Air raids on Hildburghausen

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The air raids on Hildburghausen by American bombers caused considerable damage in Hildburghausen in southern Thuringia during the Second World War . The heaviest attack - on the small town as an alternative target, since the primary target Hof (Saale) had bad weather conditions - occurred on February 23, 1945 and was carried out by 13 B-17 G "Flying Fortress" of the 8th Air Force . They threw 33 tons of high-explosive bombs (about 100 pieces) on the eastern city center and the sanatorium and nursing home (some of the hospital ). 10% of the city's housing stock was destroyed. The number of civilian fatalities is given as up to 218. On April 7, 1945, the old town was under attack by bombers and artillery , which destroyed the castle barracks , damaged other historic buildings and houses with 500 living spaces were badly hit or destroyed.

As early as 1942 Hildburghausen (with 7,000 inhabitants) had 1,000 hospital beds in hospitals, hotels, schools and other buildings. More were added later. From 1942/1943 the city and the district of Hildburghausen had to accept numerous evacuees from the air war zones of Rhineland and Düsseldorf . In 1945 there were 22,000 such "West evacuees" in the district. In addition, from 1944 onwards, there was an increasing number of displaced persons from the eastern regions.

Attacks

1944

About the district Häselrieth were cluster bombs dropped. Two people died.

February 6, 1945

On February 6, 1945, a five-hundredweight explosive bomb of American origin exploded on the grounds of the large mental hospital in a park . This left a crater eight meters deep ; there was property damage, people were not injured. The clinic, especially the west wing of the main building, also served as a large hospital for wounded and sick soldiers , especially for Allied, predominantly British prisoners of war . A prisoner-of-war camp was set up in the northern part of the institution's premises (today's house 2). As a result of the partial evictions for such "war-important purposes" there were only 146 psychiatric patients in the facility in 1944, the others had been relocated.

The hospitals and military hospitals in Hildburghausen were, as everywhere in the war, marked with large red crosses on the roofs as a protective symbol to be observed.

February 17, 1945

B-17G 231909 (Nine-O-Nine) of the 323rd Bombardment Squadron of the 91st Bombardment Group, one of the machines that bombed Hildburghausen.

A passenger train on the Hildburghäuser-Heldburger Eisenbahn was shot at by two US fighter planes with on-board weapons. One traveler died and four were injured.

February 23, 1945

approach

  • On February 22 and 23, 1945, almost the entire 8th Air Force was on the move with thousands of strategic bombers , fighter bombers and accompanying fighter planes to destroy the German transport network (especially the Reichsbahn ): Operation Clarion . In this context, 110 heavy bombers were supposed to bomb the city of Hof with its railway facilities. Pathfinder aircraft recognized a thick cloud cover over this target, which is why the order was given to attack the planned secondary targets. At 12 noon, the air raid sirens howled over the South Thuringia region. There was already a pre-alarm in Hildburghausen at 11.00 a.m. , which was initially lifted. At 12.42 

The 91st and 381st Bombardment Group reached the region from the direction of Rodach / Coburg . The first three groups of the association ignored Hildburghausen when they overflight, 49 of these machines then bombed the town of Meiningen . The fourth and last group went - with a clear blue sky and good visibility - to a low attack height and unloaded its bomb load of 33 tons (about 100 pieces) of highly explosive explosive bombs over Hildburghausen. The aircraft were 13 four-engine Boeing B-17Gs belonging to the 91st Bombardment Group. The presumably actual goals, the station facilities and possibly the North German machine factory NORDEUMA, were missed.

bombing

  • The carpet of bombs exploded on the site of the spacious sanatorium and nursing home. the buildings used as military hospitals and the eastern city center with Eisfelder Strasse, Weitersrodaer Strasse, Wiedersbacher Strasse, Winzergasse, Narvik-Platz (today Thälmann-Platz) and the “settlement”. In the institution, all buildings (except for the Allied POW camp) were affected to varying degrees, especially the west and intermediate wings of the main building (hospital), the "mansion", ancillary buildings such as the section house, the bowling alley, the "old economy" and the agricultural department. The US report reported the next day that there were "partial clouds, fair to good results, with serious damage to residential areas". A Heldburgbahn passenger train standing at the station was fired at by US fighter planes with on-board weapons. There was no personal injury.

Damage and sacrifice

  • Property damage: 180 living spaces in 26 buildings were completely destroyed (10% of the city's living space), and a large number of residential buildings were damaged. A single factory (label factory "Kiss and Co") had been in the attack area, it was destroyed.
  • Victims: The "Evidence of the people killed in the air raid on Hildburghausen on February 23, 1945 at 12:42 p.m." (authorized by the police and mayor) of March 2, 1945 contains a list of 72 names of people registered in Hildburghausen. 22 of them were children and 40 women. Eight of these had given "reserve hospital" as their residential address (presumably nurses). Many of the people on the list came from West German air war zones (evacuation | evacuated) and from eastern regions (refugees, displaced persons). In the Thuringian daily newspaper of March 1, 1945, one finds the names of 79 (Hildburghausen) citizens and the statement that “in addition 32 people from other circles in Germany fell victim to the terrorist attack”. That would be a total of 111 “citizens” / “national comrades”. These were war refugees from Posen , East Prussia , Dresden and wounded soldiers from the hospitals. The Hildburghausen Chronicle speaks of up to 218 victims, depending on the source. It is not known how many prisoners of war died on the premises of the mental hospital / hospital. The Thuringian People's Newspaper of February 23, 1946 names the number of 200 deaths in the attack.

Burials

  • Funeral service: On March 2nd, an official funeral service took place on the Hildburghausen market square under a large iron cross: with the symbolic laying out of 11 coffins , the reading of the names of the dead, system-typical speeches and military ceremonies . A church celebration was then held in the city ​​cemetery .
  • Burial: The funeral of most victims occurred on from the First World War coming war cemetery on the Hildburghäuser cemetery. The site ran wild during the GDR era and was redesigned after the fall of the Berlin Wall . Today (2018) you can see in the area of ​​the war cemetery a complex with about one hundred named graves of civilians and soldiers (probably from the hospitals), which date the death “23. February 1945 ”: the date of the air raid. Only those who know this can assign the graves to the bombing. The tombstones are partly weathered and mossy.

  • 100 bomb victims from February 23rd & 8,239; 1945 at Hildburghausen cemetery

  • Bomb victim woman from 23 & 8239; February 1945 Hildburghausen

  • Bomb victim child of 23 & 8239; February 1945 Hildburghausen

  • Bomb victims Belgians from 23 & 8239; February 1945 Hildburghausen

April 7, 1945

Hildburghausen Castle, set on fire on April 7, 1945, ruins demolished 1947–1950
Historic town hall, damaged by artillery on April 7, 1945, restored

On the morning of April 7, 1945 - while part of the population fled to the surrounding area - the city center was bombarded by American fighter-bombers and artillery . The Hildburghausen Castle from the 17th century, which served as barracks, was targeted with phosphorus grenades, which burned out until the next day. There were other hits on the Christ Church , the Apostle Church , the historic Hildburghausen Town Hall , the Amtshaus am Markt, the local history museum and other buildings. A furniture factory received 16 hits. Incendiary bombs that fell on the city were "tirelessly extinguished" by the population, along with the air raid protection posts and the fire brigade . About ten men were killed in Hildburghausen around April 7th. American tanks and infantry occupied the city in the late afternoon . On the Stadtberg there were still "bitter battles" between Wehrmacht soldiers and US soldiers .

The artillery bombardment by US troops before the city was taken "left severe devastation". 500 homes have been badly hit or destroyed.

reconstruction

"Because of the war events, the cityscape has been changed like in no other year before." There was "an enormous shortage of space, primarily caused by the effects of the war." The reconstruction of the city took place under the difficult conditions of the post-war period, especially with the conditions in the Soviet Zone . Another negative effect was that the municipal building yard was totally destroyed in the air raid. On 12 weekends in late summer and autumn 1945, work assignments by former members of the NSDAP "as a modest contribution to reparations" were organized in the "bomb damage area" in the eastern quarter of the city . A total of 16,000 working hours were performed.

literature

  • Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary . Jane's. London, New York, Sydney 1981. p. 447. ISBN 0-7106-0038-0 .
  • Lothar Günther: Missions and fates in the air war over southwest Thuringia 1944/45 . Nehry-Verlag, Untermaßfeld 2014. pp. 325–326. ISBN 978-3-9815307-6-6 .
  • Hildburghausen Chronicle ( Online )
  • Michael Römhild and Hans-Jürgen Salier: Hildburghausen under the swastika . Hildburghausen City Museum and Frankenschwelle KG publishing house. 2005. ISBN 3-86180-175-2
  • Werner Schwamm: Cemeteries in Hildburghausen - places of remembrance and commemoration . Published by Hildburghausen City Administration. Verlag Frankenschwelle KG, Hildburghausen 2005. ISBN 3-86180-173-6 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Salier : Small Chronicle Hildburghausen. From the beginning to the present . Salier-Verlag, Leipzig 2008. ISBN 978-3-939611-05-9 .
  • Rudolf Zießler : Hildburghausen (Hildburghausen district) in the fate of German monuments in the Second World War . Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2. pp. 526-527.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chronicle Schildburghausen. In: schildburghausen.de. Schildburghausen, accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  2. ^ Werner Schwamm: Friedhöfe in Hildburghausen . 2005. Inside: The war graves from the First and Second World Wars . Pp. 39-42
  3. ^ Rudolf Zießler: Hildburghausen . In Fates of German Monuments in World War II . Volume 2, 1978. pp. 526-527
  4. ↑ a b c Chronicle Schildburghausen. In: schildburghausen.de. Schildburghausen, accessed on July 24, 2020 .

Web links

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