In the early hours of 15 October 1944, No. 5 Group of the Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out the most destructive of 42 attacks on Braunschweig (Brunswick) during World War II. The attack was a part of Operation Hurricane, which was designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the Allied bombing campaign. It caused a massive conflagration that developed into a firestorm, and resulted in Braunschweig, the city of Henry the Lion, burning continuously for two and a half days from 15 to 17 October.[1] More than 90 percent of the medieval city centre was destroyed.
The first major British bombing of Braunschweig was in the night beginning 14 January 1944, when nearly 500 Lancaster bombers attacked in the face of strong defence by German fighters. Being a relatively small target, most of the bombs missed the city.[4]
In an experimental raid, to see if bombing by radar alone (without target marking) was effective, nearly 400 heavy bombers raided Braunschweig during the night beginning 12 August 1944. No effective concentration of the bombs occurred, and nearby towns were bombed by mistake.[5]
Between those dates, fast Mosquito bombers were sent on occasional nuisance raids and diversions against Braunschweig.
On 13 October, the RAF received orders to carry out Operation Hurricane, to demonstrate the Allied bomber force's destructive power, and Allied air superiority. The orders included the following:[10]
In order to demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre ... the intention is to apply within the shortest practical period the maximum effort of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command and the 8th United States Bomber Command against objectives in the densely populated Ruhr.
Operation Hurricane foresaw Duisburg as the main goal for the RAF's thousand or so bombers, and Cologne for the USAAF's 1,200 or so bombers. A further 233 RAF bombers were detailed for Braunschweig, which had about 150,000 inhabitants in October 1944.
Planning for the attack on Braunschweig was finalized by 15 August 1944. Darmstadthad been attacked on the night of 11 September 1944 using a new targeting technique: a fan-shaped flying formation, and the staggering of the use of explosive and incendiary bombs. Being a largely unprepared town, the resulting fires caused about 11,500 deaths. The Allies then turned their attention to Braunschweig.
Braunschweig was to be largely destroyed, not only as an important centre of the armament industry, but also, and above all, as a place where people lived making it uninhabitable and useless. The goal, namely the greatest possible destruction, was to be achieved through detailed attack plans and careful execution, and also making careful use of the attributes of the material that was to be deployed. The means whereby the goal was to be reached was a firestorm, the production of which was to be no accident but developed through painstakingly detailed analysis.[11]
On 13 October, the chief meteorologist at RAF High Wycombe advised RAF Bomber Command headquarters of the weather forecast for the weekend of 14–15 October: slight cloudiness, good visibility throughout the night, and moderate winds. The next day, Air MarshalArthur Harris issued the orders to carry out the attack on Braunschweig and other cities.[a]
RAF Bomber Command had sought in vain to inflict lasting destruction upon Braunschweig four times during 1944, failing each time as a result of, among other things, bad weather and strong defences. On 14 October 1944, preparations for the attack were finalized at No. 5 Group's headquarters at Morton Hall.
October 1944 raid
The raid coincided with a British thousand-bomber raid on Duisburg, the second on that city within 24 hours, a previous British attack having been made in daylight.
The aircraft of No. 5 Group took off as planned around 11pm hours on 14 October.[b] The main force of the group were 233 four-engined Mark I and III Lancasters heavy bombers, each with a bomb load of about 6 tonnes (13,000lb). The Lancasters were accompanied by seven Mosquito fast light bombers.
The bombers bound for Braunschweig took a course that ran to the south to avoid the Ruhr area, which was heavily defended by anti-aircraft batteries and fighter aircraft. Near Paderborn, the force turned towards the north, overflying Hanover and proceeding to Braunschweig.
