Air raids on Halberstadt

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The central German city of Halberstadt experienced ten air raids by the 8th Air Force in 1944 and 1945 , of which the area bombing with almost 600 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on April 8, 1945 was the heaviest. This wiped out over 80 percent of the historic city center three days before the US ground troops marched in. Most of the valuable monuments were lost or badly damaged. The attack on April 8, in particular, “destroyed the face and identity of Halberstadt for decades”. In total, almost 1,400 tons of bombs were dropped in the air raids on Halberstadt, and 1,850 to a maximum of 3,000 people lost their lives.

Halberstadt: early 20th century

Halberstadt before the war

Halberstadt was an old bishop's town founded in the Middle Ages, a metropolis in the Harz region and also a traffic junction with a large train station on the railway line from Magdeburg and Oschersleben, which opened in 1843 . It was known as the "Rothenburg of the North", with seven hundred old, partly architecturally very valuable half-timbered houses, magnificent houses from the Wilhelminian era, with beautiful villas and workers' apartments in the lower town. With around 50,000 inhabitants, Halberstadt was a bustling trading town and had a rich cultural life with a theater that was well-known nationwide, important sports facilities and many clubs.

It was a traditional garrison town of Halberstadt Cuirassiers before the First World War and the Reichswehr from 1920 to 1934. In the Nazi era was made to upgrade the Wehrmacht location Halberstadt, with a focus Luftwaffe ( air base on the counter Bergen). A new Junkers branch for the production of wings for the Junkers Ju 88 was built in 1935 at Klusstrasse 30-38 on part of the former site of the Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke .

The individual attacks

American B-17 "Flying Fortress" throwing a bomb
American long-range fighter "Thunderbolt"
American long-range fighter "Mustang"

All air strikes were daytime attacks by the 8th Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces . In the files of the British RAF Bomber Command had been plans to bomb Halberstadt under the code name "Sardine" since 1942 . The deputy of Arthur Harris , Commander in Chief of Bomber Command, was Air Vice-Marshal Robert Saundby , who, as an avid fisherman , provided a fish code to all of the German cities that were coming into selection .

Attacks January 1944 to April 7, 1945

The following information comes from the standard book by Werner Hartmann ( Halberstadt brennt ) and the war diaries of the 8th Air Force.

  • January 11, 1944: 52  B-17 “Flying Fortress” of the 1st Bombardment Division of the 8th Air Force of the USAAF dropped 143 tons of bombs on the Junkers branch , the main train station , the Harz brewery and neighboring houses. The Junkers factory was hit hard. A 16-year-old boy in the summer pool was the first to be killed in the bombing war in Halberstadt.
  • February 22, 1944: 18 B-17 bombers, with the missed target of the Flugzeugwerke, dropped 26.5 (33) tons of bombs from a height of 6500 to 7000 meters into the open field between Harsleben and Halberstadt: 150 bomb craters. There were no dead.
  • April 11, 1944: During a US air raid on the Luftwaffe air base in the Bar Mountains , numerous buildings were destroyed and 29 soldiers were killed. All eight crew members of a US long-range bomber shot down on Großer Thekenberg died.
  • May 30, 1944: 107 B-17s dropped 145 tons of bombs on the aircraft factory and residential area. 52 people died at the plant (including 20 Italians ), in their homes and on the streets.
  • August 16, 1944: 13 B-17 bombers attacked the air base with 27.5 tons of bombs. Nine soldiers and three military assistants were killed.
  • February 14, 1945: An attack aimed at the Junkers factory resulted in the destruction of several buildings and damage to the hospital site . 21 people died, 11 of them foreigners.
  • February 19, 1945: US fighter-bombers attacked the main station and Wehrstedt . Eleven people, probably all foreigners, were killed.
  • February 22, 1945: As part of Operation Clarion , a major attack took place at around 1 p.m. on the main train station and on Wehrstedt, which killed 155 people. The station was completely devastated and made unusable, and the bombers were immediately followed by low-flying aircraft. Serious damage also occurred in the city and especially in Wehrstedt. In the church of Wehrstedt, a direct hit buried many people seeking protection there.
  • When low- flying aircraft were fired on board , also on February 22nd, 15 British prisoners of war and two Americans were killed on a transport between Wegeleben and Halberstadt.
  • April 7, 1945: Several US fighter-bombers dropped incendiary bombs in Halberstadt on a clear day and shot into the streets. Then they attacked an ammunition train parked on platform 9 in the station area. The fighter-bombers were shot at by anti-aircraft guns after the attack began . One of the planes - a Thunderbolt - crashed and the pilot was captured. The highly explosive sea ​​mines on the train exploded, a huge crater formed, 650 railway wagons and 45 locomotives were destroyed. The train station with its buildings, track and switch systems was inoperative. In the urban area, there was considerable air pressure damage to windows, doors and roofs.

