Air raid on Bad Reichenhall
The Allied air raid on Bad Reichenhall took place on April 25, 1945, a few days before the end of the Second World War , and was the only targeted bombing of the Upper Bavarian city of Bad Reichenhall . At least 215 people were killed that day. 66 buildings were totally destroyed, another 221 buildings were partially badly damaged.
prehistory
Until April 1945, Bad Reichenhall - despite its proximity to strategically important destinations such as Salzburg and Berchtesgaden - was largely spared from air raids . The Southern Command Group had its headquarters in Berchtesgaden , Hitler's famous Berghof was located there and the myth about the Alpine fortress also brought cities like Bad Reichenhall into the focus of the Allies towards the end of the Second World War. There was also a garrison in Bad Reichenhall and the rail connection to Berchtesgaden runs through the town. At the time, Bad Reichenhall was also considered a security room , whose command, which was housed in an inn in Marzoll , was subordinate to a total of 3,500 men. From 1945 the Army High Command was also housed in the Hotel Deutscher Kaiser .
The city experienced the first air raid on October 16, 1944, when Salzburg was bombed from the air for the first time. On November 22, 1944, a USAAF association with over 500 bombers and massive protection by fighter planes flew over the Reichenhall Valley to attack Munich . On the same day, Salzburg was bombed in several waves. 30 bombers dropped their loads over the Army Supply Office in neighboring Piding . However, the bombs missed their target and hit a residential area on the Staufenbrücke on the Reichenhaller side of the Saalach , where there was also a barrack with 40 prisoners of war . A 14-year-old girl died in the attack. Between October 1944 and May 1945, neighboring Salzburg was the target of 15 bombings with more than 6000 bombings.
Until April 1945 Bad Reichenhall was - despite the garrison u. a. with mountain infantry regiment and mountain artillery - largely spared from air raids .
Military hospitals, hospitals and deportation for children
At the time of the attack, there were several military hospitals in Bad Reichenhall . In addition to the health care hospital A in the supply hospital and the health care hospital B in the fire station, there were hospitals in the Hotel am Forst, the Predigtstuhl Hotel, the boys' school, the Villa Germania, the Sparkassenheim with Villa Aurora, the New Kurhotel, the Barmherzigen Brüder sanatorium with a total of three houses, the Villa Henkel, Pension Hansi, Villa Astoria and Hotel Panorama. The administration building with the chief physician, on-site physician and leader of the Bad Reichenhall Army Medical Staff was housed in the Park Hotel.
At the time of the air raid, there were hospitals in addition to the municipal hospital with civil department, military hospital department and the Innocentiaheim, the Axelmannstein alternative hospital, the Luisenbad alternative hospital, the Friedrichshöhe alternative hospital, the Excelsior house and the Laxenburg maternity and children's home, with a total of 750 people housed or were active.
In April 1945 Bad Reichenhall still had 15 out of the original 28 children's shelters . These were in Haus Alpenblick, Haus Almrausch, Haus Berta, Haus Dora, Haus Gartenlaube, Haus Margarita, Gasthaus Müllnerhorn, Münchner Hof, Haus Palmina, Haus Rein, Landhaus Schütz, Schweizerhaus, in Haus Toskana, in Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten and in Haus Verona. The houses Almrausch, Rein and Vier Jahreszeiten were damaged by the attack, the house Margarita and the Gasthaus Müllnerhorn were destroyed by bombs.
No declared hospital town
At the time of the attack, there were over a dozen hospitals in Bad Reichenhall . However, according to international war regulations, it was not possible to declare it as a hospital town, as Bad Reichenhall was home to the OKH's command staff , several command posts and soldiers. The municipal authorities in particular repeatedly urged a complete withdrawal of the military, but the responsible authorities did not make a clear statement that Bad Reichenhall was a hospital town. That is why there were no red crosses on the roofs of the hospitals. On the day of the attack, however, there was a clearly marked hospital train in the main train station, which was also a victim of the bombing.
Air raids
The air raid shelter under the Berghof property, above the car park of the boys' school (today's Heilingbrunnerschule), was intended for the Army High Command . This involved two tunnels 15 and 20 m long with a cross-section of 2.3 × 2.4 m. The chambers to the tunnels were no longer completed. At the corner of Innsbrucker Strasse and Kammerbotenstrasse, a preserved section of the Abstreitermühlbach had been converted into an air raid shelter over a length of 150 m. In Kirchberg there were two splinter trenches, each 50 m long with 40 cm thick walls and 30 cm thick barrel vaults. Similar systems were located in the Sparkassenheim reserve hospital and in the former military rest home. At the main train station there was a 50 m long covered splinter trench. The largest and safest air raid shelter with space for 1000 people was the spring building below the old salt works .
procedure
On the morning of April 25, 1945, the first entries were made in the air raid control center in Bad Reichenhall:
- 8:22 am: Four-engine formation in the Weilheim area - heading east
- 8:36 a.m .: Bomber Association on Schliersee
- 8:44 am: Air raid alarm!