As was usual, the British actions for the night included a number of sorties to deceive the German defences about the true targets for the night. 141 training craft flew simulated attacks on Heligoland, 20 Mosquitos went to Hamburg, eight to Mannheim, 16 to Berlin and 2 to Düsseldorf. They were supported by 140 special operations aircraft of 100 Group RAF, which deployed electronic warfare measures against German night-fighter defences. Strips of tinfoil (codenamed "Window") were scattered into the air in large amounts to jam the German air defence system's radar stations, thereby rendering them nearly useless. The feint against Mannheim, which German forces expected to be the main target, left the Braunschweig attack unopposed.[12]
The siren signal alerting Braunschweig to an air raid was sounded at about 1:50am on 15 October.[13]
Target marking
The Mosquitos of No. 5 Group marked the target for the main force. No. 5 Group had developed its own techniques separate to the Pathfinder Force and was using "sector bombing". It used the cathedral as a reckoning point for the "master bomber" in the lead plane. Over the Dom-Insel–the site of Braunschweig Cathedral–a green flare was dropped, a so-called "blind marker". Other Mosquitos dropped their markers of various colours, lighting the target up. The first red flare fell south-west of the city centre. The same aircraft then dropped about 60 flares from a height of 1,000 metres (3,300ft), which slowly floated down to the ground, each burning for about 3–7 minutes. Those lit markers were called "Christmas tree" by the Germans, due to their characteristic appearance. Given the clear night,[c] the problem-free overflight, and the flawless marking of the target, the conditions for the attack were optimal, from the British point of view.
The green marker on the Dom-Insel served to guide the bomb aimers in all following aircraft, who flew in over it from various directions in a fan-shaped formation, whereupon they dropped their bombs.
RAF filming
Stills from film taken of raid on Duisburg during night beginning 14 October 1944. A Lancaster drops "Window" to confuse enemy radar (left), then 14-kilogram (30lb) incendiary bombs and a 1,800-kilogram (4,000lb)"cookie".
This raid on Braunschweig was filmed by a Lancaster of the RAF Film Production Unit, outfitted for the task with three Eyemo-type cameras. The camera plane flew over Braunschweig, along with the rest of the bombers, at a height of 4,950m (16,240ft) at 260km/h (160mph). The time of the onset of the attack was noted as 2:33am.
Bomber Command ... made a heavy and concentrated attack on the industrial town of Brunswick, which is one of Germany’s biggest centres for the aircraft and engineering industries. As the aircraft with the cameras runs up to the target, the fires can be seen spreading rapidly all over the city and by the time the aircraft is over the target, the whole city is ablaze and the streets can be seen clearly outlined.
The firestorm
About 847 tonnes (1,867,000lb) of bombs were dropped on the city. First to be deployed were about 12,000 explosive bombs–so-called blockbusters–in a carpet bombing of the old timber-framed town centre to start the intended firestorm by smashing up the wooden houses. Blast waves blew the roofs off houses, exposing the insides, blew windowpanes out, splintered the inner structure, broke walls down, tore electricity and water supplies up, and drove firefighters and rescue service personnel into cellars and bunkers, along with damage observers.
After the wave of explosive bombs, about 200,000 phosphorus and incendiary bombs were dropped, which were designed to ignite the destroyed buildings and create the firestorm, which would still be burning long after the bombers had returned to England.
By about 3:10am, about 40 minutes after the first explosive bombs had been dropped,[14] the attack was over. A hot mass of air rose rapidly upwards due to the powerful thermal generated by the conflagration. Cooler air rushed in to replace it, creating a windstorm. Winds blowing from all directions worsened the fires, further strengthening the winds, which became strong enough to sweep up small pieces of furniture and toss people about.[15]
Around three and a half hours later, towards 6:30am, the firestorm reached its peak in the city core.[16] About 150 hectares (370 acres) of historic old Braunschweig were going up in flames. The city's tallest church steeples–those of St. Andrew's were about 100 metres (330ft) tall[17]–could be seen burning far beyond the town, and they also rained embers down over the whole city. The ruins of the city centre were littered with unexploded incendiary bombs, greatly hampering fire engines and rescue vehicles.
The city burned so intensely and brightly that the light from the fire could be seen far and wide. From all directions, helpers and firefighters thronged into the burning town to help. They came from, among other places, Hanover to the west and Helmstedt in the east, from Celle to the north and Quedlinburg to the south.
Within the 24 hours of Operation Hurricane, the RAF dropped a total of about 10,000 tonnes (22million pounds) of bombs on Duisburg and Braunschweig.
