Air raid on Bruchsal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The air raid on Bruchsal was carried out on March 1, 1945 by the 41st Bombardment Wing of the 8th Air Force . The city of Bruchsal was largely destroyed.

The attackers and the preparation for the attack

The 41st Bombardment Wing of the 8th Air Force was scheduled for the attack on Bruchsal. 116 aircraft were available for the attack.

On the morning of March 1, 1945, between 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., the aircraft of the 41st Bombardment Wing of the 8th Air Force took off from their bases in England . This process took around 30 to 40 minutes. All ascending machines flew to the squadron's assembly point over the city of Northampton and circled there until the squadron was completely over the assembly point. From there the association flew to the south of England. Over the English Channel , the association was part of a stream of bombers that comprised around 1,000 Allied aircraft. To the southwest of Strasbourg , the individual units of the bomber stream disbanded in order to fly to their assigned targets. The 41st Bombardment Wing began the approach to Bruchsal. The final approach to Bruchsal began via an initial point (IP). The function of a process point is to be able to determine and control the exact course, the flight speed over the ground, the altitude and the time to the destination measured from this point. The place Pfalzgrafenweiler near Freudenstadt was planned for the attack on Bruchsal . The first peaks of the association reached the expiry point at 1:32 p.m.

The bombing

Bruchsal Castle

The bombardment began at 1:53 p.m. from an altitude of 6,500 meters. The attack lasted until 2:35 p.m. 901 explosive bombs and 49,500 stick bombs were dropped over Bruchsal within 42 minutes . The target area of ​​the attack on Bruchsal was essentially the densely populated city center - especially the old town. In this area, the roofs were initially torn open by the pressure waves from the explosions of the high-explosive bombs. After that, more than 49,500 stick incendiary bombs were dropped over the city area, which fell into the torn roof trusses of the houses and set them on fire within a very short time. The many individual fires that had arisen quickly expanded into a wildfire .

Victims and damage

More than 1,000 people were killed in the attack. Around 90% of the inner city was destroyed. Numerous historical buildings, including the Bruchsal Castle , were also destroyed in the attack.

See also

literature

  • James Stern: The Invisible Debris. A journey in occupied Germany in 1945. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-8218-0749-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Reconstruction
  2. a b The bombing
  3. ^ Kurt Lupp: Bruchsal Castle. Construction, destruction and reconstruction (= publications of the historical commission of the city of Bruchsal; vol. 21). Verlag Regionalkultur, Heidelberg et al. 2003, ISBN 3-89735-263-X .