Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
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The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war.[1]
The attack during the last week of July 1943, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces in World War II,[2] killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000 in Hamburg and virtually destroying most of the city.[3] Before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg there had been no rain for some time and everything was very dry.[4] The unusually warm weather and good conditions meant that the bombing was highly concentrated around the intended targets and also created a vortex and whirling updraft of super-heated air which created a 1,500-foot-high tornado of fire, a totally unexpected effect. Various other previously used techniques and devices were instrumental as well, such as area bombing, Pathfinders, and H2S radar, which came together to work with particular effectiveness. An early form of chaff, code named 'Window', was successfully used for the first time by the RAF – clouds of tinfoil strips dropped by Pathfinders as well as the initial bomber stream – in order to completely cloud German radar. The raids inflicted severe damage to German armaments production in Hamburg.
Naming
The name Gomorrah comes from that of one of the two Canaanite cities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose destruction is recorded in the Bible: "Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens." – Genesis 19:24
Significant missions
Battle of Hamburg
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The Battle of Hamburg, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, was a campaign of air raids beginning 24 July 1943 and lasting for 8 days and 7 nights. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials.[5]
Until the focus of RAF Bomber Command switched to Hamburg it had been on the Ruhr industrial region which had been the target of a five-month-long campaign.
The operation was conducted by RAF Bomber Command (including RCAF and RAAF Squadrons) and the USAAF Eighth Air Force. The British conducted night raids and the USAAF daylight raids.
The initial attack on Hamburg included two new introductions to the British planning: they used "Window", otherwise known as chaff, to confuse the German radar, while the Pathfinder Force aircraft, which normally kept radio silence, reported the winds they encountered, and this information was processed and relayed to the bomber force navigators.
No 35 Squadron led the target marking and, thanks to the clear weather and H2S radar navigation, accuracy was good, with markers falling close to the aiming point. On 24 July, at approximately 00:57, the first bombing started by the RAF and lasted almost an hour. The confusion caused to German radar kept losses of aircraft low. While some 40,000 firemen were available to tackle fires, control of their resources was damaged when the telephone exchange caught fire and rubble blocked the passage of fire engines through the city streets;[6] fires were still burning three days later.[7]
A second, daylight raid, by the USAAF was conducted at 16:40. It had been intended for 300 aircraft to attack Hamburg and Hanover but problems with assembling the force in the air meant that only 90 B-17 Flying Fortresses reached Hamburg. The bombers attacked the Blohm and Voss shipyard and an aero-engine factory, with German flak damaging 78 aircraft. In return the shipyard was not badly damaged and the aero-engine manufacturer could not be seen for smoke (a generating station was attacked instead). RAF Mosquitos of the Light Night Striking Force (LNSF) carried out nuisance raids to keep the city on a state of alert and delayed-action bombs from the night's raid exploded at intervals. Extra firemen were brought in from other cities including Hanover; as a result when the US bombers attacked, these firemen were in Hamburg and fires in Hanover burned unchecked.
Another attack by the RAF on Hamburg for that night was cancelled due to the problems the smoke would cause and 700 bombers raided Essen instead. Mosquitos carried out another nuisance raid.
A third raid was conducted on the morning of the 26th. The RAF night attack of 26 July at 00:20 was extremely light because of severe thunderstorms and high winds over the North Sea, during which a considerable number of bombers jettisoned the explosive part of their bomb loads (retaining just the incendiaries) with only two bomb drops reported. That attack is often not counted when the total number of Operation Gomorrah attacks is given. There was no day raid on the 27th.
On the night of 27 July, shortly before midnight,[8] 787 RAF aircraft—74 Wellingtons, 116 Stirlings, 244 Halifaxes and 353 Lancasters— bombed Hamburg.[9] The unusually dry and warm weather, the concentration of the bombing in one area and firefighting limitations due to blockbuster bombs used in the early part of the raid—and the recall of Hanover's firecrews to their own city—culminated in a firestorm. The tornadic fire created a huge inferno with winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour (150 mph) reaching temperatures of 800 °C (1,470 °F) and altitudes in excess of 300 metres (1,000 ft), incinerating more than 21 square kilometres (8 sq mi) of the city. Asphalt streets burst into flame, and fuel oil from damaged and destroyed ships, barges and storage tanks spilled into the water of the canals and the harbour, causing them to ignite as well. The majority of deaths attributed to Operation Gomorrah occurred on this night. A large number of those killed died seeking safety in bomb shelters and cellars, the firestorm consuming the oxygen in the burning city above. The furious winds created by the firestorm had the power to sweep people up off the streets like dry leaves:
Some people who tried to walk along, they were pulled in by the fire, they all of the sudden disappeared right in front of you (...) You have to save yourself or try to get as far away from the fire, because the draught pulls you in.— Ursula Gray (1974).[10]
On the night of 29 July, Hamburg was again attacked by over 700 RAF aircraft. A planned raid on 31 July was cancelled due to thunderstorms over the UK.[11] The last raid of Operation Gomorrah was conducted on 3 August.
