Air raids on Stuttgart

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Sketch of the destruction in downtown Stuttgart
Aerial view of the destroyed city center of Stuttgart (photo taken by the British RAF)

During the air raids on Stuttgart during the Second World War, the Württemberg capital, Stuttgart, was badly hit. 4562 people were killed in 53 attacks, including 770 foreigners, the majority of whom were forced laborers . The heaviest air raid on the night of September 12, 1944 by the British Royal Air Force , which caused a firestorm in the Stuttgart basin , claimed 957 victims.

The attacks were flown by units of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). In particular, the area bombing of civil targets (inner city, residential areas and others) by the RAF took place on the basis of the " Area Bombing Directive " issued by the British Air Ministry on February 14, 1942 .

A total of 39,125 buildings were destroyed or damaged, which corresponds to 57.5 percent of the building fabric. The inner city was hardest hit with a degree of destruction of 68 percent of the total building fabric.

Strategic importance and targets

In May 1939, in the Greater German Reich , Stuttgart was 14th on the list of the largest German cities with over 458,000 inhabitants , including Wroclaw and Vienna .

Even then, the city was the location of important industrial companies. Primarily the war-important factories of Daimler-Benz and Bosch were primary targets, but smaller companies like the Hirth-Motorenwerke and the Reutter bodywork were also used for arms production.

