Bombing of Rotterdam in 1940

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Burning Rotterdam in May 1940

The 1940 bombing of Rotterdam by the German Air Force took place in the early afternoon of May 14, 1940, from 1:27 p.m. to approximately 1:40 p.m. It killed 814 civilians, destroyed the entire old town and immediately led to the surrender of the Dutch government.

This attack on the Dutch port city of Rotterdam , also known as the Rotterdam Blitz , during the invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg took place at the beginning of the western campaign in World War II .

procedure

The German Wehrmacht attacked the Netherlands in the morning hours of May 10, 1940. In order to distract from what was happening on the ground, air force machines first penetrated the Dutch airspace, supposedly on the flight to England. However, they turned back over the North Sea and attacked The Hague .

The invasion was successful for the attackers. Nevertheless, the resistance of " Fortress Holland " was considerable, although German airborne troops had occupied the bridge over the Waal and thus possessed the entrance gate to Fortress Holland. The Germans intended to advance into the interior of the fortress from the south. They could not use the bridge because of the Dutch resistance. On May 13th, however, they were able to advance in the rear of the Grebbelinie , whereby the Dutch troops faced an encirclement. The French troops standing at Breda , which in principle could have helped the Dutch, were not operational because of the German air raids and withdrew.

Rotterdam, aerial view of fires after the bombing

On the evening of May 13, 1940, the Army High Command ordered the 18th Army to “break the resistance in Rotterdam by all means”. General Schmidt , who commanded the combat group of the 18th Army destined for the capture of Rotterdam, presented the Dutch city commander Pieter Scharroo with an ultimatum on May 14 to surrender the city. The fighting was temporarily stopped and negotiations between the Germans and Dutch began. Rotterdam had been declared a fortress city and was therefore no longer subject to the protection of civil institutions under international law. On May 14, the command of the Wehrmacht ordered an air raid on Rotterdam, which followed immediately.

Rotterdam city center after the air strike
The same place around the Laurenskerk after clearing the rubble

The news of the surrender negotiations that the defense lawyers had meanwhile commenced reached the German command posts too late on May 14. Only the II. Group of the approaching Kampfgeschwader 54 could be ordered back by a counter order. 57 bombers from Group I approaching Rotterdam carried out the attack. It turned out to be particularly tragic that the towed antenna of the Heinkel He 111 bombers had to be retracted before the bombs were dropped. So the radio command to abort did not reach some of the attacking pilots, and they carried out their mission. Lieutenant Colonel Otto Höhne , leader of one of the two attacking columns of the combat squadron, was the only one who recognized the red lights of the German paratroopers , which signaled that the Dutch had surrendered. Höhne and his column turned at the last moment, thus preventing further damage to the already hard-hit city center.

consequences

Between 800 and 900 Rotterdam citizens lost their lives, 24,978 apartments, 24 churches, 2,320 shops, 775 warehouses and 62 schools were destroyed. An area of ​​2.6 square kilometers was razed to the ground within minutes. In addition to the medieval center, the eastern suburb of Kralingen was most affected. After that the city surrendered.

When, in the wake of this attack, “the city of Utrecht was threatened with the same fate if its commander did not surrender immediately”, the Dutch armed forces under General Henri Winkelman gave up. On May 15, General Winkelman and General Küchler , Commander in Chief of the 18th Army, signed the German-Dutch armistice in Rijsoord , which was announced over the radio at 8:30 p.m.

Another consequence of the attack was the escalation of the air war: on May 15, the British Bomber Command was authorized by the government to fly attacks on targets east of the Rhine. This decision was followed by the first air raids on the Ruhr area and the port cities of Hamburg and Bremen.

Movies

  • Rotterdam 1940 - The lightning attack (OT: Het bombardement ). War Drama, Netherlands 2012, directed by Ate de Jong , length: 105 minutes, direct release on DVD on November 29, 2013

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hans Umbreit: The struggle for supremacy in Europe. In: Klaus A. Maier, Horst Rohde, Bernd Stegemann, Hans Umbreit: The establishment of hegemony on the European continent . Overall title: Germany and the Second World War, Volume 2 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-421-01935-5 , p. 287.
  2. ↑ Horst Boog : The Anglo-American strategic air war over Europe and the German air defense. In 'Military History Research Office (Ed.): The German Reich and the Second World War . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1979 ff. Volume 6: Horst Boog, Werner Rahn , Reinhard Stumpf, Bernd Wegner : The global war. The expansion to the world war and the change to the initiative 1941 to 1943 . 1990, ISBN 978-3-421-06233-8 , pp. 455f.
  3. ^ HA Jacobsen: The German air raid on Rotterdam . In: Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau , 8th year, 1958, pp. 257–284.
  4. ↑ Cajus Bekker , Attack Height 4000 - War Diary of the German Air Force, Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg and Hamburg, 1964, pp. 131–135.
  5. ↑ L. Elfferich: Rotterdam will verraden. Uniepers, Abcoude 1990, p. 270.
  6. ^ David Barnouw: The Netherlands in the Second World War - an introduction. Agenda Verlag, Münster 2010, p. 27 f.
  7. ^ Konrad Kwiet : Reichskommissariat Netherlands. Attempt and failure of a new National Socialist order . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1968, p. 40 f.
  8. ^ Allert Goossens: War over Holland. on: waroverholland.nl