Tonight marks the 75th anniversary of the famous ‘Great Escape’, the massive jailbreak from a German prisoners camp by Allied airmen in Poland.
[Squadron Leader Richard Churchill, RAF bomber pilot, seen herethrough the entrance of one of the three tunnels digged. He was the last survivor of the escape, died aged 99 last February.]
The plan, conceived by RAFSquadron Leader Roger Bushell, in charge of ‘X’ Escape Committee, consisted on a mass escape from the North Compound of the prisoners camp Stalag Luft III at Sagan, Upper Silesia (today Zagan, Poland), about 100 miles southeast from Berlin. He executed it on the night of March 24/25, 1944.
Many of these airmen had been taken prisoners after being downed over Berlin in the previous months. That’s the case of P/O Alan Bryett No 158 Sqn, a bomb-aimer shot down by a German night fighter over the Nazi-capital on the night of 23/24 August 1943 in a Handley-Page Halifax Mk II bomber, piloted by Australian F/Lt Kevin Hornibrook. It was one of 62 bombers lost that night by Bomber Command. Bryett was forced by Luftwaffe members to walk through the smoking Berlin. Behind the wire, after arrive to the camp in October 1943, he became a ‘penguin’, strolling surreptitiously around the compound dispersing sand from the tunnels with a blooming great sock full of sand down each trouser leg. Bryett was in the queue of men waiting to escape the night of the plan by tunnel (the one nicknamed ‘Harry’, about 300-foot long) when the German guards discovered the tunnel entrance.
[A portrait of P/O Alan Bryett shortly after return from Stalag Luft Sagan in 1945.]
Bushell’s plan was to get 220 out of the camp, but only 76 crawled through to freedom.
However, the escape plan was not without troubles. Flight Lieutenant Johnny Bull discovered that the tunnel mouth was some 15 feet short of the tree line and within 30 yards of the nearest watch tower. Also, an air raid on Berlin then caused the camp’s (and the tunnel’s) electric lighting to be shut down, slowing the escape even more.
This raid was the last RAF bombing on the capital during the ‘Battle of Berlin’. Bomber Command dispatched 811 bombers in bad weather to bomb the city; the big winds suffered, very bad bombing pattern and the great losses -72 aircraft- made the raid a disaster. The proximity of Sagan’s POWs camp to Berlin and the start of that air attack were the cause the Germans disconnect the lighting, as standard procedure for blackout says. The bombing force was so scattered by wind and fighter attacks that a total of 126 communities outside Berlin reported being bombed.
[A group of German officers look at the discovered entrance to a tunnel dug in hut 104 at Stalag Luft III.]
Of 76 escapees, 73 were re-captured, and Gestapo murdered 50 of them following Hitler orders in the following days.
Bryett remembers: ‘My initial disappointment at not being among the 76 men to get out was transformed into a grim relief when news filtered back to the camp that 50 of the re-captured men had been shot, on Hitler’s orders. They were so young. Even our guards were shocked – they let us build a memorial to our friends.’ After “The Great Escape”, escaping was forbidden by senior British officers. Risk was so high.
In total, the camp ‘hosted’ 2,500 RAF officers, about 7,500 USAAF, and about 900 officers from other Allied air forces, for a total of 10,949 inmates. It was liberated in January 1945 by Soviet forces.
[A view of the huts and compound at Stalag Luft III camp.]
Another one related with Berlin is Flight Lieutenant Denys O Street of RAF No 207 Squadron. He was shot down on 29/30 March 1943 flying a Lancaster bomber during that night raid over Berlin (one of 21 aircraft lost). He evaded from the camp on the famous night but to be recaptured near Sagan and later murdered. Street is the only victim whose ashes are not at Poznan; his rest are at the Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery.
[Photographic set of 25 images of Allied airmen, escapees from Stalag Luft III, recaptured and executed by Gestapo in March and April 1944. Flying Officer D O Street is number 43.]
This story was was later immortalized, very altered and fictioned, in the 1963 Hollywood film “The Great Escape” starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough, based on the book written by Paul Brickhill, one of the camp inmates.
Lest we forget them.
_______________
Source:
Bowman. Martin W. Voices in Flight: the heavy bomber offensive of WW2. Pen & Sword Aviation. 2014.
Bowman, Martin W. Voices in Flight: RAF Night Operations. Pen & Sword Aviation. 2015.
Yesterday I had the honor to assist to the presentation of the map of “Madrid bombed. 1936-1939”, an initiative of the architects Enrique Bordes and Luis de Sobrón (@madrid1936_1939) of the UPM Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with the collaboration of the Madrid city council.
It is the first time that a map has been referenced and documented of each street and building in Madrid that suffered damage by bombing during the Spanish Civil War, whether artillery or aviation bomb, from the archives, photographs of impacts and testimonies from Madrid citizens, and especially the Fire Department work (Juan Miguel Redondo Toral). This is a great initiative that other cities such as London already have, which should have been done a long time ago, to try not to forget that Madrid was the first city in history to suffer a modern bombing campaign (apart from London in 1917) and served as an experiment for Luftwaffe and Mussolini’s Regia Aeronautica to learn how to bomb a large metropolis in an strategic role.
I wish that the past of years, does not erase our memory never more. Sadly, in these last 80 years, no institution or government has supported or organized anything like this until now.
During November and part of December of 1936 Madrid was raided every day and every night by Franco’s aviation, with German and Italian crews and planes. Simultaneously, and during the rest of the war, howitzers and guns from the nearby front line at Casa de Campo, shells every morning civilian areas like Gran Via avenue, causing numerous victims. Madrid was follow from the summer of 1937 by Barcelona, Alicante, Sagunto…
[A view of this fantastic map of Madrid´s bombings.]
[Three Republican I-16 Mosca fighters, manned by Soviet pilots, flying over Madrid’s calle Alcalá during a patrol flight to defend the capital against enemy raids.]
26 million of German people lost their homes during the war, just in Berlin 600,000 apartments were destroyed, half of all houses were damaged and around a third uninhabitable, as much as 16 km² of the city was simply rubble. When the war came to an end in May 1945, the ‘Big City’ had become a sea of destruction, death and debris. One of the biggest players in this panorama were the ‘Cookies’ or British HC-bombs.
[July 1945, work done by ‘Blockbusters’ and incendiaries: roofless houses seen in this aerial view of the bombed-out Nollendorfkiez (first picture) and Lichtenberg (second one) districts after the war shows clearly the devastating effects of the Allied weapons on the German capital, maximized by these bombs explosion in built-up areas which obtain a huge ‘blast-effect’. Later, incendiaries burnt out everything around, it was the perfect ‘fire-storm’ created by RAF Bomber Command during fall 1943 and expanded in 1945 by USAAF area raids.]
As we have seen before, ‘Blockbusters’ or High Capacity-bombs were first used on the night of 31 March/1 April 1941 in an attack on Emden when six Wellington of RAF No 149 Squadron were dispatched to drop them.
[Vertical aerial photograph taken from Vickers Wellington Mark II, W5439OJ-X of No 149 Sqn during a night raid on Emden, showing fires and smoke rising from explosions in the town, 31 March/ 1 April 1941. Two Wellingtons were modified to carry 4,000-lb HC blast-bombs that night.]
These bombs were larger than any previously dropped by RAF Bomber Command, but can be used by medium bombers on service, namely the Vickers Wellington. The introduction of the new four-engined heavy bombers during 1941-42 just added even more tonnage of bombs carried on every trip to Germany.
First appearance of these huge weapons against the Reich’s capital was in September-November 1941 during the final raids of the first phase of RAF’s offensive against Berlin. Following a November raid, aerial reconnaissance shown a large area in the Lichtenberg district totally disintegrated. In one of those attacks, one ‘blockbuster’ dropped in the Nordhaven sector killed twenty people on the street and many more in cellars by the effect of the blast. Mass use of HCs on Berlin had to wait nearly two years, on the night 1/2 March 1943, the worst raid suffered by the city during the first part of the war, and testimonies from Berliners reported huge fires never experienced before that night. One eyewitness experienced the blast of one of those weapons that night in the south-western suburbs: ‘a powerful, thunderous explosion…with a pressure wave that I had never experienced before, and which made me feel as a tiny ant.’ (Moorhouse, 2011.)
Also, the psychological effect of these weapons was tremendous, as we can read in this extract from RAF night operations (Bowman, M. 2015.): (…) “When it exploded [these HC-bombs],‘masses of debris’ said the official comunniqué, ‘flying through the air were outlined against the glow of fires and the results appeared to be devastating. Houses took to the air’ said the pilot who dropped it (…). In November 1941 there were reports of the terrible effects of these bombs in Berlin and of the fear they inspired; when one dropped in the Nordhaven district twenty people were found dead in the street and many people actually sheltering in cellar were killed by the effect of the blast alone”.
[Berlin 1944: A high explosive bomb, probably an RAF ‘Cookie’ has collapsed the flats in the foreground and the blast has stripped the tiles of the surrounding roofs; this is the ‘blockbuster’ aim, to aid in the penetration and ignition of the incendiaries’ wave.]
The lethality of the ‘Blockbusters’ was well-known and very popular at the time. The efficiency of the new bombs was shown by many photographic reconnaissance missions, evidencing devastated areas and completely roofless buildings.
[HM King George VI (third from right) and Queen Elizabeth inspect how armourers fit a ‘Cookie’ into the bomb-bay of a British heavy bomber in a visit to RAF Witchford airbase in February 1944. TARGET: Germany.]
HC-bombs were usually dropped by the bombers comprising the initial waves of the attack, as they had to “make room” for the incendiary devices carried by the following bomber stream. British typical bomb-load for an ‘area-target’ bomber consisted of a 4,000-lb HC and 12 SBCs, these ones containing 2,832 of the 4-lb type incendiary bomb.
[This 4,000-lb ‘Cookie’ being manoeuvred into the bomb-bay wears a striking and self-explanatory message. The Lancaster bomber seen behind, W4198QR-H of RAF No 61 Sqn, was lost on her 75th mission (note bomb tally painted next to the nose art, 71 recorded) flying to bomb Berlin, on 26/27 November 1943, one of the 28 Lancasters failing to return of the 443 dispatched that night. Plt Off A J Eaves and his six-man crew didn’t survive the crash.]
During the ‘Battle of Berlin’ (August 1943–March 1944) RAFBomber Command dropped 6,811 of the 4,000-pounder version and 53 of the even larger 8,000-lb ‘blockbusters’, in nineteen major raids on the capital.