Overview

date Focus Victim Attacking bombers
August 25, 1940 12:16 AM to 1:24 AM Gaisburg , Untertürkheim 4 dead, 5 wounded approx. 20
October 2, 1940 12:28 AM to 1:34 AM Solitude Castle no approx. 1
November 8, 1940 9:16 p.m. to midnight Gaisburgstrasse, Alexanderstrasse 3 wounded approx. 20
May 5, 1942 12:33 am to 2:43 am Zuffenhausen , Bad Cannstatt 13 dead, 37 wounded 120, of which 34 reached the city
May 6, 1942 1:51 a.m. to 1:53 a.m. Crow forest no 77 bombers, one of which reached the city
August 29, 1942 1:45 a.m. Dinkelacker Brewery no 1
November 22, 1942 9:30 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. Vaihingen , Rohr , Möhringen , Central Station 28 dead, 71 wounded 222, of which 191 reached the city
March 11, 1943 10:46 pm to 11:50 pm Vaihingen, southern urban area, Kaltental 112 dead, 386 wounded 314, of which 279 reached the city
April 15, 1943 12:42 AM to 1:52 AM Bad Cannstatt, Munster , Mühlhausen 619 dead, 703 wounded 462, of which 393 reached the city
April 17, 1943 1:10 a.m. Rosenbergstrasse above Rosenbergplatz 1 dead, 58 wounded Emergency throw of a burning, falling bomber
September 6, 1943 10:44 am to 11:10 am Law firm, Breitscheid-, Falkert-, Rosenberg-, Schwabstraße 107 dead, 165 wounded, 1 missing about 150
October 8, 1943 12:02 a.m. to 12:53 a.m. Hegelplatz , Liederhalle , Tübinger Strasse, Degerloch 101 dead, 300 wounded, 3 missing 342 Lancasters
November 26, 1943 8:25 pm to 9:12 pm Bad Cannstatt, Untertürkheim, Daimler-Benz plants 31 dead, 156 missing 178, of which 162 reached the city
February 21, 1944 3:57 am to 5:09 am Bad Cannstatt, Feuerbach 159 dead, 977 wounded, 1 missing 598, of which 552 reached the city
February 25, 1944 2:25 p.m. to 3 p.m. Pragstrasse industrial area 10 dead, 46 wounded 15th
March 2, 1944 2:57 am to 4:01 am City center , New Castle , Bad Cannstatt, viaduct 121 dead, 510 wounded, 4 missing 557
15./16. March 1944 11:10 pm to 12:13 am City center, academy, Vaihingen, Möhringen 88 dead, 203 wounded 863
July 16, 1944 10:09 a.m. to 10:25 a.m. Bad Cannstatt, Winterhalde, Remstal - and Gäubahn 42 dead, 94 wounded about 100
July 21, 1944 11:04 am to 11:12 am Zuffenhausen, Hirth-Motorenwerke 31 dead, 29 wounded 25th
July 25, 1944 1:35 a.m. to 2:10 a.m. City center 884 dead, 1916 wounded, 14 missing 614
July 26, 1944 1:38 am to 2:35 am Downtown " 550
July 28, 1944 1:22 am to 1:50 am Nordbahnhof area " 30, of which 27 reached the city
July 29, 1944 1:48 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. City center, Feuerbach, Botnang , Ostheim , Gablenberg " 496
September 5, 1944 11:15 am to 11:54 am Daimler-Benz works, Untertürkheim, Wangen 37 dead, 70 wounded approx. 200
September 10, 1944 11:21 am to 11:40 am Zuffenhausen, Feuerbach, Stammheim 28 dead, 113 wounded 200
September 12, 1944 10:59 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Inner city, western part of the city 957 dead, 1,600 wounded, 14 missing 217, of which 211 reached the city
October 3, 1944 10:01 p.m. Pheasant garden near Weilimdorf no 1 mosquito high-speed bomber
October 14, 1944 4:35 a.m. to 4:56 a.m. Zuffenhausen 2 dead, 40 wounded approx. 3
October 19, 1944 8:25 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. Bad Cannstatt, Gaisburg 338 dead, 872 wounded, 38 missing 583
October 20, 1944 12:55 AM to 1:38 AM Bad Cannstatt, Gaisburg see previous attack
November 5, 1944 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Bad Cannstatt, Munster 24 dead, 46 wounded 65
November 5, 1944 11:32 p.m. to 11:48 p.m. Bad Cannstatt, Munster see previous attack about 100
November 21, 1944 7:10 p.m. to 7:16 p.m. Southern urban area 1 dead, 1 wounded approx. 20 to 30
November 26, 1944 1:57 a.m. to 2:08 a.m. Bad Cannstatt, train station, post office 10 wounded 1 to 2
December 4, 1944 2:58 pm Hofen 1 dead, 2 wounded 1
December 9, 1944 12:25 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Bad Cannstatt, railway systems 24 dead, 55 wounded approx. 350
December 11, 1944 11:51 am to 11:52 am Untertürkheim 3 dead, 11 wounded 4th
January 7, 1945 9:49 pm Feuerbach no unknown
January 20, 1945 11:50 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. Bad Cannstatt, railway area, Deckerstrasse 1 dead, 12 wounded approx. 30
January 21, 1945 12:58 p.m. to 1 p.m. Munster, Hofen no 12
January 28, 1945 8:35 p.m. to 8:54 p.m. Feuerbach, Bosch works 119 dead, 78 wounded, 4 missing 226, of which 186 reached the city
January 28, 1945 11:30 p.m. to 11:48 p.m. Weilimdorf, Botnang " 376, of which 353 reached the city
February 1, 1945 7:37 pm Bad Cannstatt, Flandernstrasse 13 wounded unknown
February 12, 1945 7:30 p.m. to 7:46 p.m. Schwarenbergstrasse, Bad Cannstatt 68 dead, 139 wounded, 3 missing approx. 30
March 3, 1945 2:32 pm to 2:42 pm Panoramastrasse, Jägerstrasse 1 dead, 1 wounded 6 to 8
March 4, 1945 10:20 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. Bad Cannstatt, western part of the city 50 dead, 135 wounded, 3 missing 30 to 50
March 9, 1945 3:02 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. Bad Cannstatt, railway systems 4 wounded 12 to 16
March 17, 1945 9:02 p.m. Feuerbach, Fahrionstrasse 6 dead, 11 wounded 1
March 25, 1945 7:55 a.m. Weilimdorf no 2
March 25, 1945 1:35 p.m. to 1:37 p.m. Stammheim, Zuffenhausen 3 dead, 4 wounded 8th
April 1, 1945 7:17 am to 9:45 am Weilimdorf 2 dead, 16 wounded 8th
April 19, 1945 10:12 p.m. Pragstrasse 1 dead, 7 wounded 1

