Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II.
During the war the Royal Air Force ("RAF") bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. The most notable raid occurred on the night of 30 May/31 May 1942 when Cologne was the target of the first Allied 1,000 bomber raid.
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[edit] First 1,000 bomber raid
The first 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF was codenamed Operation Millennium, Cologne was chosen as the target and the raid took place on the night of 30/31 March 1942. The Thousand bomber raid was launched for several reasons:
- It was expected that the devastation from such raids might be enough to knock Germany out of the war or at least severely damage German morale.
- The raids were useful propaganda for the Allies and particularly for Harris and the concept of a Strategic Bombing Offensive. Bomber Command's poor performance in bombing accuracy during 1941 had led to calls for the force to be split up and diverted to other urgent theatres i.e Battle of the Atlantic. A headline-grabbing heavy raid on Germany was a way for Bomber Command AOC Arthur "Bomber" Harris to demonstrate to the War Cabinet that given the investment in numbers and technology Bomber Command could make a vital contribution to victory.
At this stage of the war RAF Bomber Command only had a regular front line strength of around 400 aircraft, and were in the process of transitioning from the twin engined medium bombers of the pre-war years to the newer more effective 'heavies'. By using bombers and men from Operational Training Units (OTU's), 250 from RAF Coastal Command and from Flying Training Command, Harris could easily make up the 1,000 aircraft. However, just before the raid took place, the Royal Navy refused to allow the Coastal Command aircraft to take part in the raid. The Admiralty perceived the propaganda justifications too weak an argument against the real and pressing threat of the U-boats in the Second Battle of the Atlantic. Harris scrambled around and, by crewing 49 more aircraft with pupil pilots and instructors, 1,047 bombers eventually took part in the raid, two and a half times more than any previous raid by the RAF. In addition to the bombers attacking Cologne, 113 other aircraft on intruder raids harassed German night-fighter airfields.
This was the first time that the tactic of a bomber stream was used and most of the tactics used in this raid would remain the basis for standard Bomber Command operations for the next two years and some elements would remain in use until the end of the war. It was expected that such a large number of bombers flying in a bomber stream through the Kammhuber line would overwhelm the German night fighters, keeping the number of bombers shot down to an acceptable proportion. The recent introduction of GEE allowed the bombers to fly a given route at a given time and height. The British night bombing campaign had been in operation for some months, and a statistical estimate could be made of the number of bombers likely to be lost to enemy night fighters and flak, and how many would be lost through collisions. Minimising the former demanded a densely packed stream, as the controllers of a night fighter flying a defensive 'box' could only direct a maximum of six potential interceptions per hour, and the flak gunners could not concentrate on all the available targets at once. Earlier in the war four hours had been considered acceptable for a mission; for this raid all the bombers would pass over Cologne and bomb in a window of 90 minutes, the first arriving at 00:47 of March 31. It was anticipated that the concentration of bombing over such a short period would overwhelm the Cologne fire brigades and cause conflagrations similar to those inflicted on London by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz
In the raid, 868 aircraft bombed the main target with 15 aircraft bombing other targets. The total tonnage of bombs dropped was 1,455 tons with two-thirds of that being incendiaries. Two and a half thousand separate fires were started with 1,700 classed by the German fire brigades as "large". The action of fire fighters and the width of the streets stopped the fires combining into a firestorm, but nonetheless most of the damage was done by fire and not directly by the explosive blasts. 3,330 non-residential buildings were destroyed, 2,090 seriously damaged and 7,420 lightly damaged, making a total of 12,840 buildings of which 2,560 were industrial or commercial buildings. Among the buildings classed as totally destroyed were: 7 official administration buildings, 14 public buildings, 7 banks, 9 hospitals, 17 churches, 16 schools, 4 university buildings, 10 postal and railway buildings, 10 buildings of historic interest, 2 newspaper offices, 4 hotels, 2 cinemas and 6 department stores. The only military installation damaged was the flak barracks. The damage to civilian homes, most of them apartments in larger buildings, was considerable: 13,010 destroyed, 6,360 seriously damaged, 22,270 lightly damaged.
The number reported killed was between 469 and 486, of which 411 were civilians and 58 military. Over 5,000 people were listed as injured and 45,132 as "bombed out". It was estimated that from 135,000 to 150,000 of Cologne's population of nearly 700,000 fled the city after the raid. The RAF lost 43 aircraft, 3.9 per cent of the 1,103 bombers sent on the raid. The losses were 22 aircraft were lost over or near Cologne, 16 shot down by flak, 4 by night fighters, 2 in a collision and 2 Bristol Blenheim light bombers lost in attacks on night fighter airfields. A posthumous Victoria Cross was awarded to Flying Officer Leslie Thomas Manser.
[edit] Time line of Cologne air raids during World War II
- March 1942
- April 1942
- May 1942
- June 1942
- July 1942
- August 1942
- September 1942
- October 1942
- January 1943
- February 1943
- May 1943
- June 1943
- July 1943
- August 1943
- September 1943
- October 1943
- November 1943
- December 1943
- January 1944
- February 1944
- March 1944
- April 1944
- May 1944
- June 1944
- July 1944
- August 1944
- October 1944
- November 1944
- December 1944
- February 1945
- March 1945
- 2 March A Large raid: 858 aircraft bombed Cologne in the last raid on the city by the RAF. The first of two waves were highly destructive. The city was captured by American troops 4 days later.
[edit] References
- The Thousand Bomber raids, 30/31 May (Cologne) to 17 August 1942 RAF official web site
- W.G. Sebald's On the natural history of destruction, reviewed in The Complete Review
- Bishop, Chris (2005). The Military Atlas of World War II. Amber Books, p30. ISBN 1-904687-43-1.
[edit] Notes
^ Stadtlandschaften versus Hochstadt at www.koelnarchitektur.de "Internet portal for the architecture of Cologne". (In German).
[edit] External links
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