Air raids on Zwickau

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The city of Zwickau in Western Saxony experienced in World War II on 12 May 1944 to 11 April 1945 tens airstrikes , almost exclusively by the US Air Force . Here threw over 384 four-engined bombers and countless fighter bombers more than 1,027 tons of bombs on Zwickau. 3,629 apartments were destroyed and 29 industrial plants were destroyed or damaged. These included a large aircraft repair plant and important vehicle manufacturers . At least 591 deathsindicated, including numerous women, children and foreigners. In April 1945 there were frequent low-flying attacks , and on April 16 and 17 there were artillery fire .

14 of the 78 bomb victims there from 1945 in the Zwickau-Planitz cemetery
Bomb victims from 1945 rest in the Zwickau-Planitz cemetery
"Flying fortress" Boeing B-17 bombing
US fighter P-51 "Mustang", often "low flyer"

Air raid

Zwickau was classified as a first order air raid shelter . There was a command bunker for the district operations staff on the Windberg, below the Bismarck column (demolished in 1964) . Existing mine tunnels and deep cellars of breweries and inns were expanded as air raid shelters. After an air raid alarm, people streamed in forced marches over the bridges into the “mountain cellars” of the club and union brewery on the east side of the Mulde . Not all tunnels withstood the highly explosive explosive bombs , so on March 19, 1945, 55 people seeking protection died in the main gallery belonging to the “Zum Paradies” inn. The big companies all had air raid shelters. In Planitz , too, there were concreted air protection tunnels at the foot of the Kreuzberg and the Schloßberg. The inhabitants of Planitz, however, were particularly poorly protected overall. Zwickau had a professional fire brigade, which, however, had been thinned out by conscription to the Wehrmacht and had to work with auxiliary workers. The plant fire brigades also deployed prisoners of war and "Eastern workers".

Air raids in Zwickau: 1940–1942: 0, 1943: 26, 1944: 82, 1945: 66 (until April 18).

In the list of the RAF Bomber Command with intended targets in Germany, Zwickau was recorded with the fish code name “Poot” (for dwarf cod ).

