Air raids on Gotha

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During the Second World War , the 8th Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) carried out numerous air raids on Gotha from February 24, 1944 to April 3, 1945 . In Gotha they destroyed the Gotha AG wagon factory (which produced fighter planes , railway wagons and trucks), Reichsbahn facilities , residential and business districts and cultural buildings . 552 (probably more) people died, 330 houses with 775 apartments were destroyed and another 2,594 buildings with 5,320 apartments were damaged.

Attack planning

In the British list of fish aliases for bombing targets in Germany Gotha was called "Anchovy" ( anchovies represented). Air Marshal Arthur Harris had planned Gotha together with Eisenach , Erfurt , Jena and Weimar for a thousand bomber attack in the summer of 1942 . Marshal Charles Portal also had Gotha on a list of "cremation bombings" in German cities in November 1942. In January 1945 Gotha was on an updated city attack list of the Allied air forces.

The individual air strikes

USAAF's B-24 “Liberator”
USAAF's B-17 “Flying Fortress”
Entrance to the casemates of the castle (air raid shelters during the war) (2016)
High bunker type Leo Winkel in the Gotha railway area (2015)
  • February 24, 1944: As part of Big Week, the 8th Air Force had the task of destroying the wagon works in Gotha with their production of combat aircraft ( Bf 110 , Me 210 , Me 410 ) as their primary goal . The facility was defended by heavy, radar-controlled anti - aircraft batteries with 8.8 and 10.5 cm cannons. With ideal visibility from 1:18 p.m., 169 heavy four-engine B-24 “Liberator” dropped their bomb load in three waves from a height of 4,500 meters over the wagon factory and the works airfield. Of the 456 tons of bombs were 350 tons of high explosive HE (High Explosive) - explosive bombs , half of them cluster bombs , and 74 tons of incendiary bombs . The factory suffered considerable destruction, especially the eastern part of the plant with the aircraft production was affected. But there was also major damage in the gardener's field up to the Krahnberg , and there were many false throws. Of the 8,000 employees in the three-shift system, 79 German and 18 foreign workers were killed and 117 were injured, some seriously. The attack on February 24 in Gotha claimed a total of 232 victims. Production halls with their machine tools and 40 Bf 110s being assembled were badly hit, and test samples of the Bf 110H were destroyed. It was "not a fatal blow", through reconstruction and, above all, the relocation of production facilities to smaller central and western Thuringia locations, production could be increased from 50 to 120 Bf 110s in March. The US air fleet, which was deployed on February 24, 1944 with 238 B-24s against Gotha and Eisenach , lost 33 of its aircraft to flak and German fighters, the Luftwaffe 45.
  • July 20, 1944: 72 B-24s flew on the Gotha wagon factory as their primary target, an attack with 197.3 tons of highly effective H.E. bombs. They again destroyed significant parts of the production facilities, an estimate of 80%. Vehicle production in the western part of the plant was completely shut down. There were 12 deaths at the plant. The German interceptors were deployed on the invasion front in Normandy so that the US bombers had nothing to fear from anti-fighter defense. The Gotha plant, together with the outsourced operations, continued to manufacture Messerschmitt aircraft. Preparations for the start of production of the newly developed high-altitude fighter aircraft Focke-Wulf Ta 152 were running at the same time . Work ethic and effectiveness in the plant were rated as very high right up to the end (Hälbig). The damage to the wagon factory caused by the two USAAF attacks in February and August 1944 was estimated at 27.4 million Reichsmarks (Hälbig).
  • November 10, 1944: There was a heavy attack on the city center, using air mines . The buildings on Neumarkt received significant hits, the Margarethenkirche and the “Hotel zum Propheten” were badly damaged.
  • November 11th and 15th, 1944: further bombings by the US Air Force.
  • November 30, 1944: On this day 22 B-17 bombers of the 1st Bombardment Division of the 8th Air Force attacked Gotha as a target of opportunity. They dropped a total of 52 tons of bombs.
  • February 6, 1945: In the course of attacks on transport links in Thuringia, 88 American B-17 “Flying Fortress” with “full fighter escort” dropped 216.5 tons of bombs (860 × 500.) From 11:27 am to 11:43 am (2:43 pm) lb GP) on Gotha as a target of opportunity. The Reichsbahn area, the passenger station, the Reichsbahn repair shop (80% destroyed) and the adjacent inner city area, the station district, were particularly hard hit. US aerial reconnaissance aerial photos showed a concentration of bomb craters north and south of the passenger terminal (more than half of which were destroyed) and a significant number of destroyed or damaged residential and commercial buildings. The 270 deaths included a particularly large number of women and children, rail travelers, and foreign workers (and their families) from the Baltic States who were employed in the repair shop . Another source speaks of 453 deaths, including 58 forced and foreign workers and 183 train travelers (these are apparently not included in the number 270, buried in their home cemeteries).
  • March 10, 1945: In this attack, “entire street quarters were destroyed”, such as in Mönchelstrasse and Margarethenstrasse.
  • April 3, 1945: During fighter bomber raids on this day, cultural buildings were particularly hit (see this section). The representative State Theater on Arnoldiplatz burned out completely due to an overarching fire.

On April 4, Gotha was occupied by US troops without a fight.

In the event of the military defense, which was already an illusion because of the small number of German forces in Gotha, the Allies had apparently planned an annihilation attack on the city. On a plaque at Schloss Friedenstein , which pays tribute to the planned handover by the "combat commander" Gadolla , it says: "Gadolla's courageous action saved thousands of people and the city of Gotha from destruction".

Number of victims and material losses

The number of deaths as a result of the air raids is usually given as 552 or 542, including foreign workers. If you add up the numbers from another source, 794 deaths result from three attacks alone. It is unclear whether the 183 rail travelers who perished on February 6, 1945 are included in this number, or should be added to it. 330 houses with 775 apartments were destroyed, a further 2594 houses with 5320 apartments were damaged.

Loss of and damage to cultural buildings

This information comes mainly from the standard work Götz Eckardt (Ed.) Fates of German Monuments in World War II , including Rudolf Zießler Gotha . Volume 2, pp. 486-488. Quote: "The air raids (on Gotha) ... caused considerable damage to the city".

City theater (model), burned out in an air raid on April 3, 1945, demolished in the 1950s
  • The Margarethenkirche was badly affected on November 10, 1944, especially the roofs of the tower and "hall" and the surrounding walls.
  • The Landestheater or Gotha City Theater , built between 1837 and 1840 based on designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel , burned down completely on April 3 when attacked by fighter bombers: probably as a result of an extensive fire. The preserved surrounding walls were removed in 1958.
  • The Gotha Orangery was hit by two air mines on February 24, 1944, and the southern greenhouse in the central section was badly damaged.
  • The neoclassical reception building of Gotha train station was partially destroyed in the middle and west wing by bombs on February 6, 1945
  • The house at Friedrich-Jacobs-Straße 2, a half-timbered house from the end of the 18th century, was destroyed by bombs on April 3, 1945. Remnants removed later.
  • The house at Friedrich-Jacobs-Straße 3, home of the linguist Friedrich Jacobs , with a baroque arched portal, was destroyed by bombs on April 3, 1945. Remnants removed later.
  • Neumarkt 5, a classicist residential building, was destroyed by bombs on April 3, 1945. Remnants removed.
  • The house at Neumarkt 6 "Zum Schrapfen", a quarry stone building with a baroque portal, was badly damaged by bombs on April 3, 1945.

Lighter damage suffered among others: the Augustinerkirche , the Friedrichskirche, the Catholic parish church, the Christkönigskirche, the Schloss Friedenstein (the main portal badly damaged), the Schloss Friedrichsthal , the park temple in the Schlosspark Gotha , the Haus Königsaal (Brühl), as well as the houses Schloßberg 2 and 12.

Burial and memorial sites

Grave fields for war dead were created in the Gotha cemetery and redesigned after reunification by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge . The largest grave field is surmounted by a high wooden cross with the inscription on a metal plaque: "309 German soldiers, who died in World War II, and 210 civilian victims of bomb attacks and the effects of the war rest on this war cemetery" (it must be correct: died in and after World War II). Next to it is a cemetery with 86 Latvian victims from Liepāja / Libau of the heavy bombing raid on Gotha on February 6, 1945, including women and small children. A cross bears the inscription: “In eternal memory of the war victims of February 6, 1945 from Liepaja / Latvia. Rest in peace. Dusiet Dieva miera. "

  • Cross over burial ground for bomb victims and soldiers in Gotha in 1945

  • Inscription on a cross on the war cemetery in Gotha

  • Grave field for over 500 bomb victims and soldiers in Gotha

  • Cross for over 90 Latvian bomb victims in Gotha in 1945

literature

  • Olaf Groehler : bombing war against Germany . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1990. ISBN 3-05-000612-9 .
  • Lothar Günther: Missions and fates in the air war over Southwest Thuringia . Wehry-Verlag, Untermaßfeld 2014. ISBN 978-3-9815-3076-6 .
  • Eberhard Hälbig (Ed.): Gothaer Waggonfabrik A.-G. Gotha, Germany 1944-1945. Bombing raids on Gotha on February 24 and July 20, 1944 . Rockstuhl Verlag, Bad Langensalza 2017. ISBN 978-3-95966-234-5
  • Claudia Klinger: Not alone in grief. Many Latvian forced laborers died in the bombing raid on Gotha 70 years ago - the city maintains graves . Thuringian newspaper, August 25, 2015.
  • Heiko Stasjulevics: Gotha, the city of flying . Ed. GOTHA-KULTUR, Museums Gotha. Printing house Kirchner, Gotha 2001. ISBN 3-934748-69-4 .
  • Rudolf Zießler: Gotha (Gotha district) . In: Götz Eckardt (Ed.): Fates of German architectural monuments in the Second World War. A documentation of the damage and total losses in the area of ​​the GDR . Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2. Pages 486-488.

Web links

Commons : Air raids on Gotha  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • World War Victims Gotha [4]
  • Gotha: a photo album [5]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Olaf Groehler: Bomb war against Germany. Berlin 1990. pp. 35, 69, 74
  2. ↑ World War Victims Gotha Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.weltkriegsopfer.de
  3. ↑ Lothar Günther: Missions and Fates . Untermaßfeld 2014. pp. 108–127
  4. ↑ Lothar Günther: Missions and Fates . Untermaßfeld 2014. pp. 239–242
  5. ↑ Gotha, a photo album [1]
  6. ^ Rudolf Zießler: Gotha . In: Götz Eckardt fates of German monuments in World War II . Berlin 1978. p. 486
  7. ↑ Lothar Günther: Missions and Fates . Untermaßfeld 2014. pp. 312–318
  8. ↑ World War Victims Gotha Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.weltkriegsopfer.de
  9. ↑ Gotha: a photo album [2]
  10. ^ Rudolf Zießler: Gotha . In: Götz Eckardt: Fate of German architectural monuments in the Second World War . Berlin 1978. pp. 486-488
  11. ↑ Lothar Günther: Missions and Fates . Untermaßfeld 2014. p. 123
  12. ↑ Heiko Stasjulevics: Gotha, the city of flying . Gotha 2001. p. 87
  13. ↑ Gotha, a photo album [3]
  14. ↑ World War Victims Gotha Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.weltkriegsopfer.de
  15. ↑ Heiko Stasjulevics: Gotha, the city of flying . Gotha 2001. p. 87