Air raids on Paderborn

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During the air raids on Paderborn on March 27, 1945 , the city of Paderborn was largely destroyed by units of the British RAF Bomber Command . This air raid had already been preceded by a number of mostly smaller air strikes. The first air raid by British units took place on June 21, 1940 on Paderborn airfield outside the city. Up until the spring of 1945, all air raids were aimed at purely military targets, at the expense of sometimes considerable civilian collateral damage . However, the densely populated city center was not an explicit target until then.

First heavy attacks on the city center

Remnants of an air mine from the attack on March 22, 1945 in the inner courtyard of Paderborn Cathedral

During the day on January 17, 1945, 153 bombers of the 397th USAAF Bomb Squadron dropped 1,154 tons of bombs to hit the Paderborn marshalling yard; 239 people died. US bomber squadrons also flew attacks on February 23, 1945 and March 10, 1945. The north from Maspernplatz to about Schützenplatz, the Bahnhofsviertel, the Ükernviertel and the Paderborn Südstadt were hit. 75 people died in the attacks. On March 22, 1945 at 9 p.m., nine British Mosquito aircraft dropped 17 tons of bombs, which severely damaged the Paderborn Cathedral and its surroundings.

Five days later, 266 Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers bombed Paderborn; they should destroy the deployment area.

The attackers

The attack followed by a major fire was carried out on the orders of Air Marshal Arthur Harris of the British Royal Air Force . A method already used in the attacks on Kassel , Braunschweig , Pforzheim and Hamburg was used to destroy the densely built-up area target . This attack method used a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs . In the best military case, this combination led to a firestorm . The fire multiplied the damage caused by the explosive and incendiary bombs used.

The preparation

The exact selection of the districts to be bombed was made on the basis of aerial photographs , population density maps and fire insurance cadastre maps. The cadastral maps had been deposited by German fire insurance companies with British reinsurance companies before the war. The historic Paderborn old town was selected as the core area of ​​the attack, as the proportion of wood in the total building mass was highest here. This made it the ideal core target area for igniting a firestorm in Paderborn.

Before the bombardment of the target area has been Mosquito - Quick bombers by red and green marker body (so-called Christmas trees) delimited. This was monitored by a master bomber flying at high altitude, which was connected to the marker pilots via radio. After this was finished, the master bomber checked the Paderborn target area again on a deeper flight path, determined the exact approach heights and released the attack.

The bombing

The target area of ​​the first area attack on Paderborn was essentially the densely populated city center - especially the historic old town. The bombardment began on March 27, 1945 at around 5:30 p.m. The Royal Air Force used 270 Lancaster bombers and 8 Mosquito aircraft .

First, thousands of high-explosive bombs and several hundred air mines were dropped. Many roofs were torn open by the pressure waves of the explosions. Afterwards, thousands of electron thermite sticks were thrown over the city area, which fell into the torn roof trusses of the houses and set them on fire. Thousands of smaller building fires turned into one major fire within an hour .

Damage and sacrifice

The majority of people seeking refuge in the cellars - unless they were killed by debris during the attack - suffocated or burned in the cellars. It was seldom possible to escape from the cellars through the streets because the heat was too great. The attack on the densely populated city killed up to 350 people. 85 percent of the buildings in Paderborn were destroyed.

The focus of the destruction was in the historic city center, which was almost completely destroyed. The Archbishop's Academic Library lost 70,000 of its historical collection of 160,000 books.

After the attack, the Paderborn air raid protection line reported: “2000 buildings totally destroyed, 500 heavily damaged, 700 moderately damaged, 400 slightly damaged. Fires: 1500 large fires, 1000 medium fires, 500 small fires, conflagration over the entire city center. "

The relatively low number of victims in this large-scale attack is due to the fact that many residents had left the city after the previous attacks on January 17, 1945 for fear of further attacks. In total, around 900 people were killed during all of the air raids on Paderborn.

Paderborn had lost many of its most important monuments as a result of the air raids, and the old town had completely lost its medieval look. The cityscape has changed radically as a result.

Commemoration

Death lamp at Paderborn Cathedral

The death lamp at Paderborn Cathedral burns on January 17th, March 22nd and March 27th of each year to commemorate the days of the three strongest air raids in 1945.

See also

literature

  • Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert and others: The air raids on Paderborn 1939–1945 . 2nd Edition. Paderborn, self-published, 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert among others, page 51 et seq.
  2. ↑ Friedrich G. Hohmann: The end of the Second World War in the Paderborn area , p. 340 ( online (pdf))
  3. ↑ Friedrich G. Hohmann: The end of the Second World War in the Paderborn area , p. 340 f. ( online (pdf))
  4. ↑ Friedrich G. Hohmann: The end of the Second World War in the Paderborn area , p. 346 ff. ( Online (pdf))
  5. ↑ a b c d e see also Jörg Friedrich: Der Brand , pp. 200–203.
  6. ↑ Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert among others, S. 23 f.
  7. ↑ Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert among others, page 11 et seq.
  8. ↑ Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert among others, p 77 ff.
  9. ↑ Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert among others, page 95 et seq.
  10. ↑ Rainard Claus, Hans-Werner Fricke, Andreas Kühlert among others, S. 111 ff.
  11. ↑ diekneite-paderborn.de: The death lamp at the cathedral ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diekneite-paderborn.de 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. , Accessed May 12, 2012

Coordinates: 51 ° 43 ′ 6.4 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 7.4"  E