The situation in Halberstadt at the beginning of April 1945

The city was overpopulated with 70,000 people, including many evacuated from the air war, thousands of refugees from the Eastern Territories, foreign workers and prisoners of war. 3,000 to 4,000 wounded and sick soldiers were cared for in 22 facilities: in the on-site hospital, in the Salvator hospital, in private clinics, reserve hospitals and in the barracks' infirmary. The hospitals were recognizable with large Red Cross signs that were visible from afar. There were no defensible combat troops or military staff in the city, nor were there any other military targets. The Volkssturm was called up and had built "anti-tank barriers". There were no more flak or fighter planes. The population was trained in passive air defense. Caves in the Spiegelsbergen (Lange Höhle, Am Felsenkeller) had been turned into safe shelters - but of course had to be reached first. The Remterkeller of the cathedral chapel had also been converted into an air raid shelter. Large extinguishing water ponds had been created at various locations . In the main post office there was an air warning center, which was also responsible for the surrounding towns and villages. There was practically constant air alarm because US fighter-bombers were constantly in action or "streams of bombers" were flying over. On April 8, the US armored spearheads were only 40 kilometers west of Halberstadt.

The area attack of April 8, 1945 on the city center

Under the code no. GY 4822, the command to attack Halberstadt as a "secondary target" was given to the 1st Air Division of the 8th Air Force. The 215 (218) B-17 bombers intended for this purpose were a part of the armed forces of a total of 339 B-17s with 239 P-51 long-range fighters escorted to  targets in central Germany on April 8. The start from the bases in Central England around Bedford was at 6:15 a.m. The target of the group of 215 (218) B-17s was officially given as priority 1 Leopoldshall near Staßfurt , Halberstadt as an alternative target with priority 2. Since the mosquito scout reported haze over Leopoldshall, Halberstadt was given priority. Hartmann suspects that the target Leopoldshall was just a sham and Halberstadt was the actual order for this large bomber fleet. At 11:10 a.m., an air alarm was given in Halberstadt, at 11:31 a.m. the first bombers appeared over the city and, after targeting with smoke signals from a height of 6,700 meters, began dropping 504 tons of high- explosive bombs and 50 tons of incendiary bombs . According to the 8th Air Force's war diary, the total bomb load was 595 tons. The originally British "fan tactics" ("death fans") were used, through which a high hit rate and the highest possible destruction should be achieved. The landmark building of the lyceum (Käthe Kollwitz-Gymnasium) in the south of Halberstadt was the landmark for the bomber crews, the target area should be in the center of the city. Six bomber groups attacked the city from the south from 11:31 a.m. to 11:54 a.m. in several waves - undisturbed by flak - and destroyed the city center. The incendiary bombs were filled with a total of 50 tons of a mixture of gasoline, viscose and magnesium dust. AN-M47 liquid incendiary bombs , stick incendiary bombs, and phosphorus incendiary bombs were also used. The initial high explosive bombs covered the roofs, cracked the windows and tore open the walls of the houses. By means of fire then developed in the well-combustible, densely built medieval town difficult to combat wildfires that destroyed more buildings. A firestorm developed from the individual fires in the city center . Rescue and fire-fighting work was hindered by low-flying aircraft. The escape routes from Halberstadt in the direction of the Spiegelsberge were bombed and the escort hunters attacked with weapons on board. The B-17 bombers landed on their bases in Central England around 3 p.m. without losses. 25,000 people were left homeless by the bombardment.

Ruined city Halberstadt 1945, memorial for the rubble women

In addition to the Halberstadt volunteer fire brigade , whose fire station had been destroyed in the crab shear, professional fire brigades from Hanau and Dortmund , who had been relocated to Heimburg , volunteer fire brigades from the surrounding towns and villages and medical workers also participated in the rescue and extinguishing work in the triggered inferno from there. French and English prisoners of war also took part in the rescue work. A large number of residential buildings, the partially destroyed garrison hospital and the Gleim House were also saved from being completely burned down. The fire water had to because of the destruction of water pipes (60 km) from the Holtemme , the Kulkgraben, the indoor pool, the fire water ponds and bomb craters are taken, some with " bucket brigade ". The city burned for three and a half days. Most of the streets were blocked by debris. Many long-term detonator bombs exploded unforeseeably during clearance work.

