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During WWII, the German city of Heilbronn was raided and bombed many times by both the British and the Americans. The largest attack occurred on 4 December 1944, but there were many previous attacks targeted at Heilbronn that proved to be almost as damaging. Despite the fervency of many of these assaults, Heilbronn survived WWII, and still exists in Southern Germany today. German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ...
View of the Heilbronn centre of town toward the Wartberg. ...
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1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
Initial air raids
On 17 December 1940, the first raid occurred. Three high-explosive bombs and 20 staff incendiary bombs were released upon the city, resulting in the destruction of 20 houses and the damaging of 70 more. Three people were killed, and a further twelve were injured. Two days after the incident, heavy air defence was installed in the city, but was shortly replaced by light air defence, due to military regulations. It has been suggested that Standard RAID levels be merged into this article or section. ...
American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging military aircraft in combat from the ground. ...
August 1941 - May 1942 During the period from August to November 1941 the city of Heilbronn was bombed a further four times. However, the resulting damage to the city was minimal. During the day of one of these bombings, individual fighter-bomber aircraft had been seen flying close to and around the city. However, on 7th May 1942, a bombing raid took place that caused massive damage - the destruction or damaging of approximately 150 houses, the striking of the city centre, and the death of seven people. August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ...
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Casablanca conference In January 1943, a conference was held between the Allied nations, concerning the bombing of German cities. It was decided that the US be responsible for the assaults on traffic junctions and industrial areas, while the British would bear the responsibility of bombing the city centres. After this conference, the two nations upheld their respective assigned 'duties', and while the Americans conducted fairly accurate air assaults on individual targets, such as German war plants, air stations, and military ports, the British were successful in their endeavour to attack city centres, and, much of the time, were successful in leaving many German cities in ruins. However, while many German cities and towns were destroyed in 1943, Heilbronn was not targeted for destruction, and remained safe. January is the first month of the year and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ...
1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...
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1944 While 1943 proved a good year for Heilbronn, 1944 saw one of the worst bombings ever to hit the city. In January and February, Heilbronn suffered a two-week-long air raid by the Royal Air Force. These attacks and Heilbronn's struggle continued into April, at which stage the city was utterly devastated, and air alarms were almost daily. By July, store opening times were extended, because so bad were the air strikes, stores would be later reopened to make up for the time lost. Later into the year, the attacks grew so bad that theatre in the city was abolished, and the local police decided to enforce a ban on any decorations on windows that could be potentially flammable. However, help eventually did come, when gau leader Wilhelm Murr arrived in the town on 5th August, supplied with air-defence devices and weaponry. By the beginning of September, the number of alarms sounded in the city had risen to a staggering 160. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ...
April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four with the length of 30 days. ...
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September By September 1944, the Allied forces were seriously considering a major assault on Heilbronn. At this time, frequent and near-daily alarms were still occurring in the city, but on 8 September, four alarms were heard, due to the city's position - bombers were headed for Nuremberg, and the city needed to be passed in order for the bombers to reach their destination. The alarms happened first from 1:45 am to 2:31 am, then 11:34 am to 12:42 pm, 2:38 to 3:48 pm and from 10:30 pm to 11:42 pm. The following day, 9th September, only one alarm sounded. However, in the morning of the day after that, September 10, approximately 100 airplanes of the 8th US Air Force went over Heilbronn. Even though this mission was centred on an aircraft plant in Günzburg, with a secondary target of a marshalling yard in Ulm, there was close-cloud cover that day, and Heilbronn was the second secondary target. Over Heilbronn, the sky was cloudless, and the actual assault was visible to the populace. Briefly after 11:30 that morning, the enemy planes struck at Heilbronn's stations and ports and the marshalling yard. Then ensued a bombardment of the city that continued for several hours into the afternoon, and that caused the loss of over 300 houses and the death of over 280 men and women, with an estimated further 400 in need of help due to injury. Almost 100 cars were heavily damaged or destroyed, and many other buildings and stations were rendered irreparable. The designers of this raid called these statistics "very good results" afterwards. Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg, German-Franconian dialect: Nämberch) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ...
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Ulm is a city in the German Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube, about 90 km south-east of Stuttgart and 140 km north-west of Munich. ...
