Hamburgization

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Hamburgisierung ( BE : hamburgisation , AE : hamburgization ) is the term used by the British Bomber Command to describe the complete or extensive destruction of a military or non-military target in a firestorm , triggered by incendiary and phosphorus bombs .

The term was originally introduced by the British Air Force , which carried out air raids on Hamburg in 1943 and 1944 as part of Operation Gomorrah . In the further course of the Second World War , other German cities were "hamburgized".

Years earlier, Joseph Goebbels used a similar term, referring to the destruction of the English city of Coventry in 1940, to refer to the complete annihilation of a city - " coventrate ". It is assumed that this was then consciously taken up by the British as "hamburgize".

Individual evidence

  1. The bombing of Hamburg set new standards . Florian Stark, Welt Online , January 22, 2013.