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Bombing of Braunschweig on 15 October 1944
Part of thestrategic bombing during World War II
Braunschweig on fire during the attack
Type	Carpet bombing
Location	Braunschweig,Germany 52°15′51″N10°31′27″E / 52.2643°N 10.5242°E /52.2643; 10.5242
Date	15 October 1944; 80 years ago (1944-10-15) 2:33 am – 3:10 am
Executed by	No. 5 Group RAF
Casualties	About 600 (officially) 1000s (unofficially)
Location ofBraunschweig withinLower Saxony, a German state founded after World War II

In the early hours of 15 October 1944,No. 5 Group of theRoyal Air Force (RAF) carried out the most destructive of 42 attacks onBraunschweig (Brunswick) duringWorld War II. The attack was a part ofOperation Hurricane, which was designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the Allied bombing campaign. It caused a massiveconflagration that developed into afirestorm, and resulted inBraunschweig, the city ofHenry the Lion, burning continuously for two and a half days from 15 to 17 October.^[1] More than 90 percent of themediaeval city centre was destroyed.

The RAF first bombedBraunschweig on 17 August 1940, killing seven people,^[2] and the94th Bombardment Group earned aDistinguished Service Cross for an 11 January 1944 mission against theMühlenbau und Industrie Aktiengesellschaft (MIAG)^[3] components factory. As part of theCombined Bomber Offensive,Braunschweig was a regular target for (nighttime) RAF and (daytime)US attacks, including two "Big Week" attacks on 20 and 21 February 1944.

The first major British bombing ofBraunschweig was in the night beginning 14 January 1944, when nearly 500Lancaster bombers attacked in the face of strong defence by German fighters. Being a relatively small target, most of the bombs missed the city.^[4]

In an experimental raid, to see if bombing byradar alone (without target marking) was effective, nearly 400 heavy bombers raidedBraunschweig during the night beginning 12 August 1944. No effective concentration of the bombs occurred, and nearby towns were bombed by mistake.^[5]

Between those dates, fastMosquito bombers were sent on occasional nuisance raids and diversions againstBraunschweig.

On 15 October 1944,No. 106 Squadron RAF bombedBraunschweig,^[6] and one of the last attacks was an attack on chemical plant in March 1945 as part of thecampaign against synthetic oil production.^[7]

Braunschweig was subjected to air raids despite the city being ringed byanti-aircraft guns.^[8] In January 1944, Bomber Command raids against "Stettin, Brunswick and Magdeburg" were suffering losses of 7.2 percent – more than in raids against Berlin that month.^[9] The targets included machine andmunitions works,harbours, research institutions, canneries,railway stations andrailway maintenance works, and theGerman Research Centre for Aviation. Targets nearBraunschweig included theReichswerke Hermann Göring inSalzgitter^[10] and theVolkswagen factory inKdF-Stadt nearFallersleben. The nearbyOflag 79 prisoner-of-war camp was attacked on 24 August 1944.

On 13 October, the RAF received orders to carry out OperationHurricane, to demonstrate the Allied bomber force's destructive power, and Allied air superiority. The orders included the following:^[11]

In order to demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre ... the intention is to apply within the shortest practical period the maximum effort of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command and the8th United States Bomber Command against objectives in the densely populatedRuhr.

OperationHurricane foresawDuisburg as the main goal for the RAF's thousand or so bombers, andCologne for the USAAF's 1,200 or so bombers. A further 233 RAF bombers were detailed forBraunschweig, which had about 150,000 inhabitants in October 1944.

Planning for the attack onBraunschweig was finalized by 15 August 1944.Darmstadthad been attacked on the night of 11 September 1944 using a new targeting technique: a fan-shaped flying formation, and the staggering of the use of explosive and incendiary bombs. Being a largely unprepared town, the resulting fires caused about 11,500 deaths. The Allies then turned their attention toBraunschweig.

