Air raids on Osnabrück
During the Second World War a total of 79 air raids on Osnabrück were carried out by units of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). During the aerial warfare of the Second World War , the city of Osnabrück was a target of strategic importance for the Allies . The main station was an important railway junction of the Reichsbahn . To the southeast of it were the locomotive sheds of the depot and the extensive track systems of the marshalling yard , next to which important industrial companies such as the Klöckner steelworks in the Schinkel district and the Karmann factory (now VW Osnabrück ) in Fledder had settled. Also within view of the main railway station produced in Gartlage the for Gutehoffnungshütte belonging Osnabrücker copper and wire factory (OKD, today KM Europa Metal ).
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 .
Osnabrück could be reached quickly from the allied bases in Great Britain due to the relatively short flight distance. In addition, on the return flight from targets in Central Germany ( Berlin ), remaining bombs were dropped on the region just before the Dutch border.
Air strikes
On September 4, 1939, a few days after the start of the Second World War in Europe, the sirens wailed for the first time in Osnabrück . The first bombs fell on the city on June 23, 1940 when British planes attacked the Klöckner steelworks. By the end of the war, the population had to seek shelter in cellars and air raid shelters a total of 2,396 times .
The first major attack under the British "Area Bombing Directive" took place on June 20, 1942, when 9,000 phosphorus and electron thermite stick incendiary bombs were dropped over the old town. The British RAF flew another heavy air raid on October 6, 1942; it dropped 11,000 explosive and incendiary bombs over the southern old town.
Most of the fatalities (241 people) occurred in the daytime attack by the USAAF on May 13, 1944 on the Schinkel district .
Another serious attack took place on 13 September 1944. This was 2,171 explosives and 181,000 incendiary bombs a firestorm sparked in the old town, fell the most historic building to the victim.
One month later, on October 13, 1944, there was another attack with 16,000 incendiary and 2,616 high-explosive bombs on the districts of Osnabrück that had not yet been destroyed.
At least 178 people were killed in the 79th and last air raid on the morning of March 25, 1945, Palm Sunday . Almost seven weeks before the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , the end of the Second World War in Europe , the buildings still remaining in the old town were almost completely destroyed.
On April 4, 1945, British units occupied the city.
Record of air strikes
Overall, the urban area was destroyed to more than 65 percent; the mediaeval old town was hit hardest at 94 percent.
By the end of the war, Allied units had carried out 79 air raids on Osnabrück, with around 181 air mines, almost 25,000 high-explosive bombs, over 650,000 incendiary bombs and around 12,000 liquid incendiary bombs (canisters) being dropped.
The statistics report 1434 deaths - including 268 prisoners of war , prisoners, forced laborers -, 1964 injuries , 757 major fires, plus more than 3600 medium and small fires, almost 6000 completely destroyed houses, 5700 damaged houses. 32 public buildings (including the town hall , the Stadtwaage , the main train station ), 56 companies, seven churches (including the Cathedral of St. Peter , St. Katharinen , St. Johann and St. Marien ), 13 schools, a hospital (the Marienhospital ) went up in flames. 900,000 cubic meters of rubble piled up in the city.
After the end of the war
After the end of the war, the Bakker Schut Plan provided for the city to be annexed by the Netherlands; However, this did not take place due to opposition from the USA and Great Britain.
Even today there are traces of the air raid shelters that were built in those days.
Almost a year after the end of the war, the Mayor Adolf Kreft, appointed by the British military administration, opened the first meeting of the council, which was also appointed by the British, on February 11, 1946 and took stock of further debris. He said: "The past epoch has left behind enormous masses of rubble not only in the material, but perhaps even more in the spiritual."
Chief City Director Willi Vollbrecht, who presented his “clearing report” to the council on April 2, 1946, unequivocally recalled: “If the ruins of Osnabrück accusingly testify that this is Hitler's work left behind, then for his supporters the word should be added even with the most objective consideration : That is also your work ” . Reconstruction, demanded Vollbrecht, “in no way means restoring the old, it is not restoration, but a renewed city is to be strived for on the basis of reconstruction.” He estimated that the construction would take at least two decades. The reconstruction work was successful, even if it soon became apparent that much was being built hastily and in a makeshift manner. Therefore, at the end of the 1960s, the city started the next big task - the renovation of the old town. As far as possible, the cityscape that had grown and was partially restored after 1945 was to be preserved. Nevertheless, the city could not be redesigned without painful interventions in streets and structures. The renovation was highly controversial. But it is also successful: Osnabrück received awards from the state of Lower Saxony and the federal government for the “work of the century”. The exhibition "Destruction and Construction" in the upper hall of the Osnabrück town hall reminds of this. Large photos, texts, plans and videos document the way from the bombed city to the new Osnabrück.
aftermath
10 to 15 percent of all explosive and incendiary bombs dropped were duds . However, only a part of this was cleared during the war and in the post-war years. No one can say with certainty how many objects are still undiscovered. Until the end of the 1990s, ordnance disposal in Osnabrück only happened by chance during construction work. In 2000, the ordnance clearance service provided the opportunity to search for dud bombs in the Dodesheide area using aerial photographs. The number of finds, especially bombs with so-called long - term detonators , prompted the city of Osnabrück to search specifically for duds. Around 150 to 200 suspicious points are identified every year using aerial photographs. Bombs are still cleared several times a year in Osnabrück - sometimes at very short notice, if bombs with a high risk potential are found during construction work.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörg Friedrich: The fire. Germany in the bombing war 1940–1945 , p. 83
- ↑ Chronicle of the air raids on Osnabrück 1940 to 1945
- ↑ a b Destruction and construction ( Memento from July 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Air raid on Osnabrück on May 13, 1944
- ^ Air raid on Osnabrück on September 13, 1944
- ↑ Contemporary witness report on Palm Sunday 1945 in Osnabrück
- ^ Air raid shelter, bunkers and tunnels in Osnabrück ( Memento from November 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Air raid shelter in Osnabrück
- ↑ Legacy of the Second World War on Osnabrück.de ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )