Текст книги "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg, 1943"

Автор книги: Keith Lowe

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Текущая страница: 26 (всего у книги 33 страниц)

1. Churchill and Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference, where the Combined Bomber Offensive was first agreed.

2. Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief, RAF Bomber Command.

3. Major General Frederick L.Anderson, commander of US VIII Bomber Command.

4. Hitler arrives at Hamburg’s airport on one of his many pre-war visits. He never returned once war had broken out, despite appeals for a morale-raising tour after the city was destroyed.

5. Karl Kaufmann, Hamburg’s gauleiter and a loyal disciple of the Führer.

6. Göring (left) was head of the Luftwaffe, but it was Erhard Milch (right) who ran the show. Chief of Air Staff Hans Jeschonnek (centre) shot himself shortly after the bombing of Hamburg.

7 Colin Harrison: ‘One minute I was a school boy, next minute they called me a man and put me in an aeroplane.’

8 Bill McCrea: ‘When we were detailed on the first Hamburg raid we thought, “Now we’ll see what it’s really like!”

9 Doug Fry (centre), hours before he was shot down at the end of July 1943.

10 Baptism of fire: Ted Groom and pilot Reg Wellham’s first operation was the firestorm raid of27 July.

11 Hamburg before the war. Narrow streets like this allowed fires to spread rapidly.

12 The bright lights of the Reeperbahn in the 1930s. Scenes like this were impossible during the black-out.

13 The heart and soul of Hamburg: the docks and shipyards were the main reason the city was such an important target.

14 False streets and buildings were floated on the Alster lake in an attempt to disguise the city centre. This camouflage caught fire during the bombardmetn, adding to the inferno.

15 Secret weapon: a factory worker cuts strips of ‘Window’ to the right length.

16 RAF ground crew prepare bombs before loading them into a Stirling bomber.

17 Hamburg from the air on the night of 24 July. The centre of the picture shows the Neustadt on fire, with bombs spreading back towards Altona at the bottom.

18 Streaks of flak over Hamburg. Without radar to guide them, flak gunners were forced to fire blindly into the sky.

19 A typical formation of B-17 Flying Fortresses, with German fighter aircraft above.

20 The lead crew of the USAAF’s 303rd Bomb Group before their mission to Hamburg on 25 July. The pilot, Major K. R. Mitchell, is second from left at the back.

22 Hamburg women and children run for cover during an air-raid warning.

21 American bombs fall on Howaldtswerke shipyards, 26 July.

23 German propaganda poster, 1943:‘The enemy sees your light. Black out!’

24 The ‘Michel’, a symbol of Hamburg. The sight of this spire rising unscathed in the ruins of the city was as important to Hamburgers as the urvival of St Paul’s Cathedral was to Londoners during the Blitz.

25 A group of men clears the rubble on Grosse Bergstrasse in Altona, shortly after the opening raids.

26 Elbstrasse (now Neanderstrasse) before the raids.

27 Elbstrasse after the raids.

28 and 29 Even before the evacuation order was given, the Ausgebombtenbegan toflee the city. Above: A family rescues a few of its possessions. Below: Refugees being evacuated on open lorries.

30 The face of the victim: the trauma of being bombed scarred an entire generation of Germans.

31 Some of the city’s 45,000 dead litter a street in the suburb of Hamm.

32 According to the late W. G. Sebald, in the immediate post-war years shopkeepers would pull photographs like this from under the counter with a furtiveness usually reserved for pornography. These unfortunates were not burned but baked in the heat of their shelter.

33 The changeful nature of the firestorm produced some gruesome contrasts: this body of a pregnant woman could almost be sleeping, while the corpses behind her are charred and mumified beyond recognition.

34 The clean-up operation: Hamburg workers clear the entrance to a buried air-raid shelter.

35 A prisoner from Neuengamme concentration camp loads charred body parts into a bucket.

36 Survivors being issued with emergency rations at one of the refugee assembly points.

37 Chalk messages appeared on many of the ruins, listing the where abouts of those who used to live there. Some of them seem like gestures of defiance: Wir leben(‘We are alive’).

38 Ruined landscape. After the Gomorrah attacks Volksdorfer Strasse in Barmbek was merely a pathway cleared through the rubble.

39 In Hamm only the façades of buildings still stand: everything else has been turned to ash.

40 Life amongst the ruins: for the rest of the war, and for years afterwards, families were forced to live in the most basic of conditions wherever they could find shelter.

