Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II

During World War II Braunschweig

Braunschweig

Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....

(known as Brunswick in English) was attacked by Allied aircraft in 42 bombing raids.

The attack on the night of 14/15 October 1944 by No. 5 Group

No. 5 Group RAF

No. 5 Group was a Royal Air Force bomber group of the Second World War, led during the latter part by AVM Sir Ralph Cochrane.-History:The Group was formed on 1 September 1937 with headquarters at RAF Mildenhall....

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

(RAF) marked the high point of the destruction of Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....

's city in the Second World War. The air raid, part of Operation Hurricane

Operation Hurricane (1944)

Operation Hurricane was a 24 hour bombing operation to "demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre" and "cause mass panic and in the Ruhr, disrupt frontline communications and demonstrate the futility of resistance"...

, caused a huge firestorm

Firestorm

A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires, forest fires, and wildfires...

because of which Braunschweig burnt continuously for two and a half days. Moreover, the attack destroyed Braunschweig's mediaeval city centre (more than 90% of it) thereby changing the city's appearance right down to the present day.

Raids

The RAF first bombed Braunschweig on 17 August 1940, killing 7 people, and the 94th BG earned a Distinguished Service Cross

Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)

The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...

for an 11 January 1944 mission against the MIAG bomber components factory. As part of the Combined Bomber Offensive

Combined Bomber Offensive

The Combined Bomber Offensive was an Anglo-American offensive of strategic bombing during World War II in Europe. The primary portion of the CBO was against German Air Force targets which was the highest priority from June 1943 to 1944...

, Braunschweig was a regular target for RAF (nighttime raids) and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

bombers (daylight), including two "Big Week" attacks on 20 and 21 February 1944. On October 14, 1944, the No. 106 Squadron RAF

No. 106 Squadron RAF

No. 106 Squadron RAF was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force squadron active from 1917 until 1919. It was also operative during World War II and in the post war period until 1963.- Establishment and early service :...

bombed Brunswick,http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=382806&rel_no=1 and one of the last attacks was the 3 March 1945 bombing of the chemical plant

Oil Campaign of World War II

The Allied Oil Campaign of World War II was directed at facilities supplying Nazi Germany with petroleum, oil, and lubrication products...

.http://users.cybercity.dk/~nmb5433/missions1.html

Braunschweig in 1944

Braunschweig was subjected to 42 World War II air raids, and the city was ringed by anti-aircraft gun

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

s.. In January 1944 Bomber Commands raids against "Stettin, Brunswick and Magdeburg" were taking 7.2% losses - more than in raids against Berlin that month.Bomber Command p342 The targets included machine and munitions works, the harbour, research institutions, canneries, railway stations and the railway maintenance works, and the German Research Centre for Aviation

German Aerospace Center

The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...

. Nearby targets included the Reichswerke Hermann Göring in Salzgitter

Salzgitter

Salzgitter is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven Oberzentren of Lower Saxony...

and the KdF-Stadt Volkswagen factory near Fallersleben

Fallersleben

Fallersleben is a district in the City of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population of 11,269 . The village of Fallersleben was first mentioned in 942 under the name of Valareslebo. Fallersleben became a city in 1929, and was incorporated into Wolfsburg in 1972. Before 1972, it belonged...

. The nearby Oflag 79

Oflag 79

Oflag 79 was a World War II prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers incarcerated by the Germans. The camp was located at Waggum near Braunschweig in Germany, also known by the English name of Brunswick....

prisoner-of-war camp was attacked on 24 August 1944.

Raid's purpose

On 13 October, the RAF received orders to carry out Operation Hurricane. The purpose of this action was on the one hand to demonstrate the Allied bomber forces' destructive might, and on the other hand also to make clear Allied air superiority. The orders included the following:

"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

Eighth Air Force

The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....

against objectives in the densely populated Ruhr

Ruhr Area

The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...

."RAF diary October 1944

Operation Hurricane foresaw Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

as its main goal for the RAF's thousand or so bombers, and Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

for the USAAF's 1,200 or so bombers. A further 233 RAF bombers were detailed for Braunschweig, which in October 1944 had about 150,000 inhabitants.