Major attacks in July and September 1944

The most devastating air raids on Stuttgart took place in July and September 1944. The attacks were carried out by No. 5 Bomber Group on the orders of Air Marshal Arthur Harris . The British No. 5 Bomber Group was a unit of the British Bomber Command specializing in the systematic burning of civilian area targets , which was responsible, among other things, for the area bombing of Dresden , Darmstadt , Kassel , Braunschweig , Pforzheim , Hamburg and Hanau . The unit used a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs . In the best military case, this combination led to a firestorm. The fire multiplied the damage caused by the explosive and incendiary bombs used.

Course of the air raids

preparation

The exact selection of the districts to be bombed was made on the basis of aerial photographs , population density maps and fire insurance cadastre maps. The cadastral maps had been deposited by German fire insurance companies with British reinsurance companies before the war. Stuttgart city center was selected as the core area of ​​the attack, as the proportion of wood in the total building mass was highest here. This made it the ideal core target area for igniting a firestorm in Stuttgart.

Before the bombardment of the target area has been Mosquito - Quick bombers by red and green marker body (so-called Christmas trees) delimited. This was monitored by a master bomber flying at high altitude, which was connected to the marker pilots via radio. Then the master bomber checked the Stuttgart target area again on a deeper flight path, determined the exact approach heights and released the attack.

bombardment

The first series of attacks in July 1944 began on July 25th and ended on July 29th, 1944. The target area of ​​the attacks on Stuttgart was essentially the densely populated city center in the valley basin - in particular the medieval old town. The bombardment mostly proceeded as follows: First, thousands of high-explosive bombs and several hundred air mines were dropped. The roofs were torn open by the pressure waves of the explosions. Then thousands of electron thermite sticks were thrown over the target area, which fell into the torn roof trusses of the houses and set them on fire within a very short time. Within a short period of time, thousands of smaller building fires spread to one major fire. Whether a firestorm develops from this depends in particular on the overall weather situation and wind direction. In the first series of attacks, the attackers failed to trigger a firestorm to multiply the effects of the bombs. In this first series, they dropped around 5,200 explosive bombs and almost 70,000 incendiary bombs over Stuttgart. This only succeeded during the major attack on September 12, 1944. That night between 10:59 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. the British No. 5 Bomber Group 75 air mines, 4,300 high-explosive bombs and 180,000 electron thermite rods stick incendiary bombs very precisely over a narrow area in the area around Hegelstrasse, Hölderlinstrasse and Schwabstrasse. The resulting large fire spread at high speed. A firestorm developed. This destroyed a five square kilometer urban area in the Stuttgart basin.

consequences

In addition to the more than 4,500 victims, 8,908 people were wounded in the attacks , 85 people remained missing.

See also

Web links

literature

  • Heinz Bardua: Stuttgart in the air war. Klett Verlag, Stuttgart 1967
  • James Stern: The Invisible Debris. A journey in occupied Germany in 1945. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-8218-0749-0 .
  • Jörg Friedrich: The fire. Germany in the bombing war 1940–1945. 11th edition. Propylaea, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-549-07165-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz Bardua: Stuttgart in the air war . Klett Verlag, Stuttgart 1967, p. 53.
  2. ↑ Jörg Friedrich: The fire. Germany in the bombing war 1940–1945 , p. 83
  3. ↑ a b c d Jörg Friedrich: Der Brand , 2002, 11th edition. Ullstein Verlag, Munich, pp. 333–338.
  4. ↑ Rüdiger Bäßler: Background information: Air raids in the Second World War ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) . In Stuttgarter Zeitung on October 28, 2009, accessed on December 6, 2012.