftermath
Whilst the term "Baedeker Blitz" is sometimes limited to the raids on those five cities (Exeter, Bath, Canterbury, Norwich and York) in April and May 1942,[14] the Luftwaffe continued to target cities for their cultural value for the next two years.[16] In June 1942 they attacked Ipswich, Poole and Canterbury again, Southampton (a port target), Norwich again and Weston-super-Mare. In July there were three raids on Birmingham, another three on Middlesbrough and one on Hull, all industrial cities of military and strategic value. In August the Germans returned to "Baedeker" targets: Norwich, Swansea, Colchester and Ipswich.[citation needed]
In September they attacked Sunderland, a port and industrial centre, and King's Lynn, a market town of no military value. All these raids were less intense than those of April and May, involving some 20 aircraft apiece. This reflected the steady and increasing losses suffered by the Germans as Britain's night-fighter defences improved and German casualties mounted. By the autumn KG 2 had lost 65 of its 88 crews and the offensive had come to a halt.[citation needed]
To find new ways to continue the pressure, the Luftwaffe experimented with both low-level and very high-level attacks. In August 1942 two modified Ju 86P bombers were employed making high-altitude runs over southern England. These operated with impunity for several weeks, and one raid on Bristol on 28 August resulted in 48 fatalities. These flights were halted when the RAF fielded a similarly modified flight of Spitfires and caught one of these bombers in the highest air battle of the war.[17]
On 31 October 1942, thirty German fighter-bombers escorted by sixty fighters made a low-level attack on Canterbury, dropping 28 bombs on the city and causing 30 deaths. Three of the attacking aircraft were shot down.[18]
By the end of 1942, 3,236 people had been killed and 4,148 injured in these raids. However, the strength of the Luftwaffe in the west had drained away[19] while the RAF had gone from strength to strength, regularly mounting raids of 200 or more aircraft on Germany.[20][21]
In 1943, the Luftwaffe in the west was revitalised and Luftflotte 3 brought back up to strength. In January KG 2 had 60 bombers (Do217s) and KG 6 the same number (Ju 88s). These were reinforced with a fast bomber wing, SKG 10 of Fw 190 fighter-bombers. These renewed the offensive. On 17/18 January 1943 they raided London, followed by a low-level attack on the city on 20 January. After a lull in February they returned in March leading to the Bethnal Green Tube disaster, where 178 people died.[22]
Throughout the year raids were made on a variety of targets; some of strategic value (Southampton, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull, Sunderland, Newcastle) and others with little or none (Eastbourne, Hastings, Maidstone, Cheltenham, Chelmsford, Bournemouth, Lincoln). Again, new tactics were tried. In June 1943 a raid on Grimsby saw the use of delayed-action anti-personnel "butterfly bombs", which resulted in 163 civilian casualties, most of them from these devices as people returned to their homes after the all clear was sounded.[23]
Exeter in 1947
In November 1943, following the RAF and USAAFbombing of Hamburg and the first use of the "Window" radarcountermeasure, the Luftwaffe were able to respond with a raid on Norwich, using Duppel, their equivalent. While British radar was negated, the raid caused little damage. With the continuing losses of experienced personnel, the German crews were increasingly made up of inexperienced replacements, with a corresponding drop in effectiveness. By the end of 1943 the Luftwaffe had mounted some 20 raids, in which more than 10 tonnes of bombs had been dropped, a total of 2,320 tons for the whole year.[24]
These caused 2,372 deaths and 3,450 injuries, according to a report by Lord Cherwell. The report contrasted this with the RAF's achievement of a total of 136,000 tons dropped during the year, and pointed out that a single raid on Berlin made in the same week that the report was published had dropped 2,480 tons, more than the entire German effort. The report pointed out that these raids were confined to towns on or near the coast, and that fires caused by bombing only accounted for one-thirtieth of all the incidents dealt with by the National Fire Service.[24]
The Baedeker-type raids ended in 1944, as the Germans realised they were ineffective; unsustainable losses were being suffered for no material gain. January 1944 saw a switch to London as the principal target for retaliation. On 21 January the Luftwaffe mounted Operation Steinbock, an all-out attack on London employing all of its available bomber force in the west. This too was largely a failure, with heavy losses for little gain. Henceforth, efforts were re-directed toward the ports that the Germans suspected were going to be used for the allied invasion of France, while the assault on London became the domain of Germany's V-weapons. [citation needed]
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. The British officially recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July until 31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as the Blitz, that lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. German historians do not follow this subdivision and regard the battle as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to May 1941, including the Blitz.
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, for a little more than 8 months during the Second World War.
Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary device is used to initiate a fire is often described as a "firebombing".
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and the civilian manpower base essential for German war production. In total 364,514 operational sorties were flown, 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a high casualty rate: 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a 44.4% death rate. A further 8,403 men were wounded in action, and 9,838 became prisoners of war.
World War II (1939–1945) involved sustained strategic bombing of railways, harbours, cities, workers' and civilian housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory. Strategic bombing as a military strategy is distinct both from close air support of ground forces and from tactical air power. During World War II, many military strategists of air power believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political infrastructure, rather than purely military targets. Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by civilians, and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian populations in order to terrorize them and disrupt their usual activities. International law at the outset of World War II did not specifically forbid the aerial bombardment of cities – despite the prior occurrence of such bombing during World War I (1914–1918), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
Hugo Wilhelm Sperrle was a German military aviator in World War I and a Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II.
Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. It was bombed by the RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and 1945, the United States Army Air Forces' Eighth Air Force between 1943 and 1945, and the French Air Force in 1940 and between 1944 and 1945 as part of the Allied campaign of strategic bombing of Germany. It was also attacked by aircraft of the Red Air Force in 1941 and particularly in 1945, as Soviet forces closed on the city. British bombers dropped 45,517 tons of bombs, while American aircraft dropped 22,090.3 tons. As the bombings continued, more and more people fled the city. By May 1945, 1.7 million people had fled.
Operation Argument, after the war dubbed Big Week, was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive against Nazi Germany. The objective of Operation Argument was to destroy aircraft factories in central and southern Germany in order to defeat the Luftwaffe before the Normandy landings during Operation Overlord were to take place later in 1944.
The German city of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II, all by the Royal Air Force (RAF). A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the RAF. 20,000 civilians died during the war in Cologne due to aerial bombardments.
The bombing of Stuttgart in World War II was a series of 53 air raids that formed part of the strategic air offensive of the Allies against Germany. The first bombing occurred on August 25, 1940, and resulted in the destruction of 17 buildings. The city was repeatedly attacked over the next four and one-half years by both the RAF and the 8th Air Force as it had significant industrial capacity and several military bases, and was also a center of rail transportation in southwestern Germany. Stuttgart endured 18 large-scale attacks by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the war, during which 21,016 long tons (21,353 t) of bombs were dropped on the city, but the RAF concluded that its attacks against Stuttgart were not as effective as they could have been:
Stuttgart's experience was not as severe as other German cities. Its location, spread out in a series of deep valleys, had consistently frustrated the Pathfinders and the shelters dug into the sides of the surrounding hills had saved many lives.
Air Vice Marshal Edward Barker Addison, was a senior British Royal Air Force (RAF) officer who served as Air Officer Commanding No. 100 Group from 1943 to 1945 during the Second World War. The group jammed Axis radar and communications systems from the air and Addison was its only commander.
During World War II, the city of Lübeck was the first German city to be attacked in substantial numbers by the Royal Air Force. The attack on the night of 28 March 1942 created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre, with bombs destroying three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area. It led to the retaliatory "Baedeker" raids on historic British cities.
The Defence of the Reich is the name given to the strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany over German-occupied Europe and Germany during World War II against the Allied strategic bombing campaign. Its aim was to prevent the destruction of German civilians, military and civil industries by the Western Allies. The day and night air battles over Germany during the war involved thousands of aircraft, units and aerial engagements to counter the Allies bombing campaigns. The campaign was one of the longest in the history of aerial warfare and with the Battle of the Atlantic and the Allied naval blockade of Germany was the longest of the war. The Luftwaffe fighter force defended the airspace of German-occupied Europe against attack, first by RAF Bomber Command and then against the RAF and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the Combined Bomber Offensive.
Kampfgeschwader 51 "Edelweiss" (KG 51) was a Luftwaffe bomber wing during World War II.
Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940, is the day on which a large-scale aerial battle in the Battle of Britain took place.
Kampfgeschwader 1 was a German medium bomber wing that operated in the Luftwaffe during World War II.
The term Bath Blitz refers to the air raids by the German Luftwaffe on the British city of Bath, Somerset, during World War II.
The term Exeter Blitz refers to the air raids by the German Luftwaffe on the British city of Exeter, Devon, during the Second World War. The city was bombed in April and May 1942 as part of the so-called "Baedeker raids", in which targets were chosen for their cultural and historical, rather than their strategic or military, value.
The Norwich Blitz refers to the heavy bombing of Norwich and surrounding area by the German Luftwaffe during World War II. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz.
References
Gilbert, Martin (1989). Second World War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
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