Some sources say that five hundred people were killed when a 4,000-pounder hit a public shelter in the basement of the Joachimstal Schule on November 22, 1943. The psychological effect and lethality of the ‘Blockbusters’ reached even their ‘droppers’: this is an extract from the memories of Sergeant O Roberts (Prisoner of War), a British gunner in No 49 Sqn shot down over Berlin on the night of 2/3 December 1943: “(…) I stayed in this hospital [the Hermann Göring Luftwaffe Hospital at Unter den Linden] for a further two weeks, and was there on the night of 16 December when Bomber Command paid another visit to Berlin. The sirens sounded and I was taken to the air-raid shelter with the other patients. I was sitting on a bunk bed in the shelter when a ‘Cookie’ dropped outside. It didn’t whistle; it rattled on the way down and shook all the building when it exploded.”
First use of those larger versions of the blast-bomb on or near Berlin was during this campaign, on the night of 2/3 December 1943 when six 8,000-pounders were dropped, carried in the extra-large bomb-bays of the Lancasters Mk II of No 115 Squadron.
[This Mark IIDS689/OW-S, equipped with Bristol Hercules radial air-cooled engines and bulged bomb-bay doors to carry the large ‘Super-cookies’, flied with RCAF No 426 Sqn several missions over Berlin until it was lost during a raid on Stuttgart on 7/8 December 1943.]
[February 1944. Effects of an 8,000-lb ‘Super-cookie’ bomb dropped in a Berlin suburb during one of RAF Bomber Command’s attacks. This photograph, taken byNo 106 (PR) Wing RAF a month after the bomb was dropped, shows the bombed site after considerable clearances. The ends of damaged buildings have been squared off and the crater surface levelled over. The visible area of destruction extends to approximately 14 acres over which buildings are seen to have been damaged by blast, as revealed by re-roofing and repairs.]
Another one of RAF’s ‘Cookies’ main droppers on Berlin was the De Havilland Mosquito, the twin-engined bomber, flying alone in the dark to deliver the bomb thanks to her fast-flying and equipped with navigation and radar aids. It was used during the first raids as a spearhead of the main bombing force, and later, from March 1944 onwards, acting as a ‘solo’ over the ‘Big City’ in nuisance raids. It could be said that every night from then until the end of the war at least one blast-bomb was released on the capital by a Mosquito, a true nightmare for Berliners.
First time for a Mosquito raid was on February 23/24th 1944, when a No 692 aircraft dropped one during the Dusseldorf raid, and ‘Cookies’ were dropped for the first time on Berlin on 13/14 April, again by a 692 Sqn crew. This squadron was part of the Light Night Striking Force of No 8 (PFF) Group [the Pathfinders], which specialized in these fast, high-flying night raids on Berlin during 1944-45. The specially-modified Mosquitoes were fitted with bulged bomb-bays and more powerful engines in order to accommodate the large ‘Cookies’. Each aircraft carried two 50-gallon drop tanks and a 4,000-lb bomb. Its crews dubbed these missions the ‘Berlin Express’.
[Armourers wheel a 4,000-pounder for loading into a black-painted De Havilland Mosquito B IV (modified) of No 692 Squadron RAF at Graveley, Huntingdonshire.]
[Here we see another 692 Sqn Mosquito at RAF Graveley, showing the bulged bomb-bay, fitted to accommodate the 4,000-lb HC bomb, in preparation for a raid to the Reich’s capital. This aircraft was subsequently flown that night to Berlin by Canadians Flt Lts Andy Lockhart and Ralph Wood (navigator), one of the 18 trips to the city completed by this pair during the war.]
The legacy of these bombs in Germany is tangible yet. As we can see in this image, taken in 2011 in Koblenz, British 4,000-lb ‘Blockbusters’ are still a truly live-danger nowadays for German people. In the second one, taken in 2017, about 60,000 people were ordered to leave in what was Germany’s biggest evacuation since the war because an unexploded ‘Cookie’ was discovered in Frankfurt.
Today, we can see the remains of a 4,000-lb bomb with part of its steel case, on display at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin-Mitte, Inventarnr. W 91/6.
Airminded. Airpower and British society, 1908-1941. The first Blockbuster. <https://airminded.org/2012/11/14/the-first-blockbuster/>
Air Ministry. RAF Armament Volume I: Bombs and Bombing Equipment. 1954.
The United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Air Studies Division Report: The Economic Effects of the Air Offensive Against German Cities, USSBS.
Bowman. Martin W. Mosquito Bomber/Fighter-Bomber Units 1942–45. Combat Aircraft. Osprey Publishing. 2013.
Bowman. Martin W. Voices in Flight: the heavy bomber offensive of WW2. Pen & Sword Aviation. 2014.
Bowman, Martin W. Voices in Flight: RAF Night Operations. Pen & Sword Aviation. 2015.
Boyd, David. 4000 lb High Capacity Bomb. <http://www.wwiiequipment.com>
Burls, Nina. RAF bombs and bombing. ROYALAIRFORCEHISTORICALSOCIETY. Journal 45. 2009.
Fahey, John. Britain 1939 – 1945: The economic cost of Strategic Bombing. University of Sidney. 2004.
Falconer, John. Bomber Command Handbook. The History Press. 1998.
Johnson, George.The last British Dambuster: one man’s extraordinary life and the raids that changed history. Ebury Press. 2014.
Lake, Jon. Lancaster Squadrons 1944–45. Osprey Publishing. 2002.
Middlebrook, Martin. The Berlin raids.RAF Bomber Command Winter 1943-44. Cassell & Co. 1988.
Moorhouse, Roger. Berlin at war. Life and death in Hitler’s capital, 1939-45. Vintage Books, London, 2011.
Overy, Richard. The Bombing War: Europe, 1939-1945. Allen Lane. 2013.
The Strategic Air War Against Germany 1939-1945 – The Official Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit (Introduction by Sebastian Cox). Frank Cass, 1998.
