| Bombing of the Bezuidenhout | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofWorld War IIOperation Crossbow | |||||
 Bezuidenhout burning, shortly after the bombing, photographed from the tower of the Church of James the Greater, at Parkstraat in The Hague | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 United Kingdom |  Nazi Germany | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Air MarshalSir Arthur Coningham[not verified in body] | |||||
| Units involved | |||||
 902nd Artillery Regiment z.V. (Motorised)[1] | |||||
| Strength | |||||
| 56Boston &Mitchell bombers[2] | |||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
Bezuidenhout civilian casualties: 532 killed,[3] 344 injured,[4]±30,000dehoused[5] | |||||
  Location within South Holland | |||||
Thebombing of the Bezuidenhout (Dutch:bombardement op het Bezuidenhout) took place on 3 March 1945,[6] when theRoyal Air Force mistakenly bombed theBezuidenhout neighbourhood in the Dutch city ofThe Hague, resulting in the death of 532 people.[7][8]
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On the morning of 3 March 1945, 51medium andlight bombers of theNorth American B-25 Mitchell andDouglas Boston types fromNo. 137 andNo. 139 wings of theSecond Tactical Air Force took off fromMelsbroek nearBrussels andVitry in Northern France with a payload of 67,000 kg ofhigh-explosive bombs.[10][8][11]
The British bombers were intended to bomb theHaagse Bos ("Forest of the Hague") district where theGermans had installedV-2 launching facilities that had been used to attack English cities.[12][13] However, the pilots were issued with the wrong coordinates (vertical and horizontal interchanged),[8][11][12] so the navigational instruments of the bombers had been set incorrectly, and combined with low fog and clouds which obscured their vision, the bombs were instead dropped on the Bezuidenhout residential neighbourhood.[8][12] Eventually, awind force of 9 instead of the expected 5 added to the catastrophe.[12] All bombs missed the rocket installations in the 2.4×0.8 km2 (0.9×0.3 sq mi) forest target (Haagse Bos)[14] by 1.2 km (0.7 mi)[8] ("incorrect allowance for the wind"[15]/"map-reading error"),[2] and hit theBezuidenhout neighbourhood instead.[4][16][17]
At 9:08 in the morning the 51 bombers dropped 67 tons of high-explosive bombs on the Bezuidenhout,[8] wreaking widespread destruction.[18]
"Everyone went out and into the street. You saw people running, running, running everywhere. But whichever way you ran, there was fire everywhere."
— Survivor,[13]
At the time, the neighbourhood was more densely populated than usual with evacuees from The Hague andWassenaar; tens of thousands were left homeless and had to be quartered in the Eastern and Central Netherlands.[10]
Due to insufficientfire engines andfiremen (as many of them had been either called up forforced labour in German industry or had gone into hiding to prevent being signed up)[8] the resulting fire was largely unchecked,[19] killing 511 people,[4] including ten firemen at the Schenkkade.[8] In total 532 people were killed by the bombing.[8][3]
As soon as the British realised the extent of the damage, they dropped fliers over the neighbourhood expressing condolences for the civilians who were killed by their error.[12][20]Trouw, theDutch resistance newspaper, reported:
The horrors of the war are increasing. We have seen the fires in The Hague after the terrible bombings due to the V2-launching sites. We have seen the column of smoke, drifting to the south and the ordeal of the war has descended upon us in its extended impact. We heard the screaming bombs falling on (the) Bezuidenhout, and the missiles which brought death and misery fell only a hundred metres from us. At the same time we saw the launching and the roaring, flaming V2, holding our breath to see if the launch was successful, if not falling back on the homes of innocent people. It is horrible to see the monsters take off in the middle of the night between the houses, lighting up the skies. One can imagine the terrors that came upon us now that The Hague is a frontline town, bombed continuously for more than ten days. Buildings, burning and smouldering furiously, a town choking from smoke, women and children fleeing, men hauling furniture which they tried to rescue from the chaos. What misery, what distress.[20]
The bombing is commemorated every year on the first Sunday after 3 March. In 2011, MayorJozias van Aartsen[21] of The Hague as well as the Mayors ofWassenaar andLeidschendam-Voorburg (residents of both towns helped with firefighting and caring for the survivors) were present at the remembrance ceremony, which consisted of achurch service, the laying of awreath at theMonument of the human mistake (Dutch:Monument van de menselijke vergissing) and a remembrance concert in theRoyal Conservatory of The Hague.[22] A similar church service and concert were held in 2012.[23]