Operation Gomorrah killed 42,600 people, left 37,000 wounded and caused some one million German civilians to flee the city.[3] The city's labour force was reduced by ten percent.[3] Approximately 3,000 aircraft were deployed, 9,000 tons of bombs were dropped and over 250,000 homes and houses were destroyed. No subsequent city raid shook Germany as did that on Hamburg; documents show that German officials were thoroughly alarmed and there is some indication from later Allied interrogations of Nazi officials that Hitler stated that further raids of similar weight would force Germany out of the war. The industrial losses were severe, Hamburg never recovered to full production, only doing so in essential armaments industries (in which maximum effort was made).[12] Figures given by German sources indicate that 183 large factories were destroyed out of 524 in the city and 4,118 smaller factories out of 9,068 were destroyed. Other losses included damage to or destruction of 580 industrial concerns and armaments works, 299 of which were important enough to be listed by name. Local transport systems were completely disrupted and did not return to normal for some time. Dwellings destroyed amounted to 214,350 out of 414,500.[13] Hamburg was hit by air raids another 69 times before the end of World War II. In total, the RAF dropped 22,580 long tons of bombs on Hamburg.[14]
Aftermath
Cityscape
The totally destroyed quarter of Hammerbrook, in which mostly port workers lived, was not rebuilt as a housing area but as a commercial area. The adjoining quarter of Rothenburgsort shared the same fate, as only a small area of housing was rebuilt. The underground line which connected these areas with the central station was not rebuilt either.
In the destroyed residential areas many houses were rebuilt across the street and therefore do not form connected blocks anymore. The hills of the Öjendorfer Park are formed by the debris of destroyed houses.[15]
In January 1946, Major Cortez F. Enloe, a surgeon in the USAAF who worked on the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS), said that the fire effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki "were not nearly as bad as the effects of the R.A.F. raids on Hamburg on July 27th 1943". He estimated more than 40,000 people died in Hamburg.[16]
"It was quite a surprise to us when the first Hamburg raid took place because you used some new device which was preventing the anti-aircraft guns to find your bombers, so you had a great success and you repeated these attacks on Hamburg several times and each time the new success was greater and the depression was larger, and I have said, in those days, in a meeting of the Air Ministry, that if you would repeat this success on four or five other German towns, then we would collapse." – Albert Speer – The Secret War
Memorials
Several memorials in Hamburg are reminders of the air raids during World War II:
- The ruins of the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church), which was largely destroyed during the bombing, have been made into a memorial against war. The spire of the church survived the attacks.
- Memorial at the Hamburger Strasse – a memorial for those who died in a shelter under the Karstadt department store at the corner of Desenißstrasse and Hamburger Strasse. The department store was hit by a bomb on the night of 29 July. The people in the air raid shelter below were killed by the heat and carbon monoxide poisoning.
- The victims of the air raids were buried on the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in mass graves. The memorial "Passage over the Styx" by Gerhard Marcks is in the center and shows how Charon ferries a young couple, a mother with her child, a man and a despairing person over the river Styx.
- Many houses rebuilt after World War II show a memorial plaque with the inscription "Destroyed 1943 – 19** Rebuilt " as a reminder of their destruction during the air raids in July 1943.
- Sculpture at the main memorial, Nikolaikirche ruins.
- Sculpture Prayer for Peace at the Nikolaikirche (Edith Breckwoldt, 2001).
- Plaque on a Hamburg house says, "Destroyed 1943 * rebuilt 1957.
- Memorial to the victims of the Hamburg bombings on Hamburger Strasse.[lower-alpha 1]
- Memorial Passage over the Styx at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.