41 The memorial to the dead at Ohlsdorf depicts Charon ferrying the dead across the Styx. It stands in the centre of four mass-graves (below), where 36,918 bodies are buried. Thousands more were never recovered.

Appendix A

Chronology of Hamburg

Year

Date

Events and description

808

Charlemagne begins building a fortress called Hammaburg at the point where Alster meets the Elbe.

831

Franconian emperor Ludwig the Pious sends Benedictine monk Ansgar to pitch tents on Elbe and appoints him bishop.

845

Viking marauders reduce Hammaburg to rubble.

9th–13th C

Reign of Schauenburg counts allows city to flourish and expand to south of the Elbe.

1186–7

Adolf III von Schauenburg parcels out wasteland to west of old town, and a mercantile settlement and harbour are constructed. This becomes Neustadt.

1189

7 May

According to tradition, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa grants Adolf III the right to duty-free trade all along the Lower Elbe to the point where it flows into the North Sea.

1190

Inhabitants revolt and try to free themselves from aristocratic rulers.

1201

Hamburg is invaded by Danes.

1227

Danes expelled by Adolf III’s son, Count Adolf IV.

1235

Alster is dammed.

1250

Population 5,000.

1265

‘Barbarossa’s Charter’ drawn up formally.

13th C

Hamburg joins Hanseatic League.

1400

Population 7,500.

early 1400s

Klaus Stoertebeker and Godeke Michels, Hamburg’s equivalent of Robin Hood, wage buccaneer war against Hanseatic fleet.

1510

Emperor Maximillian I declares Hamburg an Imperial City – an important step in gaining emancipation from Danes.

1558

Founding of Hamburg Stock Exchange. Population around 20,000.

16th C

Lutheran reformation in city carried through by Johannes Bugenhagen. Influx of Protestants to city to avoid persecution elsewhere.

early 17th C

Influx of Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain to avoid persecution.

1619

Founding of Bank of Hamburg.

1800

Population 130,000.

1806

Napoleon invades Hamburg.

1814

Napoleon’s troops repelled.

1815

Congress of Vienna guarantees freedom of the city.

1842

The Great Fire.

1847

Founding of HAPAG (Hamburg-Amerikanische-Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft), to become the biggest ship business in Germany.

1867

Hamburg joins North German League.

1871

Integration into German Reich under Bismarck.

1872

Opening of rail bridge across Elbe – followed by New Elbe Bridge for road traffic in 1887.

1881–88

Erection of Speicherstadt, a harbour storage city district.

1888

Hamburg joins German Customs Union. ‘Free port’ established, enabling Hamburg to become one of the largest storage locations for coffee, cocoa, spices and carpets.

1892

Cholera epidemic kills 8,000.

1895

Construction of Baltic–North Sea Canal.

1897

Inauguration of new Rathaus.

1900

Population passes 1 million.

1912

Hamburg becomes the third largest port in the world, after London and New York.

1914–18

40,000 citizens die in First World War.

1918

Revolution starts with mutiny of sailors in Kiel, and quickly spreads to Hamburg. On 6 November they form ‘Workers and Soldiers Council’, and seize political power. After elections the following spring, they hand over power to city council on 16 March 1919.

1919

University of Hamburg founded. Treaty of Versailles requires coastal towns to hand over majority of merchant fleets.

1923

Hyperinflation cripples Hamburg.

1927

Links with UK and US help Hamburg to recover quicker than most of Germany. Blue-collar workers’ pay reaches pre-war levels again at last. White-collar workers pay would be the same by 1929.

1929–30

World slump hits Hamburg hard. Companies go bankrupt. City’s welfare expenditure spirals out of control.

1932

Unemployment almost 40 per cent – radicalism returns.

1933

30 January

Hamburg’s senate implements persecutions ordered by Nazis, so as not to give new government any pretext to intervene in the running of the city.

28 February

Orders issued to carry out arrests.

1 March

Seventy-five Communist Party functionaries arrested, to be followed by Social Democrats, trade unionists and other opponents of National Socialism.

5 March

Nazi vote in Hamburg rises by 100,000, giving them 38.8 per cent of vote.

14 October

Hamburg’s city council, is dissolved.

1935

1 January

Nazi Party has 46,500 members in Hamburg, 3.8 per cent of population. Air-raid training begins.

1937

Greater Hamburg Act (Gross Hamburg Gesetz) incorporates Altona, Wandsbek, Harburg and twenty-seven other municipalities under Prussian control until then. As a result Hamburg nearly doubles in size, and population rises 41 per cent to 1.68 million inhabitants.

Hamburg–Lübeck Autobahncompleted. Black-out drills started.

1938

1 April

Merger of Hamburg and other towns comes into being.

December

Neuengamme concentration camp is completed.

1939

July

Air-raid shelters start to be built – 108 completed by September 1942, but still only enough for 10 per cent of population.

1940

18 May

Hamburg bombed for the first time.

1943

20 April

Hamburg leaders draw up a disaster plan in case of heavy air raids.

27 May

Sir Arthur Harris unveils plans to destroy Hamburg.

19/20 June

Hamburg defences carry out rehearsal for their disaster plan in Altona. Their worst-case scenario involves some 3,000 dead, 1,000 wounded and 110,000 homeless.

25 June

USAAF fly on Hamburg for the first time.

They fail to reach the city, and lose eighteen planes.

6–12 July

A week of consultation by Hamburg’s leaders over the city’s disaster plan, concluding in another rehearsal.

27 July

Firestorm (see Appendix C).

August

Goering, Goebbels, Frick and others visit the stricken city, but Hitler refuses to come.

1944

end

Anti-tank obstacles erected in streets, and territorial army of old men and adolescents called up.

1945

29 April

Commanding officer Brigadier-General Alwin Wolz establishes contact with British troops outside Hamburg.

3 May

Wolz signs unconditional surrender. British troops enter the city.

1946–7

winter

Severe and sustained freeze sees temperatures drop to –28°C. Famine in the city.

1949

Hamburg becomes a federal state in Federal Republic of Germany.

1962

Storm causes flooding, which ruins old town and kills 300 people.

1993

24 July

Student protesters interrupt the fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the Firestorm, proclaiming ‘there is nothing to mourn’.

2003

The British ambassador addresses sixtieth anniversary commemoration expressing regret at events of 1943.

Appendix B

Chronology of the Second World War

Before the war

5 March 1933

The Nazis win the German elections.

October 1933

Hitler withdraws from the World

Disarmament Conference and the League of

Nations.

16 March 1935

Germany denounces the Treaty of Versailles.

June 1935

The Luftwaffe is re-created, with Hermann

Goering at its head.

7 March 1936

Germany reoccupies the Rhineland, taken

from it by the Treaty of Versailles.

July 1936 – March 1939

The Spanish Civil War.

26 April 1937

The Basque town of Guernica is destroyed by German bombers.

12 March 1938

German Army marches into Austria, a day

ahead of the Anschluss.

1 October 1938

With French and British agreement, German

troops march into the Sudetenland in

Czechoslovakia.

10–16 March 1936

Germany annexes Bohemia and Moravia.

23 August 1939

Germany and Russia sign a ‘non-aggression’

pact.

1939

1 September

Germany begins the invasion of Poland.

3 September

Britain and France declare war.

17 September

Soviets invade Poland from the east.

13–26 September

Warsaw is bombed.

29 November

Soviets attack Finland.

1940

9 April

Germans begin the invasion of Denmark and

Norway.

10 May

Winston Churchill becomes Britain’s Prime

Minister.

German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg,

Holland and France begins.

14 May

Rotterdam is bombed.

15 May

RAF begins strategic bombing offensive with

attacks on oil and transport targets in the

Ruhr.

18 May

Hamburg bombed for the first time.

26 May

The evacuation of British forces at Dunkirk

begins.

31 May

Roosevelt introduces a massive rearmament

programme for the USA.

8 August

Battle of Britain begins.

24 August

Luftwaffe accidentally bombs central London.

25 August

In retaliation, Churchill orders bombing raid

against Berlin.

17 September

After failing to win air supremacy, Hitler is

forced to postpone the invasion of Britain

indefinitely: the RAF has effectively won the

battle of Britain.

30 September

Germany switches tactics to night bombing.

14/15 November

Bombing of Coventry devastates the city.

1941

24 March

Rommel begins advance in North Africa.

5–6 April

Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.

10/11 May

The final heavy bombing raid on London

marks the end of the battle of Britain.

22 June

Germany begins Operation ‘Barbarossa’: the

invasion of Russia.