- 8:50 am: Acute air hazard
- 9:00 am: Bombs dropped in the Berchtesgaden area
Two minutes later the first bombers were in Bad Reichenhall. The first bombs fell on the northern slope of the Lattengebirge , on the outskirts and on the southern slope of the Staufen. It was emergency drops from machines of the Royal Air Force , which were on the return flight from Berchtesgaden . A bomb exploded in the outbuilding of Villa Dr. Schöppner on Luitpoldstrasse and near the Padinger Alm , a bomb fell on an open field.
- 10:24 a.m.: Advance all-clear for the Reichenhall room
- 10:40 am: 30 to 40 four-engine bombers in the Straubing - Plattling area , east course
- 10:43 a.m .: The planes are now over Pfarrkirchen
- 10:50 am: Another air raid alarm for Reichenhall, 200-300 bombers in the Tittmoning area
- 10:54 a.m .: Acute air hazard for our city (last entry in the registration list).
“What rushes down onto the city from two to three thousand meters on a cloudless spring day in 6 minutes is hell. Around three hundred high explosive and four thousand stick bombs leave the bomb shafts of around 40 American four-engine bombers. "
Of the 200-300 bombers of the 8th Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces launched from a base in England , 56 bombers attacked the city with a fighter escort. Within a few minutes, the bombers dropped their deadly load over the city. About the number of bombs dropped, there are different statements in the incendiary bombs is due to the fact that these relatively small incendiary bombs (about 2 kg, about 5 cm in diameter, 60 cm length) always called. Bomb clusters are dropped, in which several dozen bombs are dropped in a large container that only opens in flight and is intended to increase the accuracy of the small and very light incendiary bombs. The number depends on whether you only count the containers dropped or each individual incendiary bomb.
The city's attack was demonstrably aimed at the tracks and train stations that would have been necessary for supplies to Berchtesgaden and a possible Alpine fortress . Therefore, most of the damage was in the vicinity of the Kirchberg train station in the Kammerbotenviertel , in Salinenstrasse and Poststrasse, as well as near the main train station.
After the end of the bombardment, there were 53 large fires, 110 medium fires and around 200 small fires in the city. Large fires were among other things on the official staff of the old salt works , where brine was temporarily extinguished due to lack of water , in the upper Poststrasse, in the Hotel Post, in the Bürgerbräu , in the municipal building stalls, in the Bahnhofsviertel, in the Frühlingstrasse, in the Astoria reserve hospital, in the Holz- and Kohlelager Berger, in the Schubert construction business, in the Munich beer hall, at Donhauser, in the Fischer carpenter's workshop, in the upper town, in Villa Thauerstein, in Kirchberg, in St. Zeno bei Moisl, at Argstatter and in the Spieldiener dairy.
The town's fire brigades had moved to their decentralized alarm stations as planned in the event of an air raid; due to the failure of the command post, a coordinated operation for the military leader Anton Andeßner was initially not possible. Each fire engine driver initially deployed his men and equipment where it made the most sense. By the afternoon, the fire brigades from Karlstein , Großgmain , Bayerisch Gmain , Weißbach , Jettenberg , Piding , Marzoll , Anger , the works fire brigade from Hammerau and the fire brigades from Freilassing and Berchtesgaden had arrived and were deployed. As a result of the war, the staff of the Bad Reichenhall fire brigade was greatly decimated; during the war years this was partially compensated for by the deployment of the women's and youth fire brigade. The extinguishing work was made more difficult by the fact that part of the main water line at the Streitbichl, in Innsbrucker-, Salinen-, Kammerboten-, Post- and Frühlingstraße as well as in the Moislkurve in St. Zeno was destroyed and almost all hydrants failed. In addition, numerous men of the Volkssturm were deployed outside the city and could not be deployed to fight fires until late.
Thanks to the joint efforts of the fire brigades in the region, it was possible to get the fires of the major fires under control during the day and to limit them to the source of the fire. From 6 p.m., the fires were considered contained.
The entire duration of the fire fighting dragged on over five days. From then on there were only a few embers under supervision. There were no losses at the fire brigade, but several serious and minor injuries. The Bad Reichenhall fire brigade deployed eight motorized sprayers, the Berchtesgaden fire brigade two and the remaining brigades one each. A total of approx. 8000 meters of hose material was used.
In a coordinated action that day, in addition to Bad Reichenhall, Berchtesgaden and Freilassing were attacked. The aim was to destroy the supply lines over the railway line as well as the military infrastructure on the Obersalzberg to an unknown extent .
Victim
In total, at least 215 civilians and soldiers were killed in Bad Reichenhall in the air attack on Bad Reichenhall. Twelve victims could not be identified and twelve other residents of the city have been missing since the attack. About 1000 residents of the city became homeless .
Among the victims were 24 children up to the age of twelve and six teenagers.
The youngest victim - a twelve-day-old baby - died like the mother and other family members and residents in the badly damaged house at Frühlingstrasse 14. The oldest victim was an 81-year-old pensioner who died in or around the house at Salinenstrasse 3.
A detailed list of the victims with name, age and place of discovery can be found in “The Years of Horror in Bad Reichenhall” by Fritz Hofmann .
Today there are still a few graves of the victims in the St. Zeno cemetery .
Damage
185 apartments and 11 grocery stores with supplies as well as almost all bakeries in the city and a warehouse were completely destroyed. The city's only brewery, the Bürgerbräu, was also destroyed . In addition, the chamber messenger district with the girls' school and the upper Poststrasse were completely destroyed. The same applies to the area around the main train station with the company building, the track systems, an empty hospital train with 20 wagons and large parts of the Frühlingstrasse with a telegraph and telephone exchange. The post office, the Grandhotel Axelmannstein (at that time an alternative hospital in Munich), a reserve hospital, the staff of the Alte Saline , the Poststrasse as well as two children's deportation camps and a large number of hotels and pensions were severely damaged .
A total of 66 buildings were totally destroyed, 38 badly damaged, 28 suffered medium damage and 155 minor damage. In his book “Die Schreckensjahre von Bad Reichenhall” Fritz Hofmann lists all these buildings, sorted according to the severity of the damage.
The explosive bombs did not explode in Peter-und-Paul-Gasse 6 or in the parish church of St. Nikolaus .
Fire reports were registered from the following areas of the city:
- Area around Kirchberg train station, in particular the Obere Stadt and the Kammerbotenviertel : Berchtesgadener Straße, Florianiplatz, Glück im Winkel , Gruttensteingasse, Kammerbotenstraße, Kiblinger Weg, Salinenstraße, Tiroler Straße, Peter-und-Paul-Gasse, Rathausplatz , Waaggasse, Wörgötterplatz
- Area around the main station: Bahnhofstrasse, Frühlingstrasse
- Area around Innsbrucker Straße: Forstamtstraße, Gabelsbergerstraße, Getreidegasse, Im Angerl, Innsbrucker Straße, Kanalstraße
- Salzburger Strasse area (near the main train station): Klosterstrasse, Ludwigstrasse, Mackstrasse, Ottilienstrasse, Salzburger Strasse, Wisbacherstrasse
- Further, isolated reports: Hammergrund, Luitpoldstraße, Staufenbrücke
rating
“Despite the shockingly high number of victims, which cannot be justified by anything, it was not an area bombing, as happened before in Hamburg or Dresden by the RAF, which is why one cannot speak of a 'terror attack' in the case of Bad Reichenhall. "
However, the local Nazi propaganda described the attack on the same day as a terrorist attack on Bad Reichenhall and subsequently castigated the indiscriminate dropping of explosive and incendiary bombs several times .
Trivia
The elephants of Circus Krone stayed in the Alte Saline until the end of the war in order to escape the many bomb attacks on Munich . The salt works were not significantly damaged during the air raid and the elephants, who often marched through the city with their keepers and quenched their thirst at the fountain in the spa garden, survived their time in the city and the air raid well.
aftermath
Every year, on April 25th at eleven o'clock, the bells of the churches in Bad Reichenhall ring to commemorate the attack on the city and the many dead.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Johannes Lang: History of Bad Reichenhall
- ↑ a b c d e Hofmann: Bad Reichenhall years of horror
- ↑ USAAF evaluation report: “Interpretation report SA 3623. Attack on Bad Reichenhall railway facilities on April 25, 45.” in: Johannes Lang, Geschichte von Bad Reichenhall
- ^ Fritz Hofmann: Bad Reichenhall, as it used to be ; Sutton Verlag Erfurt, 1st edition 1999, p. 22
literature
- Johannes Lang : History of Bad Reichenhall. Ph.CW Schmidt, Neustadt / Aisch 2009, ISBN 978-3-87707-759-7 .
- Herbert Pfisterer: Bad Reichenhall in its Bavarian history . Motor + Touristik-Verlag, Munich, 1988
- Fritz Hofmann : The terrible years of Bad Reichenhall , wdv-Verlag, Mitterfelden
- Johannes Lang: On dealing with disasters . Heimatblätter from April 25, 2015 as a supplement to the Reichenhaller Tagblatt