Rescue of 23,000 trapped people
About 23,000 people had sought refuge from the attack in six large bunkers and two air raid shelters in the area.[18] While these thousands of people waited in seeming safety inside their thick-walled but quite overfilled shelters for the all-clear signal, the many fires in the city centre quickly merged into one widespread conflagration.
The fire brigade very soon realized the threat to these people–the fire was growing ever hotter, and the oxygen in the bunkers and shelters thereby ever thinner. The danger was clearly that the victims would either suffocate for lack of oxygen if they stayed in their bunkers, or be burnt alive if they tried to leave and escape through the firestorm outside.
Towards 5am, before the firestorm had reached its full intensity, the idea of building a Wassergasse (lit.'water alley') was conceived by Rudolf Prescher,[de ] lieutenant of the fire brigade. This alley would allow the people to flee their shelters for safer areas of the city. It consisted of a long hose that had to be kept under a constant water mist to shield it against the fire's tremendous heat as the firefighters led the hose through to the shelters where the people were trapped. The reach of each of the little jets issuing from the holes in the hose overlapped each other, making a continuous, artificial "rain zone".
The bunkers were reached towards 7am Sunday morning, after the fire storm had reached its greatest intensity. All the trapped people were still alive, but had no idea what lay outside for them. All 23,000 managed to reach safer areas, such as the museum park. Only at the Schöppenstedter Straße 31 air shelter did help come too late: 95 of the 104 people inside had suffocated by the time the fire brigade reached them. The firestorm had been so intense in this particular part of the city that it had used up nearly all the oxygen, making saving more than nine people impossible.
Effects
Typical Braunschweig half-timbered houseRuins of the Hotel Handelshof in 2006
A large part of Braunschweig's tightly packed city centre was made up of about 800 timber-frame houses, many of which dated back to the Middle Ages. The city also had stone buildings dating mainly to the 17th and 18th centuries. The old cathedral, which the RAF had used as a reckoning point for the whole operation, remained standing. However, many significant historic buildings were largely or completely destroyed.
Heavily damaged, it was demolished in 1960 amid great controversy, and reconstructed and reopened 2008. Now it houses the city library and joined with the new Schloss-Arkaden mall.
The next morning, 16 October, Braunschweig lay under a thick cloud of smoke. A British reconnaissance aircraft sent to take photographs of the bombing's aftermath for analysis had to return to England, as its mission had been rendered impossible by the opaque pall that hung over the town.
By the evening of 17 October, the last of the fire's main hotspots had been put out, but it took another three days to quench lesser fires, until 20 October. 80,000 of the townsfolk were left homeless by the attack.
The destruction was so widespread and thorough that ordinary people and experts alike, even years after the war, were convinced that the attack had come from one of the dreaded "thousand-bomber attacks", such as the one that had laid Cologne to waste. The extent of the damage could seemingly not otherwise be explained. Only after the British opened their military archives did it become plain that it had been "only" 233 bombers.
Casualties
The exact number of victims of the 15 October attack is unknown. Estimates ranged from 484 to 640 dead, 95 of those by suffocation at the Schöppenstedter Straße 31 shelter alone. However, historians now put the number at more than a thousand.[19]
These "light" losses–compared with those suffered in the great air raids on Dresden, Hamburg, Pforzheim and other German cities–according to expert[who?] opinions stem from various factors.[citation needed] For one thing, Braunschweig lay on the direct flight path, that is, the "lane" leading to Magdeburg and Berlin, and right near the armament industry centres of Salzgitter (Reichswerke Hermann Göring) and Wolfsburg (Volkswagen factory), meaning that Braunschweigers were used to–even in a sense "trained for"–quickly responding to alarms (there were 2,040 warnings and 620 air raid alarms between 1939 and 1945). This may have prepared them for the attack, even though many of the earlier attacks from which they had sought shelter actually targeted other cities. Furthermore, the city also had at its disposal a great number of the latest type of air raid bunkers and blockhouses known as Hochbunkers. Lastly, the fire brigade's water alley alone saved the lives of about 23,000 people.