The city hospital remained intact, but most of the military hospitals were completely or partially destroyed. So the wounded in the basement rocks, others developed caves in need were lazarette in nearby farms, but also in the underground weapons factory in the Klusbergen brought.

The corpses had to be recovered as quickly as possible because of the rapid decomposition in the heat and the risk of epidemics. Mass graves were hastily dug in the cemetery . All available means of transport were used, especially by hauliers. Most of the transports and “burials” had to take place without coffins. Shrink corpses were collected in boxes. There were salvage commands even from prisoners of langenstein-zwieberge compiled. With the American occupation on April 12th, these were replaced by NSDAP members. For weeks there was “a terrible smell over the rest of the city”.

According to Werner Hartmann, city historian and honorary citizen of Halberstadt, April 8th was a terrorist attack .

Material consequences of the April 8 air strike

According to Hartmann, to whom the other information in this section can be traced back, a total of 1.5 million cubic meters of rubble and debris was left in the city by the air attack on April 8th. Three huge mountains of rubble were created when the rubble was cleared. Of the 19,000  apartments , 8,000 were completely destroyed and another 1,500 were badly damaged. Of 5400  houses , 2200 were completely destroyed, and another 800 suffered more or less severe damage. 25,000 people from Halberstadt were left homeless. 900 commercial and craft enterprises of all kinds were destroyed. Eight of 15 hospitals and military hospitals were destroyed. 15 schools were either destroyed or badly damaged. 42 streets no longer existed, 31 others were partially destroyed. The transport system no longer existed: the train station had been destroyed, tram tracks and overhead lines destroyed, the streets no longer passable. Gas, water and electricity were down, as was the telephone network.

It took 15 years to clear all the debris. Around a third of the original 1,500 half-timbered houses were destroyed, especially those with a unique architectural position in the upper town. Another third of the preserved half-timbered houses, especially simple ones in the lower town, fell into disrepair during the GDR era or was partially demolished. It was only after the fall of the Wall in 1990 that serious efforts were made to save the remaining building fabric and gradually close the urban wounds in the inner city.

Duds can still be found today. On August 12, 2015, 5,000 inhabitants of Halberstadt had to be evacuated during the complex defusing of a US bomb that was found during construction work on the edge of the old town. From 1952 to 1976 62 duds were defused in the urban area, for the high number from 1945 to 1951 there was no reliable registration.

Loss of architectural monuments

This compilation is based on the standard work Fates of German Architectural Monuments in World War II , Hartmann's documentation and the list of cultural monuments in Halberstadt

Martinikirche 1945, detail from the memorial for the rubble women

Destroyed architectural monuments

Heavily damaged monuments

The building ensembles of Domplatz, Holzmarkt - the center of the town, fish market, Martiniplan and Paulsplan were completely or largely destroyed. Of the 720 half-timbered houses from the 15th to the beginning of the 18th century, which "made Halberstadt's fame as a half-timbered town in Lower Saxony, most of them sank to rubble" (Renate Kroll). Only a small part remained in the bailiwick and the new town.

Parts of the interior architecture of the cathedral, the choir screen figures of the Liebfrauenkirche and the Halberstadt Roland in front of the town hall were saved by walling in and setting in concrete . Numerous valuable cultural assets were outsourced. The best known is the evacuation of the cathedral treasure in caves, where it was hidden from the occupying powers and the securing of the medieval church windows. The painting and manuscript collections and the library had been moved from the Gleimhaus.

According to experts, the ruins of the town hall could have been rebuilt again. The demolition took place due to a political decision in the early 1950s. This may also have been the case with the removal of other partially destroyed buildings, such as the city theater.

Loss of life

Memorial stone for the bomb victims at the site of the mass graves

A total of 289 people were killed in the air strikes before April 7th and 8th. Of these, about 46 were soldiers and 52 were foreigners. The majority of the German civilian population were by far women, and a large proportion were children.

In the air raids on April 7th and 8th, Hartmann found 1,356 identified victims and around 500 "unknown bomb victims" based on the documents from the cemetery administration and the city, or around 1,850 dead on these two days. Other sources put 2,100 dead on April 8th alone, including 400 children.

The total number of aerial warfare victims in Halberstadt is at least 2150. There are also higher figures of 2500 to 3000 victims.

Certainly not all buried and burned people have been rescued. Skeletons were still found during construction decades after the attack.

There is no information on the number of seriously wounded and permanently damaged bomb victims.

Occupation of the city

In the afternoon of April 11, 1945, three days after the city had been largely destroyed, troops of the US Army occupied the city without resistance; in May they were replaced by the British and at the end of June by the Red Army . A camp for German prisoners of war was set up in the sugar factory.

Burial and memorial sites

The dead in the April 8 air strike were buried in mass graves at the north end of the Halberstadt cemetery. A separate memorial stone commemorates the bomb victims among the Italian internees, and a common stone commemorates the other foreign workers who died. There are graves of soldiers from the First and Second World Wars in the vicinity.

Places of remembrance in the city are the ruins of the "Franzosenkirche", which has been designed as a memorial since 1968, and the Wehrstedter Church. Many people seeking protection perished in both buildings. In front of the rebuilt town hall there is a small memorial, inaugurated on April 8, 2004, in honor of the rubble women who worked hard to clear the debris by autumn 1946: a prerequisite for the decade-long reconstruction and rebuilding of the city.

  • Notice board on the mass graves of the bomb victims

  • Mass graves of the bomb victims, partial view

  • Mass graves of the bomb victims, partial view

  • War melt from bomb crater (city museum)

  • Memorial site (since 1968) French Church

  • Memorial plaque on the French Church

  • Monument to the rubble women in front of the town hall (from 2005)

literature

  • Marcus Ahrens: Operation Sardine. The destruction of Halberstadt . Film / DVD based on the book by Werner Hartmann Halberstadt brennt and accompanying booklet, Halberstadt 2005.
  • Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary . Jane's: London, New York, Sydney 1981. ISBN 0-7106-0038-0 .
  • Werner Hartmann : Halberstadt is on fire. A documentary about Halberstadt in the air war 1944–1945, especially about the destruction of the city on April 8, 1945 . Editing by Simone Bliemeister. Ed. History Association for Halberstadt. Koch-Druck, Halberstadt 2015 (revision)
  • Alexander Kluge : The air raid on Halberstadt on April 8, 1945 . Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-42035-5 .
  • Renate Kroll: Halberstadt . In: Fate of German Monuments in World War II . Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 1, pp. 216–245.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c City Museum Halberstadt, 2015.
  2. ^ Olaf Groehler : Bomb war against Germany . Berlin 1990, p. 449.
  3. ^ Olaf Groehler: Bomb war against Germany . Berlin 1990, p. 35.
  4. ↑ Fish code names , (British original, PDF; 292 kB), German translation (PDF; 292 kB). Bunkermuseum Emden , accessed on October 2, 2017.
  5. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, pp. 15–28 and 82–85.
  6. ^ Roger Freedman: Mighty Eighth War Diary . London, 1981.
  7. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, p. 18.
  8. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, p. 20.
  9. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, pp. 29–30.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Marcus Ahrens: Operation Sardine. The destruction of Halberstadt . Documentary, Halberstadt 2005.
  11. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, p. 33.
  12. ↑ Fan tactics in bombing
  13. ↑ Marcus Ahrens: Operation Sardine. The destruction of Halberstadt . Documentary film, Halberstadt 2005. Statement by Jörg Friedrich.
  14. ^ Alexander Kluge: The air raid on Halberstadt on April 8, 1945 . Frankfurt 2008, pp. 73-74.
  15. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015. Numerous eyewitness reports.
  16. ↑ Marcus Ahrens: Operation Sardine. The destruction of Halberstadt . Documentary, Halberstadt 2005. Numerous eyewitness reports.
  17. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, pp. 34–35.
  18. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015. Numerous eyewitness reports.
  19. ^ Alexander Kluge: The air raid on Halberstadt on April 8, 1945 . Frankfurt 2008.
  20. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, p. 56.
  21. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, p. 58.
  22. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, pp. 68–71.
  23. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, p. 71.
  24. ^ Renate Kroll in Fates of German Architectural Monuments in World War II , Volume 1, pp. 216–245.
  25. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015.
  26. ↑ Photos in the picture index of art and architecture
  27. ↑ Display boards in the cathedral (2015).
  28. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, pp. 82–85.
  29. ^ Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt is burning . Halberstadt 2015, pp. 85–111.
  30. ↑ Renate Kroll in: Fates of German Architectural Monuments in the Second World War . Volume 1, p. 217.

Web links

Commons : Air raids on Halberstadt  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files