Worral, Richard. BATTLEOFBERLIN 1943–44. Bomber Harris’ gamble to end the war. Osprey Publishing, 2019
Second part of the pictures taken by Soviet war photographer Valery Faminsky (1914–1993) during the Fall of Nazi Berlin in May 1945.
[Major S L Rogatchevsky, a Soviet medical officer, poses next to a propaganda slogan painted on a wall by SS members during the battle that reads: ‘Berlin stays German!’. Possibly located at Einbecker Straße.]
[Another Soviet officer poses in front of one of the lion statues at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Nationaldenkmals. Notice bullet damage on the lion’s pedestal and the destroyed Dom at extreme left.]
[A portrait of two soldiers at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Nationaldenkmals vor dem Stadtschloss near the Spree river. See at center of the image the Zeughaus building; out of picture at far left would be the Bauakademie (Building Academy) (info thanks to Jürgen Raddatz).]
[Soviet troops salutes their Red banner during a victory parade at Scheidemnanstraße, Platz der Republik, outside of the destroyed Reichstag on 20 May 1945.]
These pictures were taken by Soviet war photographer Valery Faminsky (1914–1993) during the Fall of Nazi Berlin in May 1945. This archive was discovered recently in Moscow. He photographed the Red Army’s combat from Ukraine to Berlin.
Photographer Arthur Bondar heard that the family of Faminsky was selling the album and negatives after his death in 2011, so he acquired the archive in 2016.
These amazing pics of World War Two were taken during April 22nd to May 24th 1945, as Faminsky accompanied Soviet troops during their final assault of Third Reich’s capital. One of the most valued aspects of this album is that they are recorded far away from Soviet propaganda: images showing the troops daylife during their march to Berlin, the population, the ruins of the big city…the true face of destruction accomplished by the Allies. He also documented the care of wounded soldiers in Berlin for the medical authorities.
A truly witness of the reality of war, enjoy it.
[The Reichstag’s burnt out main entrance and portico.]
Last summer we can saw all this impressive images in an exhibition in Berlin. Bildband Berlin opened this show during 12th May – 12th July 2018 at Immanuelkirchstr. 33 (Prenzlauer Alle). Also we can adquire this complete album in a fabulous German/English 184 pages-edition “Valery Faminsky – Berlin Mai 1945” at their bookshop.
The strategic method to destroy German cities employed by Bomber Command in area bombings was based on fires caused by the incendiary bombs, and to ignite it, Great Britain had to devise a new type of weapon that would accelerate and facilitate its jump from house to house, block to block, eliminating also any obstacle that would stop it: walls and piles. A great power was necessary, which generated a formidable expansive blast wave.
In October 1940, the Air Staff required to design and develop this new range of weapons to “dehouse” the enemy’s cities: these would be named ‘High capacity’ bombs or HC.
Based on the Blitz experiences, the British learn how effective were the air-mines dropped by Luftwaffe bombers and their destructive effects in the city. An air-mine was a sea mine adapted to be dropped on land targets, usually attaching it to a parachute. A clockwork mechanism would detonate the mine 17-25 seconds after impact, detonating at roof level (the force of the blast would disperse laterally) to maximize the explosion in built-up areas and to obtain a huge ‘blast-effect’. The Luftwaffe used several types of these bombs, the most common were the 500 kg Luftmine A and the 1,000 kg Luftmine B and had ahigh charge ratio of 60-70 percent. They were first used against land targets on 16 September 1940 in the early stages of the air-assault against Britain.
[A German 1,000 kg-Luftmine B (LMB) fitted with a MA1 magnetic acoustic detonator (as indicated on the nose) being loaded onto a transportation trolley prior to a bombing sortie from a French aerodrome.]
[In this photo we can see Police and Army bomb disposal officers with a defused German 1,000 kg Luftmine B during the Blitz in Glasgow, 18 March 1941. The image allows us to appreciate the size of this bomb.]
The British idea was to create a blast bomb, in a certain way inspired by those German “air-mines”, filled with a high charge ratio in the lightest possible structure, a thin steel case. HC-bombs usually used high charge to weight ratios of 70-88%. The bomb was filled with HE Amatol and sometimes this one was also mixed with TNT and aluminium powder to form ‘Torpex’ and ‘Minol’. Their lightweight construction meant that they collapsed on impact so that they had to be instantaneously fused, delayed action not being an option here. In addition, its high weight made these bombs to fall straight, blowing off roofs and windows like paper so that the small 4-lb incendiary bombs could reach the building interiors, ignite and burn, and creating in the process a flue chimney to help fire to expand.
The HC series introduced the innovator concept of modular construction and all have a crude cylindrical shape with flat noses, resembling a dust bin. The absence of tail fins made these blast-bombs had no ballistic characteristics, so when dropped they could land anywhere. The parachute of the initial series was deleted after test runs proved no need to ‘soft’ their landing and also made more unstable the weapon from 800 to 2,000 feet.
These weapons were known unofficially as ‘Blockbusters’ because of the idea that they were capable of destroying a whole block of flats in a city. The earliest press reference of this term appeared in an USUnited Press report dated 29 July 1942, but it didn’t appear in British press until January 1943. The start of the association of this term with the cinema apparently dates back to May 1943, when ‘blockbuster’ was used for the publicity campaign of a RKO’s war film named “Bombardier” (The tagline of the movie reads: “The block-buster of all action-thrill-service shows!”), and in 1944 in another war documentary called Marines at Tarawa (‘It hits the heart like a two ton blockbuster!’ it said…) and press became to associate it with massive impact and success(Hall S, 2014).