Timeline
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Date | Target/Type | Roundel and notes |
---|---|---|
night of 10/11 September 1939 | leaflets | ![]() |
night 17/18 May 1940 | oil installations | ![]() |
night 27/28 May 1940 | oil refineries | ![]() |
night 30/31 May1940 | oil refineries | ![]() |
June–October 1940 | ![]() | |
night 20/21 October 1940 | ![]() | |
night 24/25 October 1940 | ![]() | |
nights of 15/16 November and 16/17 November 1940 | ![]() | |
night of 12/13 March 1941 | ![]() | |
The night of 13/14 March 1941 | ![]() | |
April 1941 | ![]() | |
May 1941 | ![]() | |
The night of 11/12 May 1941 | ![]() | |
The night of 27/28 June 1941 | ![]() | |
night of 14/15 January 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 15/16 January 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 17/18 January 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 16/17 February 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 8/9 April 1942 | ![]() | |
The night of 17/18 April 1942 | ![]() | |
The night of 3/4 May 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 26/27 July 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 28/29 July 1942 | ![]() | |
day of 3 August 1942 | ![]() | |
day of 18 August 1942 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
day of 19 September 1942 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 13/14 October 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 9/10 November 1942 | ![]() | |
night of 30/31 January 1943 | ![]() | |
night of 3/4 February 1943 | ![]() | |
The night of 3/4 March 1943 | ![]() | |
13/14 April 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
25 June 1943 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
night of 26/27 June 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 28/29 June 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 3/4 July 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 5/6 July 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 24/25 July 1943 | large raid | ![]() |
25 July 1943 16:40 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
26 July 1943 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
The night of 26/27 July 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 27/28 July 1943 | Large raid | ![]() |
night of 28/29 July 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 29/30 July 1943 | Large raid | ![]() |
night of 2/3 August 1943 | ![]() | |
night of 22/23 August 1943 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 5/6 November 1943 | ![]() | |
night of 1/2 January 1944 | diversionary raid (Berlin) | ![]() |
night of 11/12 March 1944 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 6/7 April 1944 | ![]() | |
night of 26/27 April 1944 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
night of 28/29 April 1944 | ![]() | |
18 June 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
20 June 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
night of 22/23 June 1944 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
night of 22/23 July 1944 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
night of 26/27 July 1944 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
night of 29/29 July 1944 | ![]() | |
4 August 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
6 August 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
night of 26/27 August 1944 | diversionary nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 29/30 August 1944 | diversionary nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 6/7 September 1944 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 26/27 September 1944 | diversionary nuisance raid | ![]() |
night of 30/1 October 1944 | ![]() | |
6 October 1944 | oil refinery (Harburg/Rhenania) | ![]() |
night of 12/13 October 1944 | ![]() | |
25 October 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
30 October 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
4 November 1944 | oil refinery | ![]() |
5 November 1944 | ordnance depots | ![]() |
6 November 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
night of 11/12 November 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
21 November 1944 | oil refineries | ![]() |
night of 30/1 December 1944 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
night of 11/12 December 1944 | ![]() | |
night of 27/28 December 1944 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
31 December 1944 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
night of 16/17 January 1945 | diversionary nuisance raid | ![]() |
24 February 1945 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
24 February 1945 | oil refineries | ![]() |
5 March 1945 | oil refinery | ![]() |
8/9 March 1945 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
10 March 1945 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
11 March 1945 | oil refinery | ![]() |
20 March 1945 | shipyards, docs and oil installations | ![]() |
night of 21/22 March 1945 | oil refinery (Erdölwerke) | ![]() |
30 March 1945 | oil depot | ![]() |
night of 30/31 March 1945 | ![]() | |
day of 31 March 1945 | Blohm & Voss | ![]() |
night of 2/3 April 1945 | nuisance raid | ![]() |
8 April 1945 | U-boat yard | ![]() |
night of 8/9 April 1945 | shipyard | ![]() |
day of 9 April 1945 | oil storage | ![]() |
night of 9/10 April 1945 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
The night of 13/14 April 1945 | diversionary raid | ![]() |
Notes
- ↑ Memorial inscription reads: "On the night of 29 July 1943, 370 persons perished in the air-raid shelter on the Hamburgerstrasse in a bombing raid. Remember these dead. Never again fascism. Never again war".
- ↑ These two nights of bombing were only 24 hours after a very large raid by the German Luftwaffe on Coventry on the night of 14/15 November 1940. However the raid must have been planned more than 24 hours in advance, so although these raids are often stated to be revenge attacks, it is unlikely that they were planned to be so.
- ↑ Levine 1992, p. 149.
- ↑ Dyson 2006.
- 1 2 3 Frankland & Webster 1961, pp. 260–261.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005a.
- ↑ NA staff 2009.
- ↑ Wilson 2005, p. 250.
- ↑ Wilson 2005, p. 252.
- ↑ Bahnsen & Stürmer, p. 41.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 RAF staff 2005, Jul 43.
- ↑ Time Witness Ursula Gray in "Volume 21: Nemesis", The World at War – Produced and Directed by Martin Smith, Written by Stuart Hood, Narrator: Laurence Olivier – Thames Television London (UK) 1973–1974, released on Video 13-6-1995
- ↑ Wilson 2005, p. 270.
- ↑ Frankland & Webster 1961, p. 261.
- ↑ Frankland & Webster 1961, p. 262.
- ↑ "Target Analysis: Tonnage of Bombs Dropped and Number of Sea Mines Laid by R.A.F. Bomber Command: Monthly from September, 1939, to May, 1945". Flight: 154. 9 August 1945. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ↑ Pauls 2006.
