The Allied Bombing Campaign from the German Civilian's Perspective

hold it on the night of the 13th of February 1945 the first wave of 244 Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster heavy bombers arrived over the city of Dresden in the East German province of Saxony at 10 13 PM the first bombs began to fall on the city which had been largely spared from the combined bomber offensive a mix of high explosive bombs and its injuries devastated the city causing a meteorological phenomenon known as a firestorm the self-sustaining conflagration swept through the streets devouring everything in its path a German civilian later recalled the Carnage it was beyond belief worse than the blackest nightmare so many people were horribly burnt and injured it became more and more difficult to breathe I cannot forget these terrible details a second and larger raid of 529 lancasters arrived three hours later to further the destruction of the city the American Eighth Air Force would return by day over the next two days to drop more bombs on the city most reputable historians agree that between 22 000 and 25 000 Germans were killed the bombing of Dresden proved to be the crescendo of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany there is Broad agreement among historians that bombing significantly shortened the conflict despite the moral questions of attacking major population centers however that is a debate for a later video regardless of whether the campaign was justified or not there is no doubt that the German civilian population bore the brunt of the bombing the average German suffered terribly during the war yet they also showed remarkable resilience which played a major role in lengthening the conflict many details are far too graphic to share here but this video will try to give a glimpse into the light of those who were on the other end of the Strategic bombing campaign in Germany during the second World War the German civilian population had no sense of what they were in for When The War Began in September of 1939 the German British and French governments quickly announced they would not intentionally bomb cities or civilians despite the outbreak of hostilities most Germans in the cities took their enemies pledge at face value and stayed put unwilling to uproot their families there seemed to be no need to worry especially after the head of the luftwaffe write Marshall Hermann Goering publicly promised that not a single Allied bomber would reach the Western Royal Valley which was also Germany's industrial Heartland the Nazi government was so convinced that they would not be bombed that no Urban evacuation plan was developed this was in direct contrast to the massive effort of the British government to relocate non-essential Personnel especially children away from major population centers Allied aircraft over flew German cities in the first months of the war but dropped propaganda leaflets rather than bombs while some reacted with bemusement others were Furious a woman in the industrial city of Essen carola Reisner fumed in a letter that they are trying to inflame the population these are obviously Jewish ploys the fall of France in June of 1940 seemed to confirm that Germany would not be touched by the ravages of War this changed on the 25th of August 1914 when a tiny force of 22 RAF bombers launched a minor raid on Berlin followed by another one four days later these attacks were militarily insignificant but the fact that the RAF could penetrate that far into Germany shot the civilian population and caused profound embarrassment to go ring these raids angered the fuhrer who promised full retaliation and escalated the German bombing of the UK Germans listen to the radio with great satisfaction as minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels and other regime figures described the blitz of London an American journalist named William Shira asked a local German woman what she thought of her country breaking its pledge to not bomb civilians she simply Shrugged and said the bombing was justified because Britain had not surrendered yet more RAF raids penetrated deep into Germany but none of them caused major concern the biggest hassle was the lack of sleep caused by the air raid sirens and most people refused to leave their bed to head to a shelter all across the country bomb damage became a tourist attraction as people flocked to see the rubble before it was cleared away in the city of Munster Paul heinzvansen thought in its current phase the war is hardly noticeable this changed on the 30th of May 1942 when the RAF launched its first 1000 bomber raid on the western city of Cologne this attack did not trigger a firestorm but 486 people were killed in the deadliest attack of the war so far the Thousand bomber raid proved to be an ominous sign that the luftwaffe could not protect the Reich from the aerial power of the RAF the Nazi government began building larger public shelters while continuing to reassure the population but civilians began to feel uneasy especially those in the vulnerable Rural Valley F raids continued to increase in intensity throughout 1942 and by early 1943 they were joined in the Skies over Germany by the U.S eight their Force the actual experience of being bombed was as one might expect utterly terrifying whenever an air raid was imminent Sirens would warn the local populace to head to the nearest shelter however most cities did not have enough shelter which led to civilians crowding into whatever Subterranean space they could find the Berlin u-bahn stations were intended to hold at most 1500 people but more than five thousand would try to cram into the stations during Air Raids people often fainted and had difficulty breathing the foul air while condensation dripped from the ceilings the oxygen level was measured by candles and when a candle placed a chin level began to flicker the shelter was evacuated no matter how heavy the bombing outside author Nicholas stargardt wrote in his book the German war how children were especially affected by bombing