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The ensuing fires were too much for the local brigade to handle, and help had to be called from places such as Gronau, Lauffen am Neckar, Untereisesheim, Schwaigern, Weinsberg, among others. Even with this aid, the extinquishing of the many fires, both in and around Heilbronn, took several days. The particular fire that had started after the city hall was destroyed took three days alone to put out. In addition to this, cattle from local and surrounding regions had in fact been harmed by raining bomb fragments, and many of these cattle had to be slaughtered. This slaughtering of cattle resulted in days of work for many veterinarians of the safety and emergency service. Gronau is the name of two German cities Gronau in Westfalen, district Borken, North Rhine-Westphalia Gronau an der Leine, district Hildesheim, Lower Saxony This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Lauffen is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ...
Untereisesheim is a town in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. ...
Schwaigern is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ...
Weinsberg castle ruin Weinsberg is a small town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. ...
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October In the late stage of summer, and in the early autumn of 1944, the Allied forces developed Oboe. The southern German targets were about 500 to 600 km away from the transmitting plants, and because radio signals spread in a linear way and do not follow the Earth's curvature, airplanes at a height of approximately 10,000 metres had to be led over the target region, for which the light and almost completely wooden Mosquito airplanes were the most appropriate aircraft. With the establishment of Oboe, and in control of a fleet of six Mosquitoes (directed by Oboe), the Allies staged a strike on the city that commenced at 9:30 pm. The railway facilities were targeted by three of these planes, while the city centre was assaulted by two aircraft. The next day, the 28th, the railway was hit again, this time under fire by five Mosquitoes. Two days later, six aircraft again attacked the railway, and the city centre. After this, several more attacks caused intense fire. During these raids, at least half a dozen bomb raids had hit the city, all in the month of October. Despite this, the city still existed and was still a target. Summer is a season that is astronomically defined as beginning around June 21, and ending around September 23 in the Northern Hemisphere. ...
Autumn (also known as fall in North American English) is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition from summer into winter. ...
The navigators Oboe CRT display Oboe (Observer Bombing Over Enemy) was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. ...
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December Raid
 The destroyed old part of the city after the December 1944 bombings. On the evening of 4 December 1944, 282 Lancaster bombers and ten chase planes flew over the city in loose formation. The night was thickly clouded, and this factor altered the approach height for the planes. At 7:18 the first plane flew over, but it was the second plane that dropped 10 bombs with long-term fuses down onto the city about one minute later. Immediately after dropping the bombs, he began the return flight. At 7:20, shining bombs, or markers, were dropped on the city in order to make the bombings of the bombers of the 627 Squadron possible and accurate. A flashlight bomb was fused, and exploded 600 feet up in to the air. After all the shining bombs were released, the area was illuminated as bright as day. This light was obviously distinguishable to the bomber pilots, and they were subsequently ordered to go in and assault. After the markers, the shining bombs, and other such devices used for targeting were released and were functioning effectively, the load of proper bombs was dropped. This was done by Lancaster PB 251 under Lieutenant-Colonel Fugger. A total of approximately 5,800 bombs, dropped from a height of 3,800 metres, hit the city at 7:29. The attack continuined until 9:38, with a further 1,200 tonnes of bombs released upon the city, and 380 devastating the marshalling yard. It is an accepted fact that within a period of half an hour after the bomb attack over 6,500 people, over 1,000 of these being children under 10 years of age, lost their life. However, the exact number of victims is impossible to determine because many corpses were burned beyond recognition or were unrecognisable due to various other causes. Due to the amount of spark rain that fell on the city, and the number and impact of the bombs, fires started up the whole night long, and entrance to the city was not possible for days. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 593 pixel Image in higher resolution (5784 × 4288 pixel, file size: 3. ...
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The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
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Aftermath and other information Although 62% of the city was destroyed the damage in relation to the number of bombs and the force of the attack is remarkable, for several reasons. Many German cities and towns were already in ruins, or were strongly burnt-out by prior bombardments, and the British would have preferred to attack with high explosive bombs, in order to maximise the damage caused. Heilbronn, while assaulted heavily by powerful bombs, was only partially destroyed, and still exists today.
Nonetheless, the entire old section of the town was destroyed. However, donations to the city were great, and constitutional to the city's repairs and victim aid.