The planning for the attack on Braunschweig was finalized as of 15 August 1944. Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

had been attacked on the night of 11 September 1944 using a new targeting technique, fan-shaped flying formation, staggering of explosive and incendiary bombs. A largely unprepared town, the resulting fires caused about 11,500 deaths. The Allies now 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 living place, thereby making it uninhabitable and useless. The goal, namely the greatest possible destruction, was to be reached through detailed attack plans and careful execution thereof, and also using the attributes of the materiel that was to be deployed. The means whereby the goal was to be reached would be the aforesaid firestorm, whose production was no accident; it was scientifically based and developed through painstakingly detailed work.

On 13 October, the chief meteorologist

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

at RAF High Wycombe

RAF High Wycombe

RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Its purpose is to serve the needs of the RAF Air Command, situated on the site. It is also the headquarters of the European Air Group...

advised RAF Bomber Command Headquarters of the weather forecast for the weekend of 14–15 October: Slight cloudiness, good visibility throughout the night, moderate winds. The next day, Air Marshal

Air Marshal

Air marshal is a three-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...

Arthur "Bomber" Harris

Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet GCB OBE AFC , commonly known as "Bomber" Harris by the press, and often within the RAF as "Butcher" Harris, was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command during the latter half of World War...

issued the orders to carry out the attack on Braunschweig and other cities. Brunswick was codenamed Skate
Skate
Skates are cartilaginous fish belonging to the family Rajidae in the superorder Batoidea of rays. There are more than 200 described species in 27 genera. There are two subfamilies, Rajinae and Arhynchobatinae ....

by RAF Bomber Command, all German cities being given names of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, the person responsible for the naming being a keen angler

Angling

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...

. Actual city names were never used in operational orders for security reasons.

RAF Bomber Command had sought four times in vain during 1944 to inflict lasting destruction upon Braunschweig, failing each time as a result of, among other things, bad weather and strong defences.

On Saturday 14 October 1944 at No. 5 Group's headquarters at Morton Hall, the preparations for the attack were finalized.

The raid

The raid coincided with a thousand-bomber raid on Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

, the second on that city within 48 hours.

According to plan, the aircraft of No. 5 Group took off around 2300 hours local time on 14 October.The main force of the group was 233 four-engined heavy bombers – Avro Lancaster

Avro Lancaster

The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...

s Mark I and III – each with a bomb load of about six tonnes. The Lancasters were accompanied by seven de Havilland Mosquito

De Havilland Mosquito

The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...

fast light bombers.
The bombers bound for Braunschweig took a course that ran to the south to avoid the Ruhr area

Ruhr Area

, which was heavily defended by anti-aircraft batteries and aircraft. Near Paderborn

Paderborn

Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...

it turned towards the north, overflew Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

, and went on to Braunschweig.

As was usual, the British activities for the night included a number of sorties to deceive the German defences about the true targets for the night. One hundred and forty-one training craft flew simulated attacks on Heligoland

Heligoland

Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...

, 20 Mosquitos went to Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, eight to Mannheim

Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....

, 16 to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

and two to Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

. Moreover, 140 aircraft of 100 Group RAF were deployed in measures against German nightfighter defences. Strips of tinfoil (codenamed "Window") were scattered into the air in great amounts to jam the German air defence system's radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

stations, thereby rendering them very nearly useless on this night.

The siren

Civil defense siren

A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...

signal alerting the city to an air raid was sounded at about 0150 on 15 October.

Target marking

The Mosquitos of 5 Group marked the target for the main force. No. 5 Group developed its own techniques separate to the Pathfinder Force

Pathfinder (RAF)

The Pathfinders were elite squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. They located and marked targets with flares, which a main bomber force could aim at, increasing the accuracy of their bombing...

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. Southwest of the downtown core fell the first red flare. These craft in turn gave forth about 60 flares from a height of 1 000 m, which then slowly floated down to the ground, each burning for about 3 to 7 minutes. These lit markers were called "Christmas tree" by the Germans for their characteristic appearance. Given the clear night , the problem-free overflight, the flawless marking of the target, the conditions for this attack were, from the British point of view, optimal.