- ↑ "News in Brief". Flight: 33. 10 January 1946.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Sep–Dec 39.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, The Battle of France (May–Jun 1940)
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, The Battle of Britain (June–October 1940)
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Jul–Dec 40.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, Jan–Apr 41.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, May–Aug 41.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, Jan 42.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Apr 42.
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Apr 42.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, May 42.
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Jul 42.
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Aug 42.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Sep 42.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Oct 42.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Nov 42.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Jan 43.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Feb 43.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Mar 43.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Apr 43.
- ↑ McKillop 2004, Jun 43.
- ↑ Preller 2014, 384th BG Mission 2
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Jun 43.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 195.
- 1 2 McKillop 2004, Jul 43.
- 1 2 Brunswig 1978, p. 208.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 210.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 211.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 248.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 261.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Aug 43.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Nov 43.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Jan 44.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Mar 44.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, Apr 44.
- 1 2 McKillop 2004, June
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Jun 44.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, Jul 44.
- 1 2 McKillop 2004, Aug 44
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Aug 44.
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Sep 44.
- 1 2 RAF staff 2005, Oct 44.
- 1 2 3 McKillop 2004, Oct 44
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 345.
- 1 2 3 4 McKillop 2004, Nov 44.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Nov 44.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 347.
- 1 2 3 RAF staff 2005, Dec 44.
- ↑ Brunswig 1978, p. 348.
- ↑ McKillop 2004, Dec 44.
- ↑ RAF staff 2005, Jan 45.
- ↑ McKillop 2004, Feb 45.
- 1 2 3 4 McKillop 2004, Mar 45.
- 1 2 3 4 5 RAF staff 2005, Mar 45.
- 1 2 3 4 5 RAF staff 2005, Apr 45.
- ↑ McKillop 2004, Apr 45.
References
- Bahnsen, Uwe; Stürmer, Kerstin von, Die Stadt, die sterben sollte, Hamburg im Bombenkrieg, Juli 1943, p. 41
- Brunswig, Hans (1978), Feuersturm über Hamburg, Stuttgart, p. 195, ISBN 3-87943-570-7
- Dyson, Freeman (1 November 2006), "Part I: A Failure of Intelligence", Technology Review, retrieved April 2009 Check date values in:
|access-date=
(help) - Frankland, Noble; Webster, Charles (1961), The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945, Volume II: Endeavour, Part 4, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, pp. 260–261
- Levine, Alan J (1992), The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945, p. 149, ISBN 978-0-275-94319-6, retrieved 2006-06-30
- McKillop, Jack (2 July 2004), United States Army Air Forces in World War II: Combat Chronology of World War II, U.S. Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC) Archive External link in
|publisher=
(help) - NA staff (5 January 2009), The Cabinet Papers 1915–1978: Glossary – B, The National Archives, retrieved June 2009 Check date values in:
|access-date=
(help) - Pauls, Simone (17 August 2006), "So paradiesisch schön ist Hamburgs Osten", Hamburger Morgenpost, ARCHIV: Hamburgs grüne Oasen
- Preller, Fred (2014), "384th BG Mission 2", 384th Bomb Group (Heavy), www.384thbombgroup.com, retrieved 9 September 2014
- RAF staff (6 April 2005), "Bomber Command: Campaign Diary", RAF Bomber Command 60th Anniversary, archived from the original on 6 July 2007
- RAF staff (6 April 2005a), "Hamburg, 28th July 1943", Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary, UK Crown, archived from the original on 6 July 2007, retrieved 22 March 2009
- Wilson, Kevin (2005), Bomber Boys, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-297-84637-6
Further reading
- Lowe, Keith (2007). Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg, 1943. Viking. ISBN 0-670-91557-2.
- Friedrich, Jörg (2006). The Fire: The bombing of Germany, 1940–1945. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13380-4.
- Grayling, A. C. (2006). Among the Dead Cities. New York: Walker Publishing Company Inc. ISBN 0-8027-1471-4.
- Hansen, Randall (2009), Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany. New York: New American Library. ISBN 978-0-451-22759-1
- Interrogation of Captured Prisoners, United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report, (European War), September 30, 1945
- Memories of a 24-year-old woman (in German)
- Memories of a 12 year-old girl
- Doebler, Joachim (1995). "Life beneath the Facades of Bombed-out Streets. Housing Situation in post-war Hamburg" (PDF). Indian Architect & Builder, Vol.9, No.3 (1995). Doebler-online.de. pp. 102–107.
- Nossack, Hans (2004). The End: Hamburg 1943. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-59556-0.
- Sebald, Winfried (2003). On the Natural History of Destruction. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50484-2.
- Spaight, James M. (1944). Bombing Vindicated. G. Bles. OCLC 1201928. (Spaight was Principal Assistant Secretary of the UK Air Ministry)
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