Air raids on Bernburg (Saale)

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Bernburg (Saale) was thetarget of ten air raids during World War II . It wasbombedthree times by the British Royal Air Force in 1940and seven times by the US Air Force in 1944/1945. Usually the Junkers aircraft and engine works in Bernburg- Strenzfeld were the target. But the city itself also experienced a moderate air raid on April 11, 1945, with 88 dead, six days before the occupation by US forces .

Air raid

Bernburg was a "Second Order Air Protection Site". In addition to the usual civilian air protection measures, the air protection plant (including Solvay GmbH and Junkers-Werke) has been intensified with bunker systems since 1938 . In 1943 two heavy and one light anti-aircraft batteries were stationed in the Bernburg- Staßfurt - Köthen area, as well as a home anti-aircraft battery near Bernburg. As the location of Junkers factories, Bernburg had high priority in the attack plans of the RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF . The British Bomber Command included in its list of German cities with intended bombing attacks and with fish aliases Bernburg as "Tuna" ( tuna ).

The individual attacks

The attacks by the British RAF were carried out at night, those by the USAAF during the day. With the exception of April 11, 1945 ( 9th US Air Fleet ), the other American attacks were carried out by the 8th Air Fleet stationed in southern England .

Final assembly of twin-engine Junkers Ju 88 combat aircraft

The following information is based on the publications of the air war expert Olaf Groehler and the contemporary witness and eyewitness Ernst Eilsberger (Bernburg).

  • 16./17. August 1940: At 12:50 am and 2:50 am, 3-4 British bombers dropped 14 high- explosive bombs and about 80 incendiary bombs near the Junkers engine plant and on the plant's runway. The tracks of the loading station, 5 parked aircraft and residential buildings near the branch were hit. No deaths were registered. It was the first bomb attack on Anhalt .
  • October 15, 1940: At 12:45 a.m., three RAF aircraft dropped 6 high-explosive bombs and around 25 incendiary bombs from a height of 1,500 m. The tax office in Schlossstrasse and residential buildings in Schlossstrasse, Saalweg and Schäferstrasse were hit. There were several wounded, no recorded dead.
  • 10/11 November 1940: 25 incendiary bombs damaged 7 houses in the city center.
  • February 20, 1944: 37 "Flying Fortresses" B-17 of the 8th US Air Forces dropped their bomb loads from 13.32 to 13.42 from a height of 5,000 to 7,000 m: 332 500 lb high explosive bombs and 42 100 lb incendiary bombs . The armed forces leadership reported two destroyed factory halls and a badly damaged material storage hall in the Junkers factory. The production of Junkers Ju 88 and Ju 188 had failed completely, the production of Ju 52 could be continued. There were at least 11 and 17 dead and 48 wounded in this attack. The operation took place during the Big Week of the Allied bomber fleets against aircraft factories and repair yards in Germany.
American B-17 four-engined “Flying Fortresses” bombing
Four-engine American B-24 "Liberator" bombing
  • February 22, 1944: 47 American B-17s dropped 115 tonnes of bombs (as a "carpet of bombs") from 6,000 to 7,000 m between 2:02 and 2:04 p.m. Two Junkers factories were destroyed and 30 aircraft were destroyed on the ground. There were three dead and eight wounded.
  • April 11, 1944: From 11.11 a.m. to 11.24 a.m., 99 USAAF B-17s dropped 209 tons of high explosive and 57 tons of incendiary bombs at the Junkers works from a height of 6,000 m. The attack resulted in 50% production failure of the Ju 88s. 15 aircraft were devastated, 10 damaged. Three workers were killed and 16 wounded.
  • June 29, 1944: 54 B-24 "Liberator" dropped 144 tons of bombs at the Junkers works from 9:01 to 10:01 a.m. from 6,000 to 8,000 m. One worker was killed.
  • July 7, 1944: 90 B-24 "Liberator" scored heavy hits in the Junkers factory. The 492nd Bombardment Group of the 14th Combat Wing, however, got caught in a "raid" by a "storm group" of the Luftwaffe with rammers after their attack. Within a few minutes, 23 of the heavy B-24 bombers between Oschersleben and Halberstadt were shot down. The event went into the Nazi press as the "Blitzluftschlacht um Oschersleben" .
  • February 22nd and 23rd, 1945: Attack by numerous American strategic bombers and fighter-bombers against the station area of ​​Bernburg: the station, locomotives and tankers were hit. There were three wounded. The attack took place as part of the major operation Operation Clarion (war trumpet) by almost 10,000 bombers, fighter bombers and fighter planes of the 8th and 15th US Air Fleet against traffic facilities in Germany.
  • April 11, 1945: This heaviest air raid on the city of Bernburg itself was flown as part of a large-scale operation of the tactical 9th US Air Force against targets in central Germany. A total of 689 medium-weight bombers attacked the cities of Bernburg, Oschersleben, Zwickau , Koethen and Naumburg (Saale) . Bernburg itself was bombed by 36 aircraft at 10:20 a.m. and by 49 aircraft at 11:40 a.m. The attacks under view from a height of 2,500 m were concentrated on the train station and traffic facilities, but also hit residential areas in the city and the cemetery. 468 high-explosive bombs were thrown, some of them highly explosive, with the resulting "giant funnels". 90 bomb strikes were counted on the railway site, 29 in the “Aue” and 187 in residential areas and in the cemetery (Parkstrasse, Bahnhofstrasse, Martinsplatz, Hegestrasse, Hegebreite, Friedhof II). The Saxony-Anhaltinische Armaturenfabrik, the Heuss nursery and 27 residential buildings on Bahnhofstrasse, Martinsplatz, Hegestrasse and Hegebreite were completely destroyed. The machine factory Siedersleben and 22 residential houses in the streets mentioned were badly damaged. Two industrial plants and 36 residential buildings in the same streets were damaged to moderate severity. 456 residential buildings were registered as slightly damaged. The cemetery II was hit by two waves of attack. There was a "terrible picture, like in hell". Bomb craters lined up after bomb craters. 84 residents of the city were killed, nine were missing and 25 wounded. 50 wagons were destroyed and 189 badly damaged, most of them freight wagons. DRK and technical emergency aid were in constant use, even during the attacks.