The green marker on the Dom-Insel served to guide the bomb aimers

Bombardier (air force)

A bombardier , in the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force, or a bomb aimer, in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, was the crewman of a bomber responsible for assisting the navigator in guiding the plane to a bombing target and releasing the aircraft's bomb...

in all following aircraft, who flew in over it from various directions in a fan-shaped formation, whereupon they dropped their bombs.

RAF filming

This air raid on Braunschweig was filmed by a Lancaster (registration L 463 Y) specially outfitted for the task with three "Eyemo

Eyemo

The Eyemo is a 35 mm motion-picture film camera which was manufactured by the Bell & Howell Co. of Chicago.-Background:Designed and first manufactured in 1925, it was for many years the most compact 35 mm motion-picture film camera of the hundred foot capacity...

"-type cameras. It flew along with the rest at a height of 4950 m (16,240.2 ft) over Braunschweig at 260 km/h (161.6 mph). The time of the attack's onset was noted as 0233 hours. A copy of the resulting film can be found today at the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig.

The film is provided with the following informational text:

"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 been seen clearly outlined."

The firestorm

Before long, about 847 tonnes of bombs had been dropped on the city, firstly about 12,000 explosive bombs – the so-called "Blockbusters

Blockbuster bomb

Blockbuster or "cookie" was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force...

" – in many "carpets

Carpet bombing

Carpet bombing is a large aerial bombing done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase invokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in the same way that a carpet covers a floor. Carpet bombing is usually achieved by dropping many...

" on the old timber-frame

Timber framing

Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

town to get the intended firestorm started in the most efficient way – with the old town's wooden houses. The blast waves blew the houses' roofs off, 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, as well as damage observers into cellars and bunkers.

After the wave of explosive bombs came about 200,000 phosphorus

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...

and incendiary bombs whose job was to ignite the firestorm, for as with attacks on other cities, for instance Hamburg

Bombing of Hamburg in World War II

The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial center, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war...

(Operation Gomorrah), the firestorm was no accident, but rather a carefully planned tactic that was the result of years of thorough scientific research. It would still be burning long after the bombers had returned to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

By about 0310 hours, about 40 minutes after the first explosive bombs had been dropped on Braunschweig, the RAF bombing was over.

The hot masses of air were sucked upwards by the powerful thermal

Thermal

A thermal column is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example of convection. The sun warms the ground, which in turn warms the air directly above it...

that arose from the conflagration. Cooler air was thereby brought down from great heights, making the local weather much like a windstorm with constantly changing winds that only worsened the fires, thereby further strengthening the winds, which were actually strong enough to sweep small pieces of furniture up and toss people about.

About three and a half hours later, towards 6:30 in the morning, the firestorm reached its peak in the downtown core. About 150 ha of historic old Braunschweig was going up in flames. The city's tallest church steeples – those of St. Andrew’s at about 100 m tall – could be seen burning far beyond the town, and they also rained embers down over the whole city. Streets, buildings and the ruins of the downtown core were heavily littered with incendiary bombs, greatly slowing rescue vehicles and fire engines, which had to fight their way through this and many other dangers in the firestorm to reach into the fire.

The city burnt 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

Hanover

to the west and Helmstedt

Helmstedt

Helmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. Helmstedt has 26,000 inhabitants . In former times the city was also called Helmstädt....

in the east, from Celle

Celle

Celle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the River Aller, a tributary of the Weser and has a population of about 71,000...

to the north and Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval court and the old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list....

to the south.

Within the 24 hours of Operation Hurricane, the RAF dropped about 10,000 tonnes of bombs in total on Duisburg and Braunschweig, the greatest bomb load dropped on any single day in the Second World War.

Rescue of 23,000 trapped people

The many fires in the city centre quickly grew together into one widespread conflagration. However, in this area were six large bunker

Bunker

A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...

s and two air raid shelters, all quite overfull, in which 23,000 people had sought refuge from the attack. While these thousands waited in seeming safety inside their thick-walled shelters for the all-clear signal, outside the firestorm raged.

The fire brigade very soon realized the threat to these 23,000 trapped people – the fire was growing ever hotter, and the oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

in the bunkers and shelters thereby ever thinner. The danger was clearly that the victims would either suffocate

Asphyxia

Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. An example of asphyxia is choking. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs...

for lack of oxygen if they stayed in the bunkers, or be burnt alive if they tried to leave and escape through the firestorm outside.

Die Wassergasse ("water alley")

Towards 5 o'clock in the morning, before the firestorm had reached its full intensity, the idea of building a "water alley" was conceived by Lieutenant of the Fire Brigade Rudolf Prescher. This "water alley" would allow the trapped people to flee their shelters for safe areas of the city.

The water alley 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 7 o'clock 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 get out of the danger zone and reach safe areas, such as the museum park. Only at the Schöppenstedter Straße 31 air shelter did the help come too late, where 95 of the 104 people 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 it impossible to save more than nine people.

Destroyed buildings (selection)

A great part of Braunschweig's tightly packed city centre was made up of about 800 timber-frame

Timber framing

houses, many of which dated back to the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. There were also stone buildings dating mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The narrow streets with their wooden timber-frame houses that could so easily catch fire and burn, all built cheek by jowl with each other, saw to it that the British tactics were successful. First dropping explosive bombs, and then incendiary bombs, not only started a fire, but made sure it would spread quickly and turn into a firestorm that raged for 2½ days, destroying virtually everything. Braunschweig lost many irreplaceable cultural monuments in the short time after the air raid.

In an ironic twist of fate, the old cathedral, which the RAF had used as a reckoning point for the whole operation, and which the Nazis had turned into a "National Shrine" in 1935, was left standing.

Along with whole streets in the city centre, many important historic buildings were largely or utterly destroyed. What follows is a selection of those:

Building	time built	Condition after 15 October 1944
Aegidienkirche (church)	13th - 15th cen.	heavily damaged
Alte Waage	1534	utterly destroyed, from 1990 - 1994 rebuilt
Andreas-Kirche (church)	about 1230	heavily damaged
Bierbaumsches Haus	1523	destroyed
Braunschweiger Schloss (Palace)	1833–1841	heavily damaged, demolished in 1960 amid great controversy; reconstructed and reopened 2008. Now houses city library and joined with the new Schloss-Arkaden mall.
Brüdern-Kirche (church)	about 1361	heavily damaged
Dankwarderode Castle Dankwarderode Castle Dankwarderode Castle on the Burgplatz in Brunswick is a Saxon lowland castle. It was the residence of the Brunswick dukes for centuries and, today, is part of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum....	1887–1906	heavily damaged
Gewandhaus (cloth hall)	before 1268	heavily damaged
Hagenmarkt-Apotheke	1677	destroyed
Haus Salve Hospes	1805	heavily damaged
Katharinen-Kirche (church)	about 1200	heavily damaged
Liberei	1412–1422	heavily damaged
Magnikirche (church)	about 1031	heavily damaged
Martineum	1415	destroyed
Martini-Kirche (church)	about 1195	heavily damaged
Meinhardshof	about 1320	destroyed
Mumme-Haus (brewery)	16 cen.	destroyed
Nicolai-Kirche (church)	1710–1712	destroyed
Pauli-Kirche (church)	1901/06	heavily damaged
Petri-Kirche (church)	before 1195	heavily damaged
Stechinelli-Haus	1690	heavily damaged
Staatstheater	1861	heavily damaged

On the next morning, 16 October, Braunschweig lay under a thick cloud of smoke. A British reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

aircraft sent to take photographs of the bombing's aftermath for analysis actually had to turn back and return to England without completing its job, which 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. Eighty thousand of the townsfolk were left homeless by the attack.

The destruction was so widespread and thorough that ordinary people and the experts alike, even years after the war, were convinced that the attack had come from one of the dread "thousand-bomber attacks", such as the one that had laid Cologne 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.