Germans continued to refer to it as ‘Luftminen’. British crews called them Cookies, perhaps due to their shape, but it is unknown. Others say this was a codename for an usual bomb-load consisting of a large canister - the HC, several HE bombs and a thousand incendiaries and for whatever reason the name ‘cookie’ became associated with the canister itself.
[Movie poster of the 1943 war-film Bombardier. Notice at upper left the strike message using the ‘block-buster’ term.]
First of the large HC weapons designed was the 4,000-lb HC bomb —the so called‘Cookie’, required initially as a mine-bomb to drop on naval targets such as harbours and ships. The device had to be able to fit into the Wellington medium bomber bomb-bay and was so big that no bomb trolley was capable of carrying such a bomb at the time. First bomb was ready in November 1940, and the great urgency for the bomb made that several were dropped already in February 1941 (first official use of these new 4,000-pounders were on 31 March/ 1 April 1941 on a raid on Emden). Initial installation of a parachute was dropped later by Air Staff but a nose spoiler was fitted to improve ballistic performance. By August, 226 bombs had been dropped but the type was not officially part of the Command’s inventory until January 1942. Their usual weight was 3,930-lb (1,786 kg). From February 1943 a new ‘proximity fused’type of 4,000-lb HC bomb, with a wide blast-effect, was used when four Lancasters dropped them for the first time on La Spezia port in Italy.
[An WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) tractor driver leaving the bomb dump with a 4,000-lb ‘Cookie’ bomb on a trolley, at RAF Feltwell station in 1942.]
During the war 68,000 of these bombs were dropped by Bomber Command, other sources indicates a nearly 93,000 figure but it is evident that the 4,000-pounder was the mainstream weapon of the HC range; it was estimated that these bombs were 1.4 times more effective as the same weight of medium bombs at causing structural damage. Each of these blast bombs cost the British Government £163 according to existing data.
[An RAF armourer working on an early variant of the 4,000-lb HC blast-bomb prior to a mission.]
[In this original colour film we can see British RAF ground-crew around a trolley with a 4,000-lb HC behind one containing six American 500-lb bombs (note the tailfins), prior to be loaded into the bomb-bay.]
[An Avro Lancaster Mark I, NG128SR-B, of No 101 Squadron RAF, piloted by Warrant Officer R B Tibbs, releases a 4,000-lb HC‘Cookie’(at right) and 30-lb incendiary bombs over the target during a special daylight raid on Duisburg. Notice the large aerials on top of the Lancaster’s fuselage next to the top turret, indicating that the aircraft is carrying ‘Airborne Cigar’ (ABC), a jamming device which disrupted enemy radio channels to confuse German nightfighters and air controllers. This is a still from film shot by the RAF Film Production Unit.]
[Still from film shot in an Avro Lancaster taken from the bomb-bay camera, by the RAF Film Production Unit, during a daylight attack on the Luftwaffe airfield and signals depot at St Cyr, France, by aircraft of No 5 Group. A 4,000-lb bomb ‘Cookie’and a smaller 500-lb MC bomb are seen just after they were released over the target.]
[This film was created by the US Ballistics Research Laboratory at Aberdeen, Maryland during the tests made of British 4,000 pound munitions. Video credit: Periscope Film LLC Archive.]
The 4,000-pounder was closely followed by the next variant of this type, the smaller one: 2,000-lb HC bomb. Their usual weight was 1,842-lb (837 kg). Subsequent Mark II and Mark III of this 2,000-pounders differed in detail; the conical nose was replaced with a domed nose and the number of fuzes was increased from one to three to guarantee detonation. This is the only ‘blockbuster’ bomb than can be carried and dropped by the big Short Stirling heavy bomber due to its divided bomb-bay.
The number dropped from a 194 figure in the year 1941 to a max point of 16,227 in 1944. Following development of larger bombs, this type was redesigned at the Command’s request and incorporated the use of a ballistic tall unit. The new variant became available for use in August of 1942 and remained a part of the RAF general inventory throughout the remainder of the conflict. A total of 28,633 of these weapons were dropped by Bomber Command during the war.
[Australian armourers load a 2,000-lb High Capacity bomb into the bomb-bay of an Avro Lancaster bomber of No 467 Sqn RAAF at Waddington air base in August 1944. Chalk inscription warning groundcrew that the weapon has her fuses inserted in the bomb dump.]
In 1942, a larger version of the blast bomb was developed by joining together two 4,000-lb HC bomb sections, creating the 8,000-lb High Capacity bomb (‘super cookie’) which although similar in design to the standard ‘Cookie’were actually shorter in length and of larger diameter, so even the Lancaster bomber had to be modified to carry this weapon (bulged bay-bomb doors).
Their usual weight was 7,860-lb (3,572 kg). Only the front section was fused and this in turn detonated the connecting section by blast wave. These bombs were deployed against similar targets but in shorter numbers, this was because when testing, the sections of the 8,000-pounder were found to be inferior to a single 4,000-lb HC bomb. 1,088 of them were used in combat during the war.
[An armourer gets inside the fin of an 8000-lb bomb to make adjustments prior to a mission.]
Finally, the RAF employed the biggest model of this series, the 12,000-lbHC bomb (5,425 kg was their usual weight) filled with Torpex explosive and fused with three nose position fuzes. This ‘super cookie’ bomb was developed in 1942 after a study of the Air Staff for a large weapon. It was created essentially with three 4,000-lb ‘Cookies’ bolted together with the addition of a six-finned ballistic tail, but actually the bomb was shorter due to the need to fit it into the Lancaster bomb-bay; loaded it took aprox. 35 minutes and four men to prepare it.