The RAF lost a single Lancaster bomber to anti-aircraft fire that night.
Bunkers in Braunschweig
Built-over bunker, Okerstraße (2006)
Bunker, Kaiserstraße (2006)
High bunker, Ritterstraße (2006)
Back of Kalenwall Bunker (2006)
Braunschweig Armour
Braunschweig had, compared to other German cities, a great number of the most modern air raid bunkers, some of which were Hochbunker (lit.'high-rise bunkers'), which nevertheless suffered from regular overcrowding as the war wore on. As modern and robust as they were, the fact is that the so-called Braunschweig Armour was developed at the Institute for Building Materials, Massive Construction and Fire Protection of the Technical University of Braunschweig. It became a kind of safety standard for building air raid bunkers throughout the Reich.
Year built
Location
Places
Remarks
1
1940
Alte Kochenhauerstraße
813
still standing, on synagogue property
2
1940/41
Alte Waage
220
still standing
3
1941/42
Bockstwete
750
still standing, altered
4
1941/42
Borsigstraße/Bebelhof
800
torn down
5
?
Kaiserstraße
642
still standing
6
?
Kalenwall (old railway station)
428
still standing, altered
7
1941/42
Kralenriede
500
still standing
8
1941/42
Ludwigstraße
236
still standing
9
1941/42
Madamenweg
1,500
still standing, altered for use as flats
10
ab 1942
Glogaustraße in Melverode
350
still standing
11
1941/42
Methfesselstraße
1,250
still standing, altered
12
1941/42
Münzstraße (Polizei)
450
still standing
13
1940/41
Okerstraße
944
still standing, altered for use as flats
14
1944
Ritterstraße
840
still standing, altered for use as flats
15
1940/41
Auerstraße in Rühme
650
torn down
16
1940/41
Sack
700
still standing, altered
17
1940/41
Salzdahlumer Straße
986
still standing, altered
18
?
Stollen im Nussberg
10,000
demolished with explosives
19
?
Stollen im Windmühlenberg
1,000
eliminated
Fire brigades from Braunschweig and other cities deployed against the firestorm
According to estimates, especially during the night of the bombing as well as in the next six days until the last fires were put out, about 4,500 firefighters were deployed. They came from up to 90 kilometres (56mi) away, and included not only members of city fire brigades from, among other places, Blankenburg, Celle, Gifhorn, Hanover, Helmstedt, Hildesheim, Peine, Salzgitter, Wernigerode and Wolfenbüttel, but also volunteers and members of plant fire brigades at the various factories in Braunschweig and the surrounding area. Due to their efforts the city was not utterly burnt that night.
Aftermath
Notice in the Braunschweiger Tageszeitung of 20 October 1944
The bombing in the Nazi press
Even on the night of the attack, the National Socialists seized the opportunity to make the victims an instrument in their quest for total war, for already by the next day, 16 October, with Braunschweig still burning, the local Nazi propagandanewspaper, the Braunschweiger Tageszeitung, came out with the headline Die teuflische Fratze des Gegners. Schwerer Terrorangriff auf Braunschweig – Volksgemeinschaft in der Bewährung (transl.The devilishly grotesque face of the opponent. Heavy terror attack on Braunschweig – Community put to the test), and GauleiterHartmann Lauterbacher's (1909–1988) pithy words of perseverance to "the Braunschweigers". On 19 October, the number of dead was given as 405, and on 20 October a full-page death notice with 344 names was published. On 22 October, one week after the attack, a memorial was held for the victims, both at the state cathedral (Staatsdom)–as the Nazis called Brunswick Cathedral–and at the Schlossplatz, the square in front of Braunschweig Palace.
The same night, Braunschweig had another heavy air raid. This time the bombers were USAAF Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. The last air raid on Braunschweig came on the morning of 31 March 1945, carried out by the 392d Bombardment Group. Their main target was the east railway station.
Statistics of destruction
Population
When World War II began, Braunschweig had 202,284 inhabitants. By the war's end, the population had fallen by 26.03% to 149,641. From the effects of war (mainly air raids but also their aftermath, such as having to dispose of, or otherwise make safe, the duds that the Allies dropped) about 2,905 people died, 1,286 of whom (44.3%) were foreigners. These foreigners were predominantly prisoners of war, forced labourers, and concentration camp inmates who worked in the armament industry, and who were forbidden access to air raid bunkers.
Destruction of housing and infrastructure
Exact figures are available only for destroyed houses and flats. By the time the war was over, about 20% of Braunschweig's dwellings had been left completely undamaged, but about 24% of them had been utterly destroyed.[citation needed] The remaining 56% were somewhat damaged, with the extent of damage to any particular dwelling varying greatly with others. In 1943, before the area bombing of Braunschweig, there were 15,897 houses in the city, but by mid-1945, only 2,834 (about 18%) were left undamaged. The city also had 59,826 flats, of which 11,153 (about 19%) were still undamaged by the time the war ended. The level of destruction with regard to residential buildings stood at 35%, leading to homelessness for almost 80% of the townsfolk by war's end. Sixty percent of the city's places of cultural interest, including the municipal buildings, were likewise destroyed, along with about 50% of its industrial areas.
Overall destruction rate and amount of rubble
The destruction rate in Braunschweig's downtown core (within the Oker Ring, the Oker being a river that encircles Braunschweig) stood at about 90%, and the overall figure for Braunschweig as a whole was 42%. At the end of the war, an estimated 3,670,500 cubic metres (129.62million cubic feet) of rubble had to be cleared.[20] These figures put Braunschweig among Germany's most heavily damaged cities of World War II.[citation needed]
After the war
Reconstruction
Reconstruction and commemoration sign on a house wall neighbouring the Andreaskirche that translated to English reads "On 15 October 1944 Braunschweig's old town became a victim of the war. Peaceful work from 1953–1955 built new homes, protected by St. Andrew."
On 17 June 1946, the rubble clearing officially began in Braunschweig. The job took 17 years, with the city only officially declaring the task accomplished in 1963. In actuality however, smaller cleanups lasted years after that.
Braunschweig's reconstruction in the 1950s and 1960s proceeded very quickly, as housing was badly needed and the city's infrastructure had to be built from scratch. Since the downtown core was a rubble-strewn wasteland, city and spatial planners seized the chance to build a new, modern, and above all car-friendly city, an idea promoted by Hans Bernhard Reichow.[de ] This once again led in many places to further destruction (through new roadways, for instance) and the removal of city scenery that had become historic, since in part the former city layout was ignored. Ruins were hastily torn down instead of being restored, and the car was raised as the new "yardstick" whereby the "new" Braunschweig was to be measured. Thus was wrought, especially in the downtown core, a "second destruction" of Braunschweig.[citation needed]
The later destruction of historic buildings and cultural sites, such as the demolition of many medieval, baroque and classical buildings and the controversial demolition of the damaged Brunswick Palace in 1960 that was almost faithfully reconstruction only in 2007 led–much as with the Frauenkirche in Dresden, the Berlin Palace and other prominent buildings in other cities–to a further loss of identity for the local people, and was the cause of much controversy for decades.
Memorials
Meaning and necessity of the destruction
As early as 1943, the AnglicanBishop and Member of the House of LordsGeorge Bell was putting forth the view that attacks such as these threatened the ethical foundations of Western civilization and destroyed any chance of future reconciliation between former foes.
Since the end of World War II, the question has been raised as to whether the destruction of Braunschweig in October 1944 was still a military necessity given that the war was into its final phase. This is part of the debate on whether the destruction of other German cities and loss of life that occurred once the Allied strategic bomber forces were released from their tactical support of the Normandy landings and resumed the strategic bombing campaign in September 1944 (a campaign that would last without further interruption until days before the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945,) can be morally justified.[21]
15 October as a fixed point in the city's history
In the Main Cemetery in Braunschweig is a memorial, together with the graves of many victims of the 15 October 1944 attack.