The individual attacks

  • December 21, 1940: First air raid on the Zwickau region: a British plane dropped four bombs in the morning at around 4 a.m. on a field between the Mosel inn and the Werdau – Zwickau railway line .
  • January 2, 1944: On this day, the first bombs are said to have fallen on the urban area of ​​Zwickau without causing any major damage.
  • (April 12, 1944): Zwickau was intended as a "substitute target" for a large-scale operation by the 8th Air Force , but was not approached. The presumed reason was too strong German fighter air defense over northern France.
  • May 12, 1944 : On this day 935 heavy bombers of the 8th Air Force had the order to attack the hydrogenation plants in central Germany and northern Bohemia , which had been spared until then . Two squadrons carried out a “diversionary attack” with 74 “Flying Fortresses” Boeing B-17s on Zwickau. There was a clear view in the region. The alarm was triggered at 1:20 p.m. and the all-clear was given at 2:45 p.m. From an altitude of 5,100 to 7,300 meters, 109 1000-pound and 188,500-pound high explosive bombs , a total of 158 tons, were dropped. The targets were the aircraft repair plant ( combat aircraft ) Gustav Basser KG at the Zwickau airfield (on Reichenbacher Strasse), the main train station and the Reichsbahn repair shop . The aircraft repair plant (1000 employees, including many foreigners: Ukrainians, Italian military internees) was largely destroyed. The RAW also suffered considerable damage: the wagon workshop, the area with the water tower, the forge and the Lokan heating building. Residential areas were also hit: five houses were total losses, 5 seriously and 200 slightly damaged. 52 people died, 26 Germans and 26 foreigners. 15 dead were German and foreign women, nine dead were German and foreign children. 86 people were wounded. There were six dead in Lichtentanne . Of the 935 (886) bombers deployed over central Germany that day, 46 crashed in aerial battles (especially the planes on Zwickau suffered losses). Some of the approximately 460 crew members affected perished, the others were taken prisoner of war .
  • May 28, 1944 : Of the total of 1341 heavy US bombers deployed over Germany on that day with accompanying long-range fighter planes, 15 "Flying Fortresses" B-17 flew another attack on the Basser KG repair facility. At 3:08 p.m. 515 100 pound bombs (25.7 tons) were dropped on the target. Nothing is known about the fatalities.
  • July 20, 1944: In aerial battles over the Zwickau area, German Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter planes shot down five American B-17 “Flying Fortresses” and three fighter planes. A house in Wilkau-Haßlau was badly damaged and the Zwickau police reported 12 wounded.
  • September 11, 1944: US bombers returning from an attack on the hydrogenation works near Brüx dropped bombs on Wilkau-Haßlau. The destination was probably the train station, five residential buildings (with the restaurants “Zur Linde” and “Muldenthal”) were destroyed or badly damaged. There were 12 dead and 38 injured.
  • October 7, 1944 : The 8th Air Force launched a massive attack on the Brüx fuel plant in 1311 four-engine bombers and 762 fighters. Because of heavy resistance from heavy flak and because of "bad weather", the 1st Air Division was supposed to attack the "alternative target" Zwickau instead. This was only possible for the command squadron, the other two squadrons bombed Rositz and Gera . At 11.55 am the alarm sounded in Zwickau, then 118 “Flying Fortresses” B-17 dropped two “Blockbusters” mine bombs of 4000 pounds each and over 800 explosive bombs. That was 291, according to another statement, 250 tons of bombs. The destinations for 60 bombers were the Basser aircraft repair plant and the airfield, and the Auto Union plants for 58 bombers . Instead of Audi , the large cattle yard and slaughterhouse and worsted yarn spinning mill were hit. The northern suburbs, Weißenborn , the main cemetery, barracks, the RAW and Maxhütte were also bombed . The tracks of the strategically important rail link that had been hit could be used again until the next day. 27 buildings were completely damaged, 40 seriously, 11 moderately and 668 slightly damaged. The attack killed 65 people and injured at least 143 people. Of the 50 German dead, 23 were men, 17 women and 10 children. 15 (13) dead were foreigners (workers and prisoners of war, Italian military internees, Russians, French, Poles).
  • November 1, 1944: Light US air attack over 5 minutes on the Horch automobile plant as a secondary target, killing 11.
  • February 13, 14, 15, 21, 22, 1945: In connection with the heavy Anglo-American air raids on Dresden and Chemnitz , minor attacks were carried out in the Zwickau area on the southern suburb, the trust shaft, Schedewitz, Reinsdorf, Härtensdorf, Ortmannsdorf and Oberhohndorf. 20 deaths were to be mourned. An Eastern labor camp burned down. 12 Russians died in a buried cover ditch, 7 more were missing. Six British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers were shot down. One fell on the Culitzscher Flur as a result of flak hits, 7 crew members died.
  • March 19, 1945 : On this sunny spring day, the heaviest air raid on Zwickau, including Planitz , Cainsdorf and several rural communities in the region. At 12.35 p.m. there was a pre-alarm, at 12.40 p.m. the all-clear and at 12.50 p.m. an air raid alarm. 177 American "Flying Fortresses" B-17G crossed the city from west to east, dropped some of their bombs, turned and flew a second time - from northeast to west to the city. The bombardment took place from 1:32 p.m. to 2:25 p.m., and the all-clear at 3:45 p.m. 2690 bombs (1116 500 pound, 859 250 pound and 715 300 pound high explosive bombs, a total of 494 tons of bomb load) were thrown as a carpet of bombs over almost the entire city and the area. Of these, around 400 were missed in the open field: 200 in the Niederplanitz fields (later Neu-Planitz) and 200 on fields on the Auerbach / Schneppendorf / Zwickau field border. Cainsdorf received about 50 bomb hits (8 dead) when 15 aircraft were overflight. In the urban area, there was a wide strip from Parkstrasse through the southern inner city to the “Zum Paradies” inn, the northern suburb from the main cemetery over Leipziger Strasse to Freiligrathstrasse and in Zwickau-West the area around the “Lindenhof” variety theater in Marienthal bombed. “Tremendous detonations shook houses and buried people in their cellars. The desperately protective women, children and mostly older men were buried, beaten to death, killed by atmospheric pressure, suffocated and burned ”or were killed by carbon oxide gases. In the gynecological clinic Dr. A. Köhler on Amalienstraße killed 22 women and five babies. 55 people were killed in the tunnel system of the “Zum Paradies” inn. Planitz, mainly Oberplanitz, which was incorporated on January 1, 1944, was particularly affected. At least 78 Planitz citizens were killed. In total there were at least 441 fatalities and 208 wounded in Zwickau, including Planitz and Cainsdorf. After the bombers came the low-flying aircraft. German Me 262 jet fighters shot down five bombers (two of them in the Zwickau region) and a Mustang fighter over the East Thuringian / West Saxon region . The many false throws were perhaps caused by the bomber pilots being irritated by the jet fighters. Anti-aircraft defense no longer played a role as the guns had been withdrawn to the eastern front. In the city there were posters in six languages: “Whoever loots will be shot”. After the bombing, the “mobilization plan” came into effect. In addition to the Zwickau professional fire brigade, all fire brigades from the area moved in. Fires were put out, buried basements exposed, the streets made passable again, water, electricity and telephone lines repaired. Fixed rescue and rescue stations for "bombed out" in schools and restaurants came into operation.
  • March 21, 1945: About 1000 incendiary bombs were thrown on Reinsdorf .
  • April 9, 1945: A light anti-aircraft anti-aircraft gun (Abt. 867) equipped with 2 cm and 3.7 cm guns shot down an attacking US fighter-bomber.
  • April 11, 1945 : 12 fighter bombers and medium-weight tactical bombers of the 9th Air Force attacked the Zwickau main station area from 5.15 p.m. to 7.00 p.m .: the track systems, the railway depot, the Reichsbahn repair shop, a mine lamp factory and a malt factory. After that, the entire station area presented a "picture of devastation": 36 locomotives , 460 railroad cars , 6 signal boxes and 234 points were destroyed. “As if by a miracle” the new reception building from 1936 was spared from destruction. The Heinrich Braun Hospital was also shot at, although it was recognizable as a military hospital by a Red Cross sign
  • April 14, 1945: The 9th Air Force set up a front airfield near Gera, from which the region could now be more intensely afflicted by low-flying aircraft.
  • April 15, 1945: At around 9:30 a.m., artillery bombardment with heavy field howitzers (Long Toms) took place in the city center, at least five dead.
  • April 16, 1945: US artillery fired into the city all night
  • April 17, 1945: Tank bombardment left at least five dead. With the support of low-level aircraft and fighter-bombers, Zwickau was occupied by US troops . A white flag was hoisted on the tower of St. Mary's Church to avert a final bomb attack.