But this weapon was rarely used against targets like cities, they were primarily reserved to special precision targets or factories. First use of this bomb was on September 14, 1943, when No 617 Sqn attacked the heavily defended Dortmund-Ems Canal. Just 193 of these big-size bombs were dropped by RAF Bomber Command during the war, most of them expended by the ‘special’ No 617 Squadron with not much success.
[An RAF armourer checks a large 12,000-lb HC device in her trolley before loading it on Lancaster B144KC-N in a dispersal zone at RAF Coningsby for an incoming bombing operation against the Third Reich on 15 September 1943. This bomber was lost during that very day in a disastrous raid.]
[Video credit: Buyout Footage Historic Film Archive.]
The following image summarized part of the RAF’s blast-bombs family: armourers show off bombs for a comparison in size at the bomb dump at RAF Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. In the front are 1,000-lb and 500-lb MC bombs, behind them a 2,000-lb HC Mark I, then a 4,000-lb HC Mk III or Mk IV ‘Cookie’. Finally, at the rear, is a 12,000-lb HC ‘Blockbuster’.
This table shows, by type, the number of HC-bombs dropped by RAFBomber Command during World War 2. Source: Burls, Nina. RAF bombs and bombing. ROYALAIRFORCEHISTORICALSOCIETY. Journal 45. 2009.
Airminded. Airpower and British society, 1908-1941. The first Blockbuster. <https://airminded.org/2012/11/14/the-first-blockbuster/>
Air Ministry. (1954). RAF Armament Volume I: Bombs and Bombing Equipment.
The United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Air Studies Division Report: The Economic Effects of the Air Offensive Against German Cities, USSBS.
Bowman. (2012). Martin W. Bomber Command Reflections of War. Volume: 2. June 1942-Summer 1943. Pen & Sword Aviation.
Bowman, Martin W. (2014). Voices in Flight: the heavy bomber offensive of WW2. Pen & Sword Aviation.
Bowman, Martin W. (2015). Voices in Flight: RAF Night Operations. Pen & Sword Aviation.
Boyd, David. 4000lb High Capacity Bomb. <http://www.wwiiequipment.com>
Burls, Nina. RAF bombs and bombing. ROYALAIRFORCEHISTORICALSOCIETY. Journal 45. 2009.
Fahey, John. (2004). Britain 1939 – 1945: The economic cost of Strategic Bombing. University of Sidney.
Falconer, John. (1998). Bomber Command Handbook. The History Press.
Friedrich, Jörg. (2002). Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945. Propylaen Verlag, Zweigniederlassung der Ullstein.
Goss, Chris. (2018). Heinkel He 111: The Latter Years - the Blitz and War in the East to the Fall of Germany. Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
Hall, Sheldon (2014). Pass the ammunition: a short etymology of “Blockbuster”. In: Elliott, Andrew B.R., (ed.) The Return of the Epic Film. University Press, 147-166.
Johnson, George. (2014).The last British Dambuster: one man’s extraordinary life and the raids that changed history. Ebury Press.
Lake, Jon. (2002). Lancaster Squadrons 1944–45. Osprey Publishing.
Middlebrook, Martin. (1988). The Berlin raids.RAF Bomber Command Winter 1943-44. Cassell & Co.
Moorhouse, Roger. (2011). Berlin at war. Life and death in Hitler’s capital, 1939-45. Vintage Books.
Overy, Richard. (2013). The Bombing War: Europe, 1939-1945. Allen Lane.
The Strategic Air War Against Germany 1939-1945 – The Official Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit (Introduction by Sebastian Cox). Frank Cass. 1998.
Worral, Richard. (2019). BATTLEOFBERLIN 1943–44. Bomber Harris’ gamble to end the war. Osprey Publishing.
Before the end of World War Two, next to the main entrance of the Opera house at Unter den Linden were three statues of prominent Prussian generals in pedestals, installed in the 19th Century and commissioned by König Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Today, next to the Opera portico at left we see two majestic statues again, but actually they are not the same… why is this? Here is their full story…
[Here we see the same location before the destruction caused by bombings and street-fighting. These photos were taken in 1937 in colour film by Karl Lutz during a Wehrmacht parade at Unter den Linden. We can see a 3-statue set on pedestals, located next to the Staatsoper. Notice that the Zeughaus armoury (today the Deutsche Historisches Museum - German Historical Museum) and the Dom are at right behind the statues, this is because the images are flipped.]
They were part of a 5-statue field commemorative monuments made in 1855. The trio of generals next to the Opera was composed by August von Gneisenau (1760-1831), Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742-1819) and Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg (1759-1830), all of them instrumental in the Prussian army during the European Napoleonic Wars.
The Nazi-regime tried to protect these sculptures from the Allies’ air-bombings by covering them with some urns made of bricks, and they get some protection during those terrible days, but by war’s end one of the statues is missing from her pedestal, as we can clearly see in one of the accompanying images.
[Hitler arrives at the state funeral for Admiral von Trotha (1868-1940) in Unter den Linden, 11 October 1940, with the Prussian statues and the Staatsoper as a background.]
[April 10th, 1941. The Opera was hit by some incendiary bombs during an attack by British bombers the night before. The bombs narrowly missed the trio of Prussian statues on this time, seen at left of the image].
[In this Hoffmann photography we can see the securing work following Luftschutz instructions to protect the Staatsoper’s statues at Unter den Linden from the Allied bombing raids in late 1940.]