Since the bombing, memorial events and exhibitions are held in Braunschweig on 14–15 October.[22][23][17] The events of those two days also echo strongly in local historical literature. On 14–15 October 2004–the sixtieth anniversary of the destruction of Braunschweig's historic old town–there were once again many events.[needs update] Among other memorials that took place was Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, conducted at the Braunschweig Cathedral in the presence of British Ambassador Peter Torry.
Notes
↑ Brunswick was codenamed Skate by RAF Bomber Command. All German cities were given names of fish, because the person responsible for the naming was a keen angler. For security reasons, the actual city names were never used in operational orders.
↑ During the war, Britain was on daylight saving time. In the winter, time was set to British Summer Time and in the summer to Double Summer Time, so local time and British time were the same.
↑ The report from filmed intelligence was "Visibility: excellent".[clarification needed]
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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.
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The city of Würzburg was attacked as part of the strategic bombing campaign in World War II by the Allies against Nazi Germany. Although lacking major armaments industries and hosting around 40 hospitals at the time, Würzburg was targeted as a traffic hub and as part of the attempt by Bomber Command to break the spirit of the German people. The major raid occurred on March 16, 1945, when Royal Air Force bombers dropped incendiary bombs that set fire to much of the city, killing an estimated 5,000 people and almost completely obliterating the historic town. Almost 90% of the buildings were destroyed by a raid that lasted less than 20 minutes.
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Owing to the importance of its port and industries, the Italian port city of Genoa, the regional capital and largest city of Liguria, was heavily bombarded by both Allied air and naval forces during Second World War, suffering heavy damage.
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References
Braunschweiger Zeitung (publisher): Die Bomben-Nacht. Der Luftkrieg vor 60 Jahren. Braunschweig 2004
Friedenszentrum Braunschweig e.V. (publisher): Braunschweig im Bombenkrieg. 50 Jahre danach. Den Opfern des Krieges gewidmet. Band 1: Dokumente zur Ausstellung 30.09. – 31.10.1993. Braunschweig 1994
ibid.: Braunschweig im Bombenkrieg. 50 Jahre danach. Den Opfern des Krieges gewidmet. Band 2: Dokumente von Zeitzeuginnen und Zeitzeugen: „Bomben auf Braunschweig“. Landesmuseum 11.09. – 16.10.1994. Braunschweig 1994
ibid.: Braunschweig im Bombenkrieg. 50 Jahre danach. Den Opfern des Krieges gewidmet. Band 3: Dokumente aus der Gedenknacht 14./15.10.1994: „Die Gerloff-Berichte“. Braunschweig 1994
Jörg Friedrich: Der Brand. Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940–1945, Munich 2002
Eckart Grote: Braunschweig im Luftkrieg. Alliierte Film-, Bild- und Einsatzberichte der US-Air Force / British Royal Air Force aus den Jahren 1944/1945 als stadtgeschichtliche Dokumente. Braunschweig 1983
Eckart Grote: Braunschweig im Zweitem Weltkrieg. Dokumente einer Zerstörung – Stunde Null – Neubeginn In: Arbeitsberichte aus dem Städtischen Museum Braunschweig, Nr. 65; Braunschweig 1994
Eckart Schimpf: Nachts, als die Weihnachtsbäume kamen. Eine ganz normale Braunschweiger Kindheit im Chaos von Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit. Braunschweig 1998
Hedda Kalshoven: Ich denk' so viel an Euch. Ein deutsch-niederländischer Briefwechsel 1920–1949. Munich 1995
"Campaign Diary". Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary. UK Crown. Archived from the original on 1 June 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2007.
Braunschweig 1945 – Bombardierung, Befreiung, Leben in Trümmern. Remembered and commented on by Eckard Schimpf. Braunschweiger Zeitung und Archiv Verlag, Braunschweig 2005 DVD
Feuersturm – Der Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland. DVD-Edition, SPIEGEL TV history. Polar Film Medien GmbH, Gescher 2003
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Built-over bunker, Okerstraße (2006)
Bunker, Kaiserstraße (2006)
High bunker, Ritterstraße (2006)
Back of Kalenwall Bunker (2006)