The US Army confiscated living space in the city, which was already overcrowded by refugees, and worsened the housing shortage.

Material damage

In the air raids, 3629 destroyed apartments and 29 damaged industrial plants were recorded, 80% of the roofs were destroyed or damaged. In 1952 the degree of destruction of Zwickau was given as 5%

Loss of and damage to public and cultural buildings

Marienkirche (2005): Damage by mine bomb March 19, 1945

Heinrich Magirius highlights the following damages and losses:

  • Marienkirche : “On March 19, an aerial mine hitting south of the church caused damage to the following components: the spiral staircase at the southeast corner of the nave destroyed, inside the adjoining gallery and parapet damaged; substantial damage to the roof skin and windows as well as to epitaphs in the south nave ”. The heads of Thomas and Jacobus of the stone statues were lost, and Bartholomäus and Philip were completely destroyed.

The following houses in the town with character from the 16th century were destroyed in the bombing raid on March 19th, their ruins removed and no reconstruction:

  • Hauptmarkt 20: late classical plastered building of three storeys with a hipped roof
  • Hauptmarkt 23: building dating back to the 16th century with a high gable roof. Four clay medallions from around 1540: portraits of Luther, Melanchthon, Frederick the Wise and Philip of Hesse.
  • Burgstrasse 1: Built around 1500. Two-story house with a high pitched roof, round-arched portal with a Rococo door
  • Burgstraße 2: two-story house with a high pitched roof, round-arched portal from the 16th century
  • Burgstraße 8: two-storey house with a high pitched roof, late Gothic, barbed seating niche portal
  • Burgstraße 10: house redesigned in the 19th century. The seat niche portal with early Renaissance ornaments

Norbert Peschke lists the following lost buildings as historically valuable:

  • Town house I (corner of Breuerstrasse and Schillerstrasse)
  • Stadthaus III: (Hauptmarkt 20, today parking lot)
  • Winkler Mühle (Lindenstrasse 2)
  • Gasthof "Zum Paradies"
  • District main team (Robert-Schumann-Platz, today university building)
  • Hotel zum "Weißen Hirsch" (free space on Kepler-Strasse)
  • Robert Schumann Youth Center (Burgstrasse 2)
  • Heringsches Haus (Hauptmarkt 23, no faithful reconstruction)
  • High school for girls: was confiscated as a hospital. Suffered six severe hits, destroyed and burned out

The following were also destroyed:

  • The "Deutsche Kunstmühle" in Lindenstrasse
  • The Christ Church from 1930 in Oberplanitz: Evangelical Methodist Church, was rebuilt.