On 12./13. April the three Saale bridges were blown up. On the following days, the “small alarm”, air raid alarm, enemy alarm and tank alarm replaced each other. On April 15th there was a continuous tank alarm. Most of the population had fled “into the big bunker of the city”, into the bunker systems of the Solvay works or the area around the city.

Bernburg had 45,000 inhabitants before the war. In addition, there were a large number of air war evacuees from Berlin and other major cities. In April 1945 there were 4,000 wounded in 20 hospitals . There were hardly any soldiers capable of fighting in the city, only 600 Volkssturm men with completely inadequate equipment.

  • April 16, 1945: Handover negotiations under threat of a final air bombardment.
  • 16./17. April 1945: Occupation of the city by US troops after light artillery bombardment without significant fighting: 14 civilians (including two women and two schoolchildren) were killed “by enemy action”. On April 17, 400 people, including police, DRK and fire brigade members, were temporarily locked in the town hall.

The US occupation lasted until July 4, 1945. It was described as "on the whole tolerable" (Eilsberger). Then the Red Army followed and with it the integration of Bernburg into the Soviet occupation zone .

Sacrifice and burial place

The above figures result in about 112 deaths from the bombing raids on Bernburg in 1944 and 1945. In addition there are 14 civilians killed during the occupation of the city on April 16, 1945 (Eilsberger). Wehrmacht members and foreigners are apparently not included in these figures.

Some of the bombed dead are buried in the war cemetery in Cemetery II at Parkstrasse 18 (field H in section 2). On one of two name boards you can find the information: "Here are 28 Bernburg bomb victims of the attack on April 11, 1945". Over half were women and children.

  • Bomb victims at cemetery II in Bernburg (Saale)

  • Bomb victims at cemetery II in Bernburg (Saale)

literature

  • Ernst Eilsberger: The Americans took possession of the city of Bernburg on April 16, 1945 . Ed. School community “Carolinum and Friderike Lyzeum”. Munich 1960. Manuscript (July 4, 1945) also in the Bernburg City Archives and in the Federal Archives: BArch, N 132/24.
  • Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary . JANE's. London, New York, Sydney 1981. ISBN 0 7106 0038 0 .
  • Olaf Groehler : Anhalt in the air war, 1940-1945. Approach to IDA-EMIL . Ed. Technology Museum "Hugo Junkers" Dessau, Förderverein eV Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft, Dessau 1993. ISBN 3-910192-05-X .
  • 1050 years of Bernburg (Saale) in Anhalt . An anniversary book. Editorial team: Reinhard Jeske, Reiner Krziskewitz, Jens Meißner. Druckhaus Köthen GmbH., Köthen (Anhalt). Published by the City of Bernburg. Köthen 2011. ISBN 978-3-00-033108-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Olaf Groehler : Bomb war against Germany . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1990. ISBN 3-05-000612-9 . P. 35
  2. ^ Olaf Groehler: Anhalt in the air war . Dessau 1993. p. 100
  3. ^ Ernst Eilsberger: The Americans took possession of the city of Bernburg on April 16, 1945 . Bernburg City Archives, 1945
  4. ^ Olaf Groehler: Anhalt in the air war . Dessau 1993. p. 164
  5. ^ Ernst Eilsberger: The Americans took possession of the city of Bernburg on April 16, 1945 . Bernburg City Archives, 1945

Web links

Commons : Air raids on Bernburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files