7 December

Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese.

11 December

Hitler declares war against the USA.

December – May 1942

Japanese army sweeps across South East Asia,

taking Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya,

Singapore, Burma and the East Indies.

1942

January – May

The Japanese army sweeps across South East

Asia.

22 February

Sir Arthur Harris becomes C-in-C RAF

Bomber Command.

23–26 March

RAF devastate Rostock.

28/29 March

RAF firebomb Lübeck, destroying 60 percent

of the old city.

30/31 May

RAF attack Cologne with their first

1,000-bomber raid.

4 July

USAAF fly their first mission in Europe,

against German airfields in Holland.

4 November

The ‘end of the beginning’ of the war: the

British win their first major land victory

against the Germans at El Alamein.

1943

14–26 January

The Casablanca Conference, where Churchill

and Roosevelt outline their bombing strategy.

They agree on a policy of accepting nothing

less than unconditional surrender from the

Axis powers.

27 January

First USAAF raid against a German target: Wilhelmshaven.

2 February

The surrounded German army at Stalingrad finally surrenders.

18 February

Reichspropagandaminister Goebbels declares ‘total war’.

20 April

Hamburg leaders draw up a disaster plan in case of heavy air raids.

27 May

Sir Arthur Harris unveils plans to destroy Hamburg.

10 June

Pointblank Directive is issued, and the

‘Combined Bomber Offensive’ against

Germany begins: the USAAF bombing by

day, the RAF by night.

19/20 June

Hamburg defences carry out rehearsal for their

disaster plan in Altona. Their worst-case

scenario involves some 3,000 dead, 1,000

wounded and 110,000 homeless.

25 June

USAAF fly on Hamburg, but never reach the

city; eighteen planes are shot down.

5–13 July

The last German counter-offensive in the east

fails at Kursk.

6–12 July

A week of consultation by Hamburg’s leaders

over the city’s disaster plan, concluding in

another rehearsal.

10 July

British and American troops land in Sicily.

24 July – 2 August

Operation Gomorrah destroys Hamburg (see

Appendix C).

25 July

Mussolini is deposed.

1 August

Goebbels orders the evacuation of women and

children from Berlin.

6 August

Goering visits the ruins of Hamburg.

17 August

Goebbels, Interior Minister Frick and half a

dozen gauleiters visit Hamburg.

Disastrous USAAF attack on Schweinfurt and

Regensburg, in which they lose sixty aircraft.

Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff,

commits suicide.

3 September

The Allies begin the invasion of the Italian

mainland. Italy surrenders unconditionally.

13 October

Italy swaps sides, and declares war on

Germany.

14 November

RAF begins the ‘Battle of Berlin’.

1944

6 June

D-Day: the Allies land on the beaches of

Normandy.

13 June

The Germans launch their first V-1 flying

bombs on London.

20 July

Hitler survives assassination attempt.

8 September

The first V-2 rocket hits London.

16 October

Soviet forces enter East Prussia.

6 November

President Roosevelt is re-elected for a fourth

term despite failing health.

16 December

Opening of the German Ardennes

counter-offensive.

1945

26 January

Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.

3 February

Berlin suffers its worst air raid of the war

when 1,500 USAAF bombers drop more than 2,000 tons of bombs on the city.

4 February

Yalta Conference begins.

13–15 February

Dresden is bombed, killing tens of thousands

in a firestorm similar to that at Hamburg.

7 March

The Americans cross the Rhine into Germany.

9/10 March

Tokyo is firebombed, destroying sixteen

square miles of the city and killing almost

90,000 people.

18 March

RAF drop an incredible 4,000 tons of bombs

on Berlin.

11 April

Concentration camp at Buchenwald is

liberated by the Americans.

12 April

President Roosevelt dies.

13 April

Concentration camp at Belsen is liberated by

the British.

16 April

Russians begin their final push across the river

Oder towards Berlin.

30 April

Hitler commits suicide.

3 May

Hamburg surrenders to the Allies without a fight.

7 May

Unconditional German surrender.

8 May

VE Day.

6 August

The first atomic bomb is dropped on

Hiroshima.

9 August

The second atomic bomb is dropped on

Nagasaki.

15 August

The Japanese emperor informs his people that

he will surrender.

2 September

VJ Day: the signing of the Japanese surrender

brings the Second World War to an end.

After the war

30 September 1946

Nuremburg Tribunal on war crimes delivers its verdicts.

Winter 1945–6

Cold temperatures cause problems across occupied Germany.

Winter 1946–7

Severe and sustained freeze across Germany sees temperatures drop to –28°C.

27 May 1947

The British and American zones of control in Germany merge to form the ‘Bizone’.

July 1947

Sixteen western European nations form the Committee for European Economic Co-operation. The Marshall Plan begins to take effect.

20–21 June 1948

The Deutschmark is introduced in Germany, signalling the beginning of the Wirtschaftswunder.

Appendix C

Chronology of ‘Operation Gomorrah’

24 July

12.18

Public air-raid warning, set off by American B-17s heading for Norway.

Night of 24/25 July: first RAF raid

22.00

791 British aircraft set out for Hamburg.

00.19

Air-raid danger (thirty minutes) sounded.

00.30 approx

RAF begin dropping ‘Window’, creating confusion for German radar.

00.33

Main air-raid alarm.

00.57

Marker flares ( Tannenbaum) rain down on western suburbs of Hamburg.

01.02

The first bombs begin to fall.

01.50

The last handful of 2,300 tons of bombs falls on the city.

03.01

The all-clear is sounded in Hamburg.

25 July: first USAAF raid

13.20

123 US B-17s take off for Hamburg.

16.15

Luftwaffe begin attacks on the US formations.

16.20

Main air-raid alarm sounded in Hamburg.

16.36

384th BG drop the first bombs on Howaldtswerke shipyards.

16.40

The last bombs drop on Hamburg.

17.10

381st BG, unable to locate Klöckner factory, drop their bombs on Heide on the way home.

17.22

The all-clear sounds in Hamburg.

18.10

After almost two hours, the Luftwaffe finally stop harassing US formations.

20.00

The surviving B-17 crews return to base.

Night of 25/26 July

00.35

Main air-raid warning in Hamburg.

00.40 approx

6 RAF Mosquitos bomb Hamburg in a nuisance raid.

26 July: second USAAF raid

08.50

121 American B-17s take off for Hamburg; 379th BG and 384th BG abort mission, leaving only four bomb groups to do the job.

11.32

Main air raid alarm sounded in Hamburg.

11.59

Fifty-four B-17s drop their bombs on harbour district. The bombing lasts one minute.

12.50

All-clear sounds in Hamburg.

15.08

American bombers return to base.

Night of 26/27 July

00.20

Main air raid alarm sounded in Hamburg.

00.30 approx

Four RAF Mosquitos (of six dispatched) bomb Hamburg in nuisance raid.

00.55

All-clear sounds.

27 July

Five false alarms keep much of Hamburg in panic throughout the day.

Night of 27/28 July: second RAF raid

22.00

787 RAF bombers take off for Hamburg.

23.40

Main air-raid alarm sounds in the city.

00.55

RAF Pathfinders drop yellow markers.

01.00

First bombs begin to fall in the east of the city.

01.20

The firestorm begins to develop.

01.45

The last bombs fall.

02.00

Firestorm so strong that men outside main fire station can only crawl on their hands and knees against the wind.

02.40

All-clear sounds.

03.00–03.30

Climax of firestorm.

05.00 approx

British planes return to base.

28 July

Morning

Karl Kaufmann orders the evacuation of women and children. Almost a million people begin their exodus from the city.

Night of 28/29 July

00.15

Main air-raid alarm sounds.

00.25 approx

4 RAF Mosquitos bomb Hamburg on nuisance raid.

01.03 All-clear sounds.

Night of 29/30 July: third RAF raid

22.00

777 RAF planes take off for Hamburg.

23.58

Main air-raid alarm sounds in the city.

00.37

First marker flares fall on the city.

00.43

First bombs begin to fall.

01.30

The last bombs fall.

02.00

A second firestorm develops in the north-eastern suburb of Barmbek.

02.15

All-clear sounds.

04.30 approx

RAF bombers return to base.

Night of 2/3 August: fourth RAF raid

23.20

740 RAF bombers set out for Hamburg.

00.59

Main air-raid alarm sounds in the city.

01.30 approx

British force begins to encounter violent electrical storm.

02.07

Scattered bombing begins all over northern Germany.

02.10

Some marker flares fall over Hamburg, but most are misplaced or lost in cloud.

03.30

All-clear sounds.

06.00 approx

Battered RAF force returns to base.