The victims

The exact number of victims of the 15 October attack is unknown. The given figures range from 484 to 640 dead, 95 of those by suffocation at the Schöppenstedter Straße 31 shelter alone. Nowadays, historians put the number at more than a thousand.

These "light" losses – compared with those suffered in the great air raids on Dresden

Bombing of Dresden in World War II

The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...

, Hamburg, Pforzheim

Bombing of Pforzheim in World War II

During the latter stages of World War II, Pforzheim, a town in southwestern Germany, was bombed a number of times. The largest raid, and one of the most devastating area bombardments of the war was carried out by the Royal Air Force on the evening of February 23, 1945. As many as 17,600 people,...

and other German cities – according to expert opinions stem from various factors. For one thing, Braunschweig lay on the direct flight path, that is, the "lane" leading to Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

and Berlin

Berlin

, and right near the armament industry centres of Salzgitter (Hermann-Göring-Werke) and Wolfsburg (Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

Works), 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 the other cities mentioned. 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 23,000 people's lives.

The RAF lost a single Lancaster bomber to anti-aircraft fire that night.

Bunkers in Braunschweig

Braunschweig Armour

Braunschweig had, compared to other German cities, a great number of the most modern air raid bunkers, some of which were Hochbunkers (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

Technische Universität Braunschweig

The TU Braunschweig is the oldest University of Technology in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the most renowned and largest German Institutes of Technology. Today it has about 13,000 students, making it the third largest...

. 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 km (55.9 mi) away, and included not only members of city fire brigades from, among other places, Blankenburg

Blankenburg

Blankenburg may refer to:* Blankenburg am Harz, a German town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt* Blankenburg Castle , the castle in Blankenburg am Harz * Bad Blankenburg, a German town in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia...

, Celle

Celle

Celle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the River Aller, a tributary of the Weser and has a population of about 71,000...

, Gifhorn

Gifhorn

Gifhorn is a town and capital of the district Gifhorn in the east of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the industrial and commercially important cities nearby, Brunswick and Wolfsburg...

, Hanover

Hanover

, Helmstedt

Helmstedt

, Hildesheim

Hildesheim

Hildesheim is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste river, which is a small tributary of the Leine river...

, Peine

Peine

Peine is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of the district Peine. It is situated on the river Fuhse and the Mittellandkanal, approx. 25 km west of Braunschweig, and 40 km east of Hanover.- History :...

, Salzgitter

Salzgitter

, Wernigerode

Wernigerode

Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....

and Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...

, but also volunteers and members of plant fire brigades at the various factories in Braunschweig and the surrounding area. They are to be thanked for the fact that the city was not utterly burnt down that night.

Aftermath

The bombing in the Nazi press

Even on the night of the attack, the National Socialists

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

seized the opportunity to make the victims an instrument in their quest for total war

Total war

Total war is a war in which a belligerent engages in the complete mobilization of fully available resources and population.In the mid-19th century, "total war" was identified by scholars as a separate class of warfare...

, for already by the next day, 16 October, with Braunschweig still burning, the local Nazi propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, the Braunschweiger Tageszeitung, came out with the headline "Die teuflische Fratze des Gegners. Schwerer Terrorangriff auf Braunschweig – Volksgemeinschaft in der Bewährung" ("The foe's devilish antics. Heavy terror attack on Braunschweig – Population put to the test"), and Südhannover-Braunschweig Gauleiter Hartmann Lauterbacher

Hartmann Lauterbacher

Hartmann Lauterbacher was a high area leader of the Hitler Youth, as well as Nazi Gauleiter of the Gau of South Hanover-Braunschweig and an SS Gruppenführer....

's (1909–1988) pithy words of perseverance to "the Braunschweigers". On 19 October, the number of "fallen" was given as 405, and on 20 October appeared a full-page death notice with 344 names. On 22 October, one week after the disastrous attack, there was a "memorial act" for the victims, both at the State Cathedral ("Staatsdom") – as the Nazis called Braunschweig's 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.

Population

When the Second World War 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

Unexploded ordnance

Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...

that the Allies dropped) about 2,905 people died, 1,286 of whom (44.3%) were foreigners. These foreigners were predominantly prisoners of war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

, forced labourers

Unfree labour

Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery as well as all other related institutions .-Payment for unfree labour:If payment occurs, it may be in one or more of the following forms:...

, and concentration camp inmates who worked in the armament industry, and who were forbidden access to the air raid bunkers.

Destruction of housing and infrastructure

Between 1940 and 1945, Braunschweig was targeted 42 times by RAF and USAAF air raids.

Exact figures are available only for destroyed houses and flats

Apartment

An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

. By the time the war was over, about 20% of Braunschweig's dwellings had been left utterly undamaged, but about 24% of them had been utterly destroyed. The remaining 55% 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

Oker

The Oker is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany, that has historically formed an important political boundary. It is a left tributary of the River Aller, in length and runs in a generally northerly direction.- Course :...

Ring", the Oker being a river that encircles Braunschweig) stood at about 90%, and the overall figure for Braunschweig as a whole was 42%. The attack on the city produced an estimated 3 670 500 m³ of rubble. These figures put Braunschweig among Germany's most heavily damaged cities in the Second World War.

Reconstruction

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. Actually, however, smaller messes were still being cleared up years after that.

Braunschweig's reconstruction in the 1950s and 1960s proceeded very quickly, as housing was so badly needed, and the city's infrastructure needed to be built all over again. Since the downtown core was a rubble-strewn wasteland, city and spatial

Spatial planning

Spatial planning refers to the methods used by the public sector to influence the distribution of people and activities in spaces of various scales. Discrete professional disciplines which involve spatial planning include land use planning, urban planning, regional planning, transport planning and...

planners seized the chance to build a new, modern, and above all car-friendly city, an idea promoted by Hans Bernhard Reichow. 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.

The later destruction of historic buildings and cultural sites, such as the demolition of many medieval, baroque and classical buildings or the controversial demolition of the damaged Braunschweiger Schloss (palatial residence) in 1960 led much as with the Dresden Frauenkirche

Dresden Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche is a Lutheran church in Dresden, eastern Germany.Built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. It has been reconstructed as a landmark symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies...

, the Berliner Stadtschloss

Berliner Stadtschloss

The Stadtschloss , was a royal palace in the centre of Berlin, capital of Germany. The palace bore features of the Baroque style, and its shape, finalized by the mid 18th century, is attributed to Andreas Schlüter, whose first design is likely to date from 1702, though the palace incorporated...

(Berlin City 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.

Reconstruction of damaged or destroyed buildings continues in part down to the present day, as can be seen in the partial reconstruction of the Braunschweiger Schloss.

Meaning and necessity of the destruction

Already in 1943, the Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

and Member of the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

George Bell

George Bell (bishop)

George Kennedy Allen Bell was an Anglican theologian, Dean of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester, member of the House of Lords and a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement.-Early career:...

was putting forth the view that such attacks as these threatened the ethical foundations of Western civilization

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

and destroyed any chance of future reconciliation between the 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

Military necessity

Military necessity, along with distinction, and proportionality, are three important principles of international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict.-Attacks:...

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

End of World War II in Europe

The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union took place in late April and early May 1945.-Timeline of surrenders and deaths:...

in May 1945,) can be morally justified.

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 raid.

Since the attack, memorial events and exhibitions have been held in Braunschweig every 14–15 October. The events of those two days also echo strongly in local historical literature (see under "References"). On 14–15 October 2004 – the sixtieth anniversary of the destruction of Braunschweig's historic old town – there were once again many events. Among other memorials that took place was Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

's War Requiem
War Requiem
The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...

, conducted at the Braunschweig Cathedral in the presence of British Ambassador Sir Peter Torry

Peter Torry

Sir Peter James Torry, GCVO, KCMG was the UK Ambassador to Germany from 2003 until 30 September 2007. He is now a senior adviser to Centrica PLC, Celesio AG, STAR Capital Partners, and is a member of the advisory board of Betfair plc and the Kiel Global Economic Symposium and a policy fellow of...

External links

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