Braunschweig was to be largely destroyed, not only as an important centre of the armament industry, but also, and above all, as a place where people lived making it uninhabitable and useless. The goal, namely the greatest possible destruction, was to be achieved through detailed attack plans and careful execution, and also making careful use of the attributes of themateriel that was to be deployed. The means whereby the goal was to be reached was a firestorm, the production of which was to be no accident but developed through painstakingly detailed analysis.^{[12][page needed]}

On 13 October, the chiefmeteorologist atRAF High Wycombe advised RAF Bomber Command headquarters of the weather forecast for the weekend of 14–15 October: slight cloudiness, good visibility throughout the night, and moderate winds. The next day,Air MarshalArthur Harris issued the orders to carry out the attack onBraunschweig and other cities.^[a]

RAF Bomber Command had sought in vain to inflict lasting destruction uponBraunschweig four times during 1944, failing each time as a result of, among other things, bad weather and strong defences. On 14 October 1944, preparations for the attack were finalized at No. 5 Group's headquarters atMorton Hall.

The raid coincided with a Britishthousand-bomber raid onDuisburg, the second on that city within 24 hours, a previous British attack having been made in daylight.

The aircraft of No. 5 Group took off as planned at around 11 pm on 14 October.^[b] The main force of the group were 233 four-enginedMark I and IIILancasters heavy bombers, each with a bomb load of about 6 tonnes (13,000 lb). The Lancasters were accompanied by 7 Mosquito fast light bombers.

The bombers bound forBraunschweig took a course that ran to the south to avoid theRuhr area, which was heavily defended by anti-aircraft batteries and fighter aircraft. NearPaderborn, the force turned towards the north, overflyingHanover and proceeding toBraunschweig.

As was usual, the British actions for the night included a number of sorties to deceive the German defences about the true targets for the night. 141 training craft flew simulated attacks onHeligoland, 20 Mosquitos went toHamburg, 8 toMannheim, 16 toBerlin and 2 toDüsseldorf. They were supported by 140 special operations aircraft of100 Group RAF, which deployed electronic warfare measures against German night-fighter defences.Strips of tinfoil (codenamed "Window") were scattered into the air in large amounts to jam the German air defence system's radar stations, thereby rendering them nearly useless. The feint against Mannheim, which German forces expected to be the main target, left theBraunschweig attack unopposed.^[13]

Thesiren signal alertingBraunschweig to an air raid was sounded at about 1:50 am on 15 October.^[14]

The Mosquitos of No. 5 Group marked the target for the main force. No. 5 Group had developed its own techniques separate to thePathfinder Force and was using "sector bombing". It used the cathedral as a reckoning point for the "master bomber" in the lead plane. Over theDom-Insel – the site ofBraunschweig Cathedral – a green flare was dropped, a so-calledblind marker. Other Mosquitos dropped their markers of various colours, lighting the target up. The first red flare fell south-west of the city centre. The same aircraft then dropped about 60 flares from a height of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), which slowly floated down to the ground, each burning for about 3–7 minutes. Those lit markers were calledWeihnachtsbaum (lit. 'Christmas tree') by the Germans, due to their characteristic appearance. Given the clear night,[c] the problem-free overflight, and the flawless marking of the target, the conditions for the attack were optimal, from the British point of view.

The green marker on theDom-Insel served to guide thebomb aimers in all following aircraft, who flew in over it from various directions in a fan-shaped formation, whereupon they dropped their bombs.

This raid onBraunschweig was filmed by a Lancaster of the RAF Film Production Unit, outfitted for the task with threeEyemo-type cameras. The camera plane flew overBraunschweig, along with the rest of the bombers, at a height of 4,950 m (16,240 ft) at 260 km/h (160 mph). The time of the onset of the attack was noted as 2:33 am.

A copy of the film is held by theStädtisches Museum Braunschweig. ^[de] The film is accompanied by the following note:^{[This quote needs a citation]}

Bomber Command ... made a heavy and concentrated attack on the industrial town of Brunswick, which is one of Germany’s biggest centres for the aircraft and engineering industries. As the aircraft with the cameras runs up to the target, the fires can be seen spreading rapidly all over the city and by the time the aircraft is over the target, the whole city is ablaze and the streets can be seen clearly outlined.