they learned to listen for the different sounds recognizing the high explosive bombs from their crash bang and the muffled crack of the incendiaries whose clack clack clack reminded one child of when someone got a juicy slap the constant threat of bombing induced a deep sense of exhaustion among the population the whaling of Air Raid Sirens kept the population up at night and the effects of sleeplessness were acutely felt the following day a resident of cologne Heinz pettenberg wrote that everyone in the city was dead tired as of February 1943 people sometimes fell asleep as soon as they sat down somewhere whether it be at their office or on the local tram in March of 1943 RAF bomber command launched what became known as the battle of the Roar the first Target was Essen which was relentlessly attacked on the night of the 5th of March even though Essen had massive Ferro concrete bunkers known as flak Towers to Shield the population most civilians rode out the bombing in sellers or less protected shelters a young boy later recalled his experience in a crowded bomb shelter with every bomb that fell the our Father prayers grew louder after mocking the threat of RAF bombing two years prior Carol of Reisner wrote that she could still hear the detonations of bombs in her head for days after the raid 1857 people were killed or wounded and another fifty thousand rendered homeless the bombing extended to every city in Germany's industrial Heartland no city was more on edge than cologne which was approaching the one-year anniversary of the first 1000 bomber raid its citizens felt that the RAF was planning something special for them leading to 250 000 people fleeing the City by May of 1943. the sense of helplessness was palpable the Swiss console in Cologne reported that civilian morale was less than zero those who stayed could see the Horizon glowing red at night from raids on other cities when the radio announced at the beginning of March that Berlin had suffered heavy Air Raids the Swiss console reported that the population reacted with relief and even Joy they simply wish the bombs would fall somewhere else on the anniversary the air raid sirens in Cologne sounded again but the bomber stream instead hit the neighboring city of wuppertal thirteen-year-old lothar Karsten wrote in his diary at midnight in the middle of the night at 12 o'clock the siren sound this is nothing new you turn over and go on sleeping vapatal was seen as an unlikely Target because it lay in the middle of a valley often shrouded in fog but karsten's father had a strange feeling of Clairvoyance and roused the family to head to the nearest shelter his action saved their lives as the Fatal suffered two days of bombing which killed 3 400 people and destroyed eighty percent of the buildings in the city center it was the deadliest raid yet and one which severely damaged the Nazi party's reputation two members of the Nazi sa paramilitary unit went to comfort a woman crying in front of her destroyed house when she started screaming at them the Nazis are to blame for this war they should have gone to the front on the night of the 28th of June the attack on cologne finally came three raids devastated the city over the course of a week killing nearly five thousand and leaving two-thirds of the city homeless a woman Anna Schmitz fled to the countryside and found former cologne residents camping in the woods anti-nazi graffiti began appearing on trams in the city a detail which worried minister of propaganda Goebbels the rural urban population was beginning to tune out Nazi messaging which assailed to the bombings as Jewish Terror attacks a report to Goebbels detailed how most people believed it was incomprehensible to single out the role of a Jew in the bombing campaign anger at the lack of protection was driving growing unrest with the Nazis which would only get worse in the latter half of 1943. Germany's second largest city of Hamburg had mostly gone unscathed thus far in the war and was protected by one of the heaviest concentrations of anti-aircraft batteries in Europe however at 1 57 am on the 24th of July 1943 the city's defenses were caught completely off guard when 740 ref bombers arrived overhead and dropped over 2 200 tons of high explosives and incendiaries this was the first time the RAF had used aluminum strips known as window to jam and confuse German radar which left the civilian population with little warning the hot and stale weather led to a firestorm Witnesses described a 500 foot high fire tornado which wiped out entire city plots for seven nights the RAF returns to Hamburg and by day smaller American raids were joined in the bombardment of the city the destruction continuing Around the Clock between 18 000 and 42 000 people were killed the wide range stemming from the lack of identifiable bodies rescue workers who found their way into burned out sellers could only estimate how many people were in the room from the piles of Ash on the floor the firebombing of Hamburg had seismic repercussions throughout Germany refugees who survived the attack spread news of what happened which caused Panic throughout the country Tales from Hamburg wildly exaggerated the number of kills many Germans were told that upwards of 400 000 people had perished hamburg's Nazi party leader Carl Kaufman broke down in front of Goebbels in describing the horror people in their Panic running in a kind of psychosis like animals into the flames judge attendance grew in the weeks following the attack despite the Nazi party's antipathy towards religion Pastor Paul cry addressed his Parish in the ruined city of ham and compared to the suffering of Hamburg so the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah save your soul and do not look back so that you perish not no glancing backwards only forwards in a cruel coincidence the raf's code name for the bombing of Hamburg had been operation Gomorrah in the wake of the firebombing Goebbels announced that Berlin would be partially evacuated which caused a wave of panic in the capital publisher