[This is “Berlin, Opernhaus und Unter den Linden, 1845”, oil on canvas by Eduard Gaertner (1801–1877), a painting in which we can get an idea of how the site was in Prussian times.]
Until Cold War-year 1950, the statues of Generals von Wartenburg, von Blücher and von Gneisenau stood at this point surrounded by ruins and rubble. The statues were dismantled in the postwar period by the new socialist government, during the reconstruction of the theatre that year as the symbology of the war heroes did not fit with the ‘3rd World Festival of Youth and Students’ (Weltfestspiele der Jugend und Studenten), an international event that was to be held in East Berlin in 1951.
[Another view of the battle-damaged Staatsoper in Berlin Mitte and her statues after the war.]
[Opposite view of the Prussian statues at the same time in 1945. Note that von Wartenburg statue is missing and heavy battle damage to Humboldt-Universität’seastern wing in the background.]
Now here stands the two remaining statues of the 5-set, which represent GeneralFriedrich Wilhelm von Bülow and General Gerhard von Scharnhorst. They were sculpted by Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857) in marble on pedestal with reliefs (these ones made by Karl Friedrich Schinkel) and a height of 2.7 metres.
[Last summer view of today’s location of Generals von Bulow (at left in the foreground) and Scharnhorst (at center) next to the restored Unter den Linden’s Opera.]
This pair is the one that was originally placed on both sides of the Neue Wache(‘New Guard House’), flanking the memorial that honored the Unknown soldier. Having survived the destruction of the battle and air-bombings, and located within the Soviet zone of occupation, the statues were dismantled from their pedestal and put into storage.
[The marble statues at their original location, both sides of the Neue Wache as seen in 1939, just before the outbreak of the war and the incoming Armageddon of the city.]
In 1961, the statue of Scharnhorst was placed in its current situation next to the Opera, re-established by the DDR government. Later, the Scharnhorst Monument was restored in 1990 after the German reunification and rebuilt in 2002, set up again with the statue of von Bülow, which has been stored since 1950.
But … where did the 3 original statues on the roadside of the Opera go?
The trio of Generals von Wartenburg, von Blücher and von Gneisenau was re-established in 1961 in the back garden of the Opera: the so-called Prinzessinnengarten (‘Garden of the princesses’). Today they are still located there but in different place, recently restored after the reformation workings on the Staatsoper started in 2009 and with a new design of the adjacent area including a square and gardens.
[Denkmal für Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. This is a view of the figure and base before re-erection in 1961.]
[The current location of the original three statues set, now at the Prinzessinnengarten, designed by landscape architect Birgit Hammer. Notice that the pink facade of the Opera house is barely visible behind.]
The reasons behind these statues have not been re-established at their original location by Berlin authorities is unknown, but at least they are all intact and exposed to the visitor, and not stored in an old warehouse as happened after the war.
_______________
Source:
Berlin: Staatsoper Unter den Linden. CARTHALIA - Theatres on Postcards. Andreas Praefcke’s postcard collection of theatres and concert halls worldwide
<http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/germany/berlin_staatsoper.htm>
Einhard, Luther.(2012). Oper in Berlin – Heiß umkämpft und stets unter Feuer. Pro Business.
Freydank, Ruth. (1988). Theater in Berlin: von den Anfängen bis 1945. Berlin.
Friedrich, Jörg. (2002). Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945. Propylaen Verlag, Zweigniederlassung der Ullstein.
Kellerhoff, Sven F. (2011). Berlin im Krieg: Eine Generation erinnert sich. BASTEI LÜBBE.
Middlebrook, Martin. (2014). The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book. Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors.
Moorhouse, Roger. (2011). Berlin at war. Life and death in Hitler’s capital, 1939-45. Vintage Books, London.
Overy, Richard. (2013). The Bombing War: Europe, 1939-1945. Allen Lane.
SCHLOSSDEBATE. <Wie wurde die Staatsoper in der DDR rekonstruiert? <http://schlossdebatte.de/>
Following the fall of the Third Reich, 1945 was ‘Year Zero’ for Berlin, and so it was for the Staatsoper. The ancient Opera, renamed at that time as Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, was one of the first historical buildings at the German capital secured against further decay and plunder, with Unter den Linden boulevard and an important part of Mitte district being assigned to the Soviet conquerors as a war trophy.
An aerial view from a low flypast by an Allied airplane along the ruined Unter den Linden at the end of the war which allows us to see the burnt condition of the stage tower of the building (top left).
The auditorium burned out, but the altered spatial sequences, which had arisen under the abandonment of the old Apollo room, remained intact. Notice buildings without roof in the foreground.
A closer look taken seconds before from the same low flypast with Bebelplatz and the Staatsoper at left. Notice that King Friedrich’s statue has been covered to protect it from the destruction of war and air-bombings with a masonry shell (top centre). The main entrance of Humboldt University is seen at right.
[Year 1949: Destroyed north facade and eastern and western stage house of the Staatsoper after the Allied air bombing and Soviet assault. Notice shrapnel heavy damage on walls and at right the DDR East Germany slogan reading “Auf Sozialisten schließt die Reihen”, taken from the Sozialistenmarsch, a song written in 1892 for the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD).]
[This iconic view of the Oper den Linden, taken in June 1951 from the fence of the Humboldt Universität, where two cows graze in the grass. Notice at left the ancient statue of Wilhelm von Humboldt, made in 1883 by sculptor Reinhold Begas. It seems that the main entrance portico of the Neoclassical theatre survived barely intact to the Allies’ bombs.]