Burial places

Of the at least 591 fatalities in the air raids on Zwickau, 320 were buried in the main cemetery (256 of them in a 400 m² collective grave in Department IV / Group III and 64 in family graves), at Paulusfriedhof 36, Weißenborn cemetery 8, and Pölbitzer Friedhof 1, Eckersbacher Friedhof 5, Bockwaer Friedhof 5 and many in the cemetery in Planitz, where 78 people died. On 28 March 1945, the official funeral for "fallen during the terrorist attack Germans" on March 19 in Zwickau found in the main cemetery instead, with the relatives, the mayor and district leader Ewald Dost (which on May 13 in American internment life took), other city officials, the Wehrmacht and the NSDAP . The funeral procession passed bomb crates , destroyed walls, overturned gravestones and provisionally restored graves that had been torn open by bombs (consequences of the attack on October 7, 1944, but also on March 19, 1945).

Regarding the number of 591 fatalities in Zwickau, including Planitz (incorporated on January 1, 1944) and Cainsdorf (incorporated in 1999), Norbert Peschke notes: “However, it can be assumed that people found and missing later are no longer registered (as bomb victims) so that a higher number of fatalities can be expected ”.

The mass grave overgrown with grass and rows of bushes with the bomb dead in the main cemetery is hardly recognizable as such (2019). There is also no evidence of a war cemetery directly at the cemetery . Only a few private grave stones of families can be found on the basis of the data of the air raids - without any indication of the bomb death - none from the city or the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge .

On the slope of the cemetery in Planitz there is a high cross with a name plaque underneath: "This is where the victims of the Allied air raid of March 19, 1945 on Zwickau-Planitz rest". Among the 14 names is that of a mother with four children. Note : There were not only 14, but 78 bomb victims in Planitz on March 19, 1945, most of them were probably buried in family graves.

The mass grave with 256 bomb victims in the main cemetery in Zwickau

  • Zwickau main cemetery information board

  • The mass grave with 256 Zwickau bomb victims in the main cemetery (2019)

  • Private tombstone on the mass grave (death on March 19, 1945)

  • Private tombstone on the mass grave (death on October 7, 1944)

  • Private tombstone on the mass grave, overturned

literature

  • Roger A. Freeman: Migthy Eighth War Diary . Jane's. London, New York, Sydney 1981. ISBN 0 7106 0038 0
  • Olaf Groehler : bombing war against Germany . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1990. ISBN 3-05-000612-9
  • Heinrich Magirius : Zwickau (city district) . In: Fate of German Monuments in the Second World War . Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2, pp. 465-466
  • Norbert Peschke : Bombs on Zwickau and Planitz . Sutton-Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-89702-417-9
  • Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in the hail of bombs . Sutton-Verlag, 2004. ISBN 3-89702-734-8
  • Norbert Peschke and Lorenz Zentgraf: The end of the war in the Zwickau region in 1945 . Sutton-Verlag 2005. ISBN 3-89702-816-6

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.bismarcktuerme.de/ebene4/sachs/zwickau.html
  2. ^ Olaf Groehler : Bomb war against Germany . 1990, p. 35
  3. ^ Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in a hail of bombs . 2004. pp. 13-14
  4. ^ Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in a hail of bombs . 2004. p. 24
  5. ^ Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in a hail of bombs . 2004. p. 49
  6. ^ Norbert Peschke: The end of the war in the Zwickau region in 1945 . 2005. p. 20
  7. ^ Norbert Peschke: The end of the war in the Zwickau region in 1945 . 2005. p. 40
  8. ↑ https://www.freipresse.de/zwickau/zwickau/gefallene-zerbombte-und-ruinen-artikel10393480
  9. ↑ German Association of Cities (Ed.): Statistical yearbook of German municipalities. Braunschweig 1952, p. 369
  10. ^ Heinrich Magirius in Fates of German Architectural Monuments in the Second World War , Ed. Götz Eckardt, Berlin 1978, Volume II, pp. 465–466
  11. ^ Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in a hail of bombs . 2004
  12. ^ Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in a hail of bombs . 2004, p. 112
  13. ^ Norbert Peschke: Zwickau and Planitz in a hail of bombs . 2004, p. 127