Hermann cassack noted acts of Hysteria flight and panic schools were closed and teenagers were called to help operate flat batteries public criticism of the Nazis and even talk of regime change sprung up across the country in the city of Braunschweig two women in the Central Market were discussing whether there was a way to stop the bombing when a railroad worker chimed in of course there's a way our regime has got to go we have to have a new government people began questioning the persecution of the Jews with some believing Germany was being punished for the genocide the death camps and massacres were an Open Secret in the Reich but had been taboo to discuss until the bombing campaign began leveling cities a woman in a Munich Marketplace shouted derogatory terms about the fuhrer and challenged onlookers to open their eyes do you think that nobody listens to the foreign broadcasts they have loaded Jewish women and children into a wagon driven out of town and annihilated them with gas these conversations pushed the boundaries of free speech in the Third Reich further than ever before despite these very public displays of Defiance the Gestapo did not take any action and the Nazi party seemed paralyzed in the month after the firebombing these days became known as the August crisis as German Society seemed on the verge of collapse finally in early September the new minister of the Interior SS leader heimrich Himmler went on the radio and promised any defeatists would die in expiation of their actions and as a warning to the others the Gestapo launched a wave of Terror which silenced the growing discontent among the population more importantly the Nazi bureaucracy mobilized every civil agency and volunteer group to deal with the evolving crisis brought on by the bombing the Hitler Youth along with other SS organizations stepped up to organize soup kitchens temporary housing and evacuations more than 620 000 women volunteered to become auxiliaries in the Red Cross the Reich air defense Association and even the luftwaffe and Vermont whenever a city was bombed firefighters from neighboring towns were dispatched to reinforce those already battling the flames the attitude of the German civilian population hardened considerably in the following weeks a journalist from Berlin Ursula Von cardoff wrote that the bombing which falls on Nazis and anti-nazis alike is wielding the population together if the English believe they can undermine morale then that's a miscalculation the government also liberally distributed cigarettes coffee and meat after every attack as a way to Curry favor with its exhausted citizens news of Italy signing an Armistice with the Allies at the beginning of September further steal to the resolve of many once they realized their nation was now fighting alone the August crisis had passed but the Fallout and unrest from the destruction of Hamburg was perhaps the closest Nazi Germany came to collapsing before the actual end of the war although the Reich continued to survive the mass Exodus from German cities strained the country's infrastructure to the breaking point the railway system was overwhelmed by trains carrying refugees to the countryside soldiers to the front and Jews to the camps when refugees arrived in rural cities they often clashed with the locals who were wary of sharing their homes with others the lack of housing in the cities was alleviated by evacuations but this only created another housing crisis in the countryside twelve-year-old Irvin eberling arrived in the countryside with a group of Orphans only to find that his group was to be auctioned off to local farmers Irvin and other children found no takers and were forced to sleep on bundles of straw in a barn until they could be relocated again this scene played out across the country as rural populists tried to fight back against the refugees forced upon them by the government even with the Allies on Germany's doorstep in late 1944 and early 1945. the Nazi Government tried everything to give the impression of normalcy as one example one of Minister goebbel's main priorities was to rebuild and reopen Cinemas despite the widespread damage caused by bombing this was partly to ensure the stream of propaganda would continue unabated but also to distract the populace from their current misery in early September 44 weekly opinion reports to the propaganda Ministry indicated that German civilian morale was at its lowest point yet but demand for Cinema or theater tickets were as high as ever as Nicolas stargardt wrote if anything the bombing only made filmgoers more vociferous in asserting their sense of entitlement the bombing campaign continued until the last days of the war The Firestorm that engulfed Resident was one of the last Allied attacks on a major population Center and the one which caused the most controversy post-war ultimately between 350 000 and 635 000 civilians in Germany were killed by the Strategic bombing campaign while another 780 000 were wounded the campaign destroyed 3.6 million buildings which represented 20 of all dwellings in Germany leaving roughly 7.5 million civilians homeless despite all of the death and destruction the German home front endured they continue to go to work and never fully turned against the regime one more quote from stargardt can explain why far from leading to collapse Germans tried to master the situation and rethink what they could expect major disasters like Hamburg did indeed lead to a catastrophic fall in the regime's popularity but they did not in themselves call patriotic commitment into question however unpopular the War Began it still remained legitimate more so the Nazism itself thank you

Channel: The Intel Report

Views: 638,423

Keywords: ww2, documentary, history, strategic bombing, combined bomber offensive, bomber command, raf, usaaf, bomber harris, dresden, hamburg, cologne, bombing of dresden, bombing of hamburg, lancaster bomber, b-17 flying fortress, air force

Id: fBTw9UWduoI

Length: 19min 29sec (1169 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2023