Following a discussion by the new authorities of the city about conservation or demolition, reconstruction work at the Staatsoper started early after the end of the hostilities.
At the time, Soviet city commander Gen Nikolai Berzarin, the first town mayor of the Soviet occupying zone (as he was commander of Soviet 5th Shock Army -the first Stalin’s army to reach the eastern outskirts of Berlin on April 21, 1945) promised that a new grand Opera would be built elsewhere, so that the one at Unter den Linden could be restored to its original form.
[Commander of the conquered city, General Nikolai Berzarin talking with Trümmerfrauen clearing debris in May 1945.]
[These are views of the works’ progress during 1951-52 taken from the adjacent Bebelplatz. The partly destroyed Dom can be seen behind in the first picture.]
In 1951, architect Richard Paulink (the son of a SPD official and also involved in the reconstruction of Dresden) was tasked with restoring the theatre to match the original 1742-version of the building. The beginning of the reconstruction of the Staatsoper started on June 12, 1952. The result was an unusually opulent building by socialist standards - they called it “socialist rococo”.
[As we can see in this image, the authorities of the newly born East Germany adorned the works with a pompous and patriotic act, knowing the potential power of the return of
such an important site in the musical world as was the Unter den Linden Opernhaus.]
During the close-down time (1945-1955), the Admiralpalast at Friedrichstraße hosted the Opera.
The newly rebuilt opera building was reopened in September 1955, with Wagner’s ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’, the same work that in 1942 did it after the first Allied bombing. Even Hitler would have enjoyed it.
[The new opera house was inaugurated in 1955 now in East Germany’s capital and renamed Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.]
Several reconstruction works were made during the DDR-period, including a total refurbishment in 1986-87 and one more after 1990 during the German reunification process, when it recovered again its name, Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
[The theatre under reconstructon work in June, 1986.]
Finally, during 2010-2017, when the original Opera building at Unter den Linden was closed to the public, while undergoing extensive renovations. Aside from occasional avant-garde performances in the construction site, the bulk of the season’s offerings over the reconstruction period have taken place at the Berliner Schillertheater (Bismarckstraße) in Charlottenburg, only a block away from its main competitor, the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
After 7 years of work, the reopening act was celebrated in December 2017, nearly celebrating its 275th birthday.
[The Opera building under the final renovation, this shot was taken in 2013.]
The current renovation included over 90 different companies attending to details such as the walls’ gilded ornamentation and the chandeliers, but work took much longer than expected and the renovation costs raised from an estimated 239 million euros to €400 million, half of which covered by federal funds.
Aster, Misha. (2017). Staatsoper: Die bewegte Geschichte der Berliner Lindenoper im 20. Jahrhundert. Siedler Verlag.
Berlin: Staatsoper Unter den Linden. CARTHALIA - Theatres on Postcards. Andreas Praefcke’s postcard collection of theatres and concert halls worldwide
<http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/germany/berlin_staatsoper.htm>
Einhard, Luther.Oper in Berlin – Heiß umkämpft und stets unter Feuer. Pro Business. 2012.
Freydank, Ruth. Theater in Berlin: von den Anfängen bis 1945. Berlin. 1988.
Friedrich, Jörg. Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945. Propylaen Verlag, Zweigniederlassung der Ullstein. 2002.
Kellerhoff Sven F. Berlin im Krieg: Eine Generation erinnert sich. BASTEI LÜBBE. 2011.
Meffert, Erich. Das Haus der Staatsoper und seine neue Gestaltung. Dargebracht von der Generalintendanz der Preussischen Staatstheater. Generalintendanz der Preussischen Staatstheater. Leipzig, Max Beck Verlag. 1944.
Moorhouse, Roger. Berlin at war. Life and death in Hitler’s capital, 1939-45. Vintage Books, London. 2011.
SCHLOSSDEBATE.Wie wurde die Staatsoper in der DDR rekonstruiert? <http://schlossdebatte.de/?p=96>
Schmitz, Franz. Kleine Baugeschichte der Staatsoper Unter den Linden. STAATSOPERUNTERDENLINDEN <https://www.staatsoper-berlin.de>
When the Staatsoper den Linden was severely damaged by British bombs in April 1941, Hitler urgently ordered its reconstruction, as it was one of his favourite buildings from his fanatical devotion to Opera and Richard Wagner’s works.
[December 1942: Nazi-parade of a guard of honour at Unter den Linden on the occasion of the anniversary of the Tripartite Pact (the military agreement signed by Germany, Italy and Japan signed in 1940). We can see Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Oshima -third from right saluting the guards. The reconstructed Staatsoper den Linden is seen behind the troops.]
The theatre would be restored under the direction of Erich Meffert, the Ministerial Councilor from Finance, with the estructure been hardly modified externally and a new broad monumental staircase inside. According to the architects, the goal was the redesign - in addition to the elimination of functional defects, but tight timeframes and the delivery difficulties for building materials in war time however, forced for most rooms a comparatively simple equipment. In addition to the actual construction site, dozens of plasterers and painters in studios were soon busy working on the elaborate interior design. Everyone was under great pressure, because of the 200th anniversary of the inauguration of the Opera in December 1942 the reconstruction should be completed. Finally, on scheduled time, the Staatsoper reopened with the staging of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” under the musical direction of Wilhelm Furtwängler.
[This is a view of the reconstructed foyer floor of the Opera in 1942.]
[”200 Jahre - Staats Oper Berlin -Im Bild”, a book printed in 1942 to commemