Air raids on Saalfeld

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Between 1940 and 1945 there were several air raids on Saalfeld . A few days before the occupation of the city by soldiers of the 3rd United States Army on April 13, 1945, heavy daytime attacks by the 9th Air Force on Saalfeld took place on April 9 . 1,300 bombs (384 tons) were thrown on the station grounds , industrial plants and the city center. The station area was almost completely destroyed. At least 208 people died, mostly civilians. This was preceded by light air raids by the British Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force from May 1944 to April 7, 1945 , which resulted in a total of 30 deaths.

The city of Saalfeld

In 1939 Saalfeld an der Saale was a small industrial town with 20,000 inhabitants. In 1942 there were 23,000 inhabitants. Since 1936 Saalfeld was a garrison town of the Wehrmacht (see Beulwitz ). As a railway junction, the city had a large, modern train station on the main line from Munich to Berlin , which was electrified in the Nuremberg-Leipzig section in 1935/42. During the Second World War, the city took in numerous evacuees from air war regions in West Germany, and from 1944 also refugees and displaced persons from the eastern regions.

The individual attacks

All US air strikes took place during the day, the two British ones at night.

  • September 17, 1940: The British RAF dropped explosive and incendiary bombs which caused "some damage" in the western part of the city.
  • January 30, 1944: An American B-17 "Flying Fortress" is shot down by flak and crashes near Saalfeld.
  • May 28, 1944 (Whitsun): as part of a major operation of the 2nd bomber division of the 8th Air Force in central Germany, nine B-24 Liberator bombers dropped 24 tons of bombs over Garnsdorf . The "Japanese Villa" on Frankenweg (above today's clinic) received a direct hit. Six people died in the open, the first to be killed in the aerial warfare in Saalfeld.
  • September 13, 1944: Bombs by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) caused damage to "An der Heide", in the area of ​​the covering shop.
  • 14./15. January 1945: The RAF threw a mine bomb at night near the Zeiss factory in Altsaalfeld on Altsaalfelder Strasse on a farm. Considerable damage was also caused to the surrounding buildings. Six (or nine) people died.
  • February 6, 1945: on this day, US units carried out major attacks on central Germany. The 8th Air Force's war diary lists 13 B-17s that are said to have dropped 32.5 tons of bombs on Saalfeld. No such attack was registered in the city. The bombs must have been dumped elsewhere.
  • March 2, 1945: the 1st Division of the 8th Air Force flew a major attack on central Germany. 13 B-17s dropped 29.3 tons of bombs on the Bernhardtsgraben (Roter Berg). There were six deaths among the Soviet forced laborers. Probably it was a mistake and the real destination was the train station in Saalfeld.
  • March 14, 1945: USAAF caused damage in the quarry in the Politz area (behind the municipal bath), in the area at the glue boiler. Eight or ten people died, including two French workers.
  • March 19, 1945: the 8th Air Force flew a major attack on central Germany. Ten B-17s of the 3rd Division attacked Saalfeld as a "secondary target" and dropped 30 tons of bombs. The train station as a probable target was missed and the cemetery was hit. Two people were killed.
  • April 7, 1945: around 1 p.m., two US low- flying aircraft attacked a workshop train coming from Rudolstadt for repair work in front of the entrance to the station. The locomotive and part of the train were destroyed, the two engine drivers were killed. Against 16:30 attacked four fighter-bomber of the type North American P-51 Mustang to Mustang the station and in particular the railway crossing the street Pößnecker. The bridge crashed onto the tracks. This completely blocked the exit towards Rudolstadt and Bad Blankenburg , and the trains in the station area were fixed. These attacks are to be understood as preparation for the main attack on April 9th.
  • April 8, 1945: US reconnaissance planes flew over the city several times to take reconnaissance pictures. The Reichsbahndirektion tried to organize the removal of the bridge debris on the tracks. However, this failed due to insufficient capacity and the constant hindrance by low-flying aircraft.
US P-51 Mustang fighter-bomber

Major attack on April 9, 1945

US bomber B-26 Marauder (looters)
US bomber Douglas A-26 Invader (intruder)

The main source of the following description is the special exhibition "7 days in April" of the Saalfeld City Museum from 2005 with its accompanying booklet (see literature) and the corresponding publication

  • April 9, 1945: At 7:00 a.m., 191 bombers of the US Air Force's 9th Air Force launched from their bases in Laon in northern France to attack Thuringia. The primary destination for 142 machines was Saalfeld with its important train station , secondary destinations were Pößneck and Kronach . 5 bomber groups were involved with 74 medium-heavy medium-range bombers of the type Martin B-26 Marauder (looters) and 117 light bombers of the types Douglas A-20 Havoc and Douglas A-26 Invader. At around 10 a.m., the attacks on the station began in 14 waves in groups of 6 bombers. In the process, 1,300 bombs (500 or 1,000 pounds each, including incendiary bombs) were thrown at the station and the city with interruptions until 7:00 p.m. without resistance. According to another (more recent) source, the attacks by 42 aircraft of the 344th bomber group began at 12:18 p.m. with the dropping of 168 1,000 general purpose high explosive bombs (76.2 tons) and were carried out by 180 aircraft of the 323 from 4.15 p.m. to 6.48 p.m. , 344th, 409th, 410th and 416th bomber groups continued: with the dropping of 240 500 GP high explosive bombs and 500 1,000 GP high explosive bombs (308 tons). On April 9th, a total of 967 bombs weighing 384 tons fell on Saalfeld from 222 aircraft.

As early as 8.20 a.m., the Maxhütte (Unterwellenborn) and adjacent armaments factories were attacked and their production was brought to a standstill. The energetic center was hit fully.

In the station area Saalfeld the station building and the station concourse, the telecommunications center, five buildings of the railway depot, a roundhouse, the post office, the signal boxes and the hotel "train Hirsch": the institutions destroyed over two-thirds. The following were lost due to fires: the goods handling , goods shed, reloading hall, wagon workshop and railway maintenance office. 8 electric and steam locomotives were destroyed, 270 wagons destroyed and a further 930 damaged. A hospital train was also hit. The technical systems destroyed: 45% of the main tracks, 32% of the side tracks, 75% of the cabling, 100% of the drainage network, 80% of the water pipes and all loading ramps. As a crater landscape with burning ruins and wagons, overturned locomotives and rails jutting into the sky, the station area offered a "ghostly picture". The "Bahnhirsch" hotel in front of the train station had served as a Wehrmacht refreshment point and an auxiliary hospital for the wounded arriving before they were transported to the city hospitals. Eight nurses also died in his air raid shelter after being hit by a highly explosive high-explosive bomb.

Destroyed or badly damaged industrial plants : Wilhelmshütte AG, Autohaus Grille, industrial and agricultural machinery factory Schildbach, washing machine factory Schmidt, machine factory Max Schaede, a liqueur factory, a cleaning cloth factory, the Saalfeld brewery , a wire mesh factory, the Maxhütte (Unterwellenborn) (gasometer, cable lines) .

Destroyed and damaged residential and commercial buildings : Bahnhofstrasse, Pößnecker Strasse, Kulmbacher Strasse (Kaiserstrasse), Kulmstrasse (Max Schaede), Hüttenstrasse, at Saaltor (Weinhaus Rabe), at the hill (Hotel "Prinz Ernst"), at Grünhain, in the lower one Saalstrasse, Obere Strasse (Adolf-Hitler-Strasse), Obere Torgasse, Töpfergasse, Köditzgasse, Rainweg, am Mittleren Boden. 593 of 7,885 apartments were destroyed or damaged (7.3%). The barracks on the so-called slag dump were also destroyed.

Numerous architectural monuments in the old town were affected: the Johanneskirche , the Franciscan monastery (city museum), the baroque Residenz- Schloss Saalfeld , the Kitzerstein castle , the historic hall gate , the Renaissance town hall and the Höhn Renaissance house.

Refuge : Many residents fled the city, as they did the next day. They sought protection in old mine tunnels , in caves from the earlier limestone quarrying on the Friedenshöhe, in earth bunkers in the corridor around the Steiger, in the fairy grottoes (where they stayed for days) and in neighboring forests. Air raid shelters were rather avoided. In the air raid shelter of the Rabe wine house at the Saaltor, 38 people fell victim to a direct hit with a highly explosive bomb (memorial plaque). The neighboring villages were also places of refuge.

  • 10/11 April 1945: "The city was in shock". The state of emergency has been declared. The station area was a gruesome and ghostly sight, a hospital train carrying wounded soldiers had also been hit, tracks jutted into the sky, fires had broken out. The wagons (food, textiles) began to be looted, first by foreigners, then by refugees and finally by locals. There was a fire in the factories that were hit and in the city, for example "Gerlicher's corner" in Saalstrasse and the "Thuringian tavern" burned out due to fire bombs with late bloomers. Low-flying planes shot at people in the streets. Low-flying planes "fought everything that moved". They constantly interrupted the rescue and extinguishing work by the fire brigade and other emergency services. Local fire brigades from the surrounding area helped, for example from Arnsgereuth , Unterwirbach and Graefenthal . The latter were hit by a hail of bombs. The sirens kept wailing. The city has been overflown several times by US scouts. On the afternoon of April 11th, there was another light air raid on the station.
  • April 12, 1945: The Wehrmacht declared the city center a "Free City". German and Hungarian Wehrmacht units withdrew, several bridges across the Saale were blown up (Remschütz, Kaulsdorf , railway bridges ). Beyond the right bank of the Saale, a makeshift defensive position had been set up on the Red Mountain and in the neighboring area. US troops reached the outskirts of Garnsdorf .
  • April 13, 1945: from 5.30 a.m. Wehrmacht pioneers demolished the Saalbrücke in several stages, which connects the old town with the old hall field and the train station. Shelling of the old town with US light artillery. At 11.25 a.m., the incumbent Mayor Koch handed the city over to the Americans. Heavy US artillery bombarded the right side of the Saale. Exchange of fire at the Zeiss site, dead on both sides. On April 14th, the Americans built a pontoon bridge over the Saale. US fighter bombers attacked the Kulmberghaus, which burned out completely. Attempts to extinguish the fire were prevented by artillery fire.

The total material damage caused by the bombing raids was estimated at 7.5 million Reichsmarks.

Fatalities and burial places

Memorial plaque for 38 bomb victims in the basement at the hall gate

The attacks from May 1944 to April 7, 1945 claimed 30 lives, mostly Germans, but also foreign workers. On April 9, at least 208 people were killed by bombs and on-board weapons : 172 local residents (including 28 children), railway personnel, 19 military personnel, wounded from a hospital train standing on the railway premises , 7 foreigners and 10 unknown people. "However, the number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher." There were also many seriously injured, on April 11 alone over 40 were hospitalized. It is not known how many people were killed in the low-flying attacks in the days following the April 9 bombing and artillery fire. The numbers mentioned refer to the former urban area of ​​Saalfeld.

A large number of the dead were first brought to a mass grave on Mäuseberg near Remschütz , others to a mass grave in front of the Heide, the rest to cemeteries in Saalfeld and Graba . The bones from the mass graves were later transferred to the main cemetery in Saalfeld.

Today 128 of the officially 238 bomb victims from Saalfeld are resting on the grave field A 9 "bomb victims" of the main cemetery in Saalfeld. The facility was redesigned in 1995. A reclining memorial stone bears the inscription in metal letters: "The bombing raids on the city of Saalfeld in 1944/45 fell victim to 238 men, women and children. Remember the dead and keep the peace" (instead of 238, January 2016 only reads meaning distorted 23 because the number 8 is removed). In the middle of the grave field there is a stele with the names (+ dates of birth and death) of the 128 dead lying here. However, there are also entries "unknown child, unknown woman, unknown victim, unknown soldier". Quite a few of the victims only died in April, May or June 1945.

Other aerial warfare victims, mostly soldiers, can be found on cemetery B 1 "War Graves" .

A memorial sheet with the names of the dead was published in October 1945 as a supplement in the "Saalfelder Nachrichten" (without the names of the soldiers who fell near Saalfeld).

  • Memorial stone at the Saalfeld cemetery for 238 bomb victims

  • Memorial stone at the Saalfeld cemetery for 238 bomb victims

  • Stele cemetery Saalfeld for 130 bomb victims buried here

  • War graves (including bomb victims) at Saalfeld cemetery

  • War graves (including bomb victims) at Saalfeld cemetery

literature

  • Roger A. Freeman: Mighty Eighth War Diary . JANE'S. London, New York, Sydney, 1981. ISBN 0-7106-0038-0
  • Dirk Henning: Seven days in April. An exhibition in Saalfeld at the end of the war in 1945 . Yearbook 2005/2006, Saalfeld / Rudolstadt district, "Wir in Thüringen", pp. 43–50. ISBN 3-910013-63-5
  • Peter Lange: About the bombing raids on Saalfeld in 1945 . Rudolstädter Heimathefte 45 (1999), Heft 7/8, p. 176
  • Rudolf Meinfelder: Heaviest bomb attack on Saalfeld 50 years ago. 12:19 p.m. - when the clocks stopped . Supplement to the Neue Saale-Zeitung. Saalfeld, April 7, 1995. pp. 117–120 (April 7–12, 1945) and pp. 123–124 (April 13–18, 1945)
  • Horst Rost: Chronicle of the last year of the war (3). Eyewitnesses report on the bombing and the arrival of the Americans in Saalfeld . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 8, 1995
  • Horst Rost: The clocks stop at the train station. The end of the war in Saalfeld 60 years ago (1): Monday, April 9, 1945 . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 9, 2005
  • Horst Rost: People leave the city in panic. The end of the war in Saalfeld 60 years ago (2): Tuesday, April 10, 1945 . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 10, 2005
  • Horst Rost: Houses, wagons, factories are on fire. The end of the war in Saalfeld 60 years ago (3): Wednesday, April 11, 1945 . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 11, 2005
  • Saalfeld information . 2/95 March / April. Ed. City of Saalfeld. Gutenberg print 1995
  • Claudia Streitberger: Pictures from the GDR. Saalfeld . Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2002. ISBN 978-3-89702-454-0  : Pictures of the destruction
  • 7 days in April. The end of the war in Saalfeld in 1945 . Booklet accompanying the special exhibition from March 12 to May 29, 2005, Stadtmuseum Saalfeld, Saalfeld 2005

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dirk Henning: Seven days in April . Yearbook 2005/2006, Saalfeld / Rudolstadt district, pp. 43–50
  2. ^ Günter Sagan: East Thuringia in the bombing war 1939-1945 . Michael-Imhoff-Verlag, Petersberg 2013. ISBN 978-3-86568-636-7 . P. 187
  3. ↑ Eyewitness. Retrieved May 15, 2020 .
  4. ^ Rudolf Zießler: Saalfeld (Saalfeld district) . In Götz Eckardt: The fate of German monuments in World War II . Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2. P. 522
  5. ↑ Booklet for the 2005 exhibition
  6. ↑ Dirk Henning: Seven days in April . Yearbook 2005/2006, Saalfeld / Rudolstadt district, pp. 43–50
  7. ↑ Horst Rost: People leave the city in panic . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 10, 2005
  8. ↑ Saalfeld Volunteer Fire Brigade, history. Manuscript in the Saalfeld City Museum
  9. ↑ Saalfeld Volunteer Fire Brigade, history. Manuscript in the Saalfeld City Museum
  10. ↑ Saalfeld information . 2/95 March / April, published by Stadt Saalfeld, 1995. Gutenberg-Druck
  11. ↑ Horst Rost: The clocks stop at the train station . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 9, 2005
  12. ↑ Horst Rost: The clocks stop at the train station . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 9, 2005
  13. ↑ 7 days in April . Booklet accompanying the special exhibition, Saalfeld 2005
  14. ^ Horst Rost: Houses, wagons, factories are on fire . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 11, 2005
  15. ↑ http://www.volksbund.de/kriegsgraeberstaette/saalfeldsaale-hauptfriedhof.html
  16. ↑ Horst Rost: Chronicle of the last year of the war (3). Eyewitnesses report on the bombing and the arrival of the Americans in Saalfeld . Ostthüringer Zeitung, April 8, 1995

Web links

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