During the actual attack, German defence could do little. Two anti-aircraft positions at the Neckar and 14 German Junkers Ju 88 night fighters fought against the British bombers. The RAF lost eleven of its 282 airplanes. The Junkers Ju 88 was a WW2 Luftwaffe twin-engine multi-role aircraft. ...
 General Wever tower, where many people sought shelter from the December 4 bombings Much of the population of Heilbronn, the bombing being conducted on a Monday evening, were positioned in or around the city centre, but at the first signs of attack, many fled to a high shelter (General Wever tower) and two other low shelters (at the industrial place and at the Emperor Friedrich place). Many also fled to an air shelter nearby. However, by 8:00 pm the city centre was engulfed in flames, and anyone inside the building would have most probably been either burned to death or been asphyxiated. Many people who attempted to leave the city were also burnt on the roads. In the end, the air shelter collapsed, and anyone left inside would have been killed. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 786 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (1049 × 800 pixel, file size: 251 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Bombings of Heilbronn...
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Monday (pron. ...
To make matters worse, the urban hospital was left in ruins, so it was near-impossible for people who were hurt to be given satisfactory treatment and/or care. However, a great many people were able to take refuge in the emergency military hospital, and a great many more were taken to a transformed mental hospital located in nearby Weinsberg. A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ...
After the fires were somewhat more under control, rescue work and clearing up of the town began and help was sought from surrounding areas. On the night of December 5, the number of dead was announced to be approximately 4000, with another 3000 hurt.
Burials
 Graves at the honour cemetery for those who died in the bombings A task force was chosen to find the dead and to rescue any bodies that they could find or salvage. The dead that were found were brought to the city cemetery. Even then, there were not enough coffins for all the dead, but Ulm and other cities supplied a total of 1000 coffins. When it was found that the cemetery, as well as other places, would not provide enough space to adequately lay to rest the deceased, the resolution was that an honour cemetery be built at the edge of the forest near the valley of the Köpfer creek. The work on this project began on December 6, while the dead were brought on carriages to the Köpfer valley. On 8 December, the burnt-out city centre and the collapsed air shelter were accessed by salvage teams, and more dead were returned to the families for burial. The salvage work continued for over three weeks, into the Christmas of 1944. Many dead could not be retrieved, particularly in heavily damaged road courses. Many would simply have been impossible to locate or bring out, whether from the air shelter, or the ruins of the city centre, and it is still assumed that there are many skeletons still in the soil. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 280 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Bombings of Heilbronn...
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Attacks Until The End of War All the way into 1945 and up until the end of the war, several raids, while much less powerful or as damaging as the December 1944 bombings, were centred on Heilbronn. These attacks were relatively minor, and were more focused on other parts of Southern Germany, with Heilbronn receiving much less fire than before. Altogether, before the bombings of Heilbronn, there were almost 14 500 buildings in the city. However, through the war, 5 100 buildings were destroyed, and another 3800 were heavily damaged.
Memorials
 A shrine in the city hall The first memorial celebration of those who died took place on 26 August 1945. Since then, an annual memorial service has been held, and on December 4, many people come to the honour cemetery to reflect on the dead. The destruction and following reconstruction has shaped the landscape, and its effects are still visible today. The rubble from the attacks has been released into the Böckinger lake, and the usable rubble from the city centre was re-used. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 532 pixel Image in higher resolution (1504 × 1000 pixel, file size: 229 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Bombings of Heilbronn...
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References - Hubert Bläsi und Christhard Schrenk: Heilbronn 1944/45. Leben und Sterben einer Stadt. Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1995 (Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der Stadt Heilbronn, 6), ISBN 3928990535
- Erwin Bosler: Aus den Schreckenstagen Heilbronns. Verlag Ernst Frantz, Metzingen 1950
- Robert Bauer: Heilbronner Tagebuchblätter. Giehrl & Co., Heilbronn 1949
- Wilhelm Steinhilber: Heilbronn – Die schwersten Stunden der Stadt. Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1961 (Veröffentlichungen des Archivs der Stadt Heilbronn, 7)
- This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia.
German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. ...
See Also - The Allies' Bombings of the Axis' Cities in WW 2
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