About 847 tonnes (1.9 million pounds) of bombs were dropped on the city. First to be deployed were about 12,000 explosive bombs – so-calledblockbusters – in acarpet bombing of the oldtimber-framed town centre to start the intended firestorm by smashing up the wooden houses. Blast waves blew the roofs off houses, exposing the insides, blew windowpanes out, splintered the inner structure, broke walls down, tore electricity and water supplies up, and drove firefighters and rescue service personnel into cellars and bunkers, along with damage observers.

After the wave of explosive bombs, about 200,000phosphorus and incendiary bombs were dropped, which were designed to ignite the destroyed buildings and create the firestorm, which would still be burning long after the bombers had returned toEngland.

By about 3:10 am, about 40 minutes after the first explosive bombs had been dropped,^[15] the attack was over. A hot mass of air rose rapidly upwards due to the powerfulthermal generated by the conflagration. Cooler air rushed in to replace it, creating awindstorm. Winds blowing from all directions worsened the fires, further strengthening the winds, which became strong enough to sweep up small pieces of furniture and toss people about.^[16]

Around three and a half hours later, towards 6:30 am, the firestorm reached its peak in the city core.^[17] About 150 hectares (370 acres) of historic oldBraunschweig were going up in flames. The city's tallest church steeples – those of St. Andrew's were about 100 metres (330 ft) tall^[18] – could be seen burning far beyond the town, and they also rained embers down over the whole city. The ruins of the city centre were littered with unexploded incendiary bombs, greatly hampering fire engines and rescue vehicles.

The city burned so intensely and brightly that the light from the fire could be seen far and wide. From all directions, helpers and firefighters thronged into the burning town to help. They came from, among other places,Hanover to the west andHelmstedt in the east, fromCelle to the north andQuedlinburg to the south.

Within the 24 hours of OperationHurricane, the RAF dropped a total of about 10,000 tonnes (22 million pounds) of bombs on Duisburg andBraunschweig.^[1]

About 23,000 people had sought refuge from the attack in six largebunkers and twoair raid shelters in the area.^[19] While these thousands of people waited in seeming safety inside their thick-walled but quite overfilled shelters for the all-clear signal, the many fires in the city centre quickly merged into one widespread conflagration.

Thefire brigade very soon realized the threat to these people – the fire was growing ever hotter, and theoxygen in the bunkers and shelters thereby ever thinner. The danger was clearly that the victims would eithersuffocate for lack of oxygen if they stayed in their bunkers, or be burnt alive if they tried to leave and escape through the firestorm outside.

Towards 5 am, before the firestorm had reached its full intensity, the idea of building aWassergasse (lit. 'water alley') was suggested byRudolf Prescher, ^[de] lieutenant of the fire brigade. This alley would allow the people to flee their shelters for safer areas of the city. It consisted of a long hose that had to be kept under a constant water mist to shield it against the fire's tremendous heat as the firefighters led the hose through to the shelters where the people were trapped. The reach of each of the little jets issuing from the holes in the hose overlapped each other, making a continuous, artificial "rain zone".

The bunkers were reached towards 7 am Sunday morning, after the fire storm had reached its greatest intensity. All the trapped people were still alive, but had no idea what lay outside for them. All 23,000 managed to reach safer areas, such as the museum park. Only at theSchöppenstedter Straße 31 air shelter did help arrive too late: 95 of the 104 people inside had suffocated by the time the fire brigade reached them. The firestorm had been so intense in this particular part of the city that it had used up nearly all the oxygen, making saving more than 9 people impossible.

A large part ofBraunschweig's tightly packed city centre was made up of about 800timber-frame houses, many of which dated back to theMiddle Ages. The city also had stone buildings dating mainly to the 17th and 18th centuries. The old cathedral, which the RAF had used as a reckoning point for the whole operation, remained standing. However, many significant historic buildings were largely or completely destroyed.

The next morning, 16 October,Braunschweig lay under a thick cloud of smoke. A Britishreconnaissance aircraft sent to take photographs of the bombing's aftermath for analysis had to return to England, as its mission had been rendered impossible by the opaque pall that hung over the town.

By the evening of 17 October, the last of the fire's main hotspots had been put out, but it took another three days to quench lesser fires, until 20 October. 80,000 of the townsfolk were left homeless by the attack.

The destruction was so widespread and thorough that ordinary people and experts alike, even years after the war, were convinced that the attack had come from one of the dreaded thousand-bomber attacks, such as the one that had laid Cologne waste. The extent of the damage could seemingly not otherwise be explained. Only after the British opened their military archives did it become plain that it had been "only" 233 bombers.

The exact number of victims of the 15 October attack is unknown. Estimates ranged from 484 to 640 dead, 95 of those by suffocation at theSchöppenstedter Straße 31 shelter alone. However, historians now put the number at more than a thousand.^[20]

These "light" losses – compared with those suffered in the great air raids onDresden, Hamburg,Pforzheim and other German cities – according to expert^[who?] opinions stem from various factors.^{[citation needed]} For one thing,Braunschweig lay on the direct flight path, that is, the "lane" leading toMagdeburg andBerlin, and right near the armament industry centres ofSalzgitter (Reichswerke Hermann Göring) andWolfsburg (Volkswagen factory), meaning thatBraunschweigers were used to – even in a sense "trained for" – quickly responding to alarms (there were 2,040 warnings and 620 air raid alarms between 1939 and 1945). This may have prepared them for the attack, even though many of the earlier attacks from which they had sought shelter actually targeted other cities. Furthermore, the city also had at its disposal a great number of the latest type of air raid bunkers andblockhouses known asHochbunkers. Lastly, the fire brigade's water alley alone saved the lives of about 23,000 people.

The RAF lost a single Lancaster bomber to anti-aircraft fire that night.

Braunschweig Armour

Braunschweig had, compared to other German cities, a great number of the most modern air raid bunkers, some of which wereHochbunker (lit. 'high-rise bunkers'), which nevertheless suffered from regular overcrowding as the war wore on. As modern and robust as they were, the fact is that the so-calledBraunschweig Armour was developed at the Institute for Building Materials, Massive Construction and Fire Protection of theTechnical University of Braunschweig. It became a kind of safety standard for building air raid bunkers throughout the Reich.

According to estimates, especially during the night of the bombing as well as in the next six days until the last fires were put out, about 4,500 firefighters were deployed. They came from up to 90 kilometres (56 mi) away, and included not only members of city fire brigades from, among other places,Blankenburg,Celle,Gifhorn,Hanover,Helmstedt,Hildesheim,Peine,Salzgitter,Wernigerode andWolfenbüttel, but also volunteers and members of plant fire brigades at the various factories inBraunschweig and the surrounding area. Due to their efforts the city was not utterly burnt that night.

On 19 October, the number of dead was given as 405, and on 20 October a full-pagenecrology with 344 names was published. On 22 October, one week after the attack, a memorial was held for the victims, both at the Brunswick Cathedral and at theSchlossplatz, the square in front ofBraunschweig Palace. The same night,Braunschweig was again attacked heavily, this time by USAAFBoeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.

The last air raid onBraunschweig occurred on the morning of 31 March 1945, carried out by the392d Bombardment Group. Their main target was the east railway station.

When World War II began,Braunschweig had 202,284 inhabitants. By the war's end, the population had fallen by 26.03% to 149,641. From the effects of war (mainly air raids but also their aftermath, such as having to dispose of, or otherwise make safe, theduds that the Allies dropped) about 2,905 people died, 1,286 of whom (44.3%) were foreigners. These foreigners were predominantlyprisoners of war,forced labourers, andconcentration camp inmates who worked in the armament industry, and who were forbidden access to air raid bunkers.

Exact figures are available only for destroyed houses andflats. By the time the war was over, about 20% ofBraunschweig's dwellings had been left completely undamaged, but about 24% of them had been utterly destroyed.^{[citation needed]} The remaining 56% were somewhat damaged, with the extent of damage to any particular dwelling varying greatly with others. In 1943, before the area bombing ofBraunschweig, there were 15,897 houses in the city, but by mid-1945, only 2,834 (about 18%) were left undamaged. The city also had 59,826 flats, of which 11,153 (about 19%) were still undamaged by the time the war ended. The level of destruction with regard to residential buildings stood at 35%, leading to homelessness for almost 80% of the townsfolk by war's end. Sixty percent of the city's places of cultural interest, including the municipal buildings, were likewise destroyed, along with about 50% of its industrial areas.

The destruction rate inBraunschweig's downtown core (within theOker Ring, theOker being a river that encirclesBraunschweig) stood at about 90%, and the overall figure forBraunschweig as a whole was 42%. At the end of the war, an estimated 3,670,500 cubic metres (129.62 million cubic feet) of rubble had to be cleared.^[21] These figures putBraunschweig among Germany's most heavily damaged cities of World War II.^{[citation needed]}

On 17 June 1946, the rubble clearing officially began inBraunschweig. The job took 17 years, with the city only officially declaring the task accomplished in 1963. In actuality however, smaller cleanups lasted years after that.

Braunschweig's reconstruction in the 1950s and 1960s proceeded very quickly, as housing was badly needed and the city's infrastructure had to be built from scratch. Since the downtown core was a rubble-strewn wasteland,city andspatial planners seized the chance to build a new, modern, and above all car-friendly city, an idea promoted byHans Bernhard Reichow. ^[de] This once again led in many places to further destruction (through new roadways, for instance) and the removal of city scenery that had become historic, since in part the former city layout was ignored. Ruins were hastily torn down instead of being restored, and the car was raised as the new "yardstick" whereby the "new"Braunschweig was to be measured. Thus was wrought, especially in the downtown core, a "second destruction" ofBraunschweig.^{[citation needed]}

The later destruction of historic buildings and cultural sites, such as the demolition of many mediaeval, baroque and classical buildings and the controversial demolition of the damagedBrunswick Palace in 1960 that was almost faithfully reconstruction only in 2007 led – much as with theFrauenkirche in Dresden, theBerlin Palace and other prominent buildings in other cities – to a further loss of identity for the local people, and was the cause of much controversy for decades.

As early as 1943, theAnglicanBishop and Member of theHouse of LordsGeorge Bell was putting forth the view that attacks such as these threatened the ethical foundations ofWestern civilization and destroyed any chance of future reconciliation between former foes.

Since the end of World War II, the question has been raised as to whether the destruction ofBraunschweig in October 1944 was still amilitary necessity given that the war was into its final phase. This is part of the debate on whether the destruction of other German cities and loss of life that occurred once the Allied strategic bomber forces were released from their tactical support of theNormandy landings and resumed the strategic bombing campaign in September 1944 (a campaign that would last without further interruption until days before theend of World War II in Europe in May 1945) can be morally justified.^[22]

In theMain Cemetery in Braunschweig is a memorial, together with the graves of many victims of the 15 October 1944 attack.

Since the bombing, memorial events and exhibitions are held inBraunschweig on 14–15 October.^[23][24][18] The events of those two days also echo strongly in local historical literature. On 14–15 October 2004 – the sixtieth anniversary of the destruction ofBraunschweig's historic old town – there were once again many events.^{[needs update]} Among other memorials that took place wasBenjamin Britten'sWar Requiem, conducted at theBraunschweig Cathedral in the presence of British AmbassadorPeter Torry.

• „Das brennende Braunschweig am 14./15. Oktober 1944“, painting byWalther Hoeck [de]
• Description of bunker, bombs, destruction and more (in German)
• Map of Braunschweig's air raid damage, 1945
• Graveyard for victims of 15 October 1944 at the Main Cemetery in Braunschweig
• "Braunschweig Armour" for bunkers
• British Ambassador Sir Peter Torry's speech on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the destruction of Braunschweig
• Eyewitness account:“All of a sudden you're in the thick of it, bombs falling all around ...”(in German)

• World War II strategic bombing of Germany
• 20th century in Braunschweig
• 20th century in Lower Saxony
• 1944 in Germany
• Conflicts in 1944
• Firebombings
• Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom
• World War II strategic bombing by populated place
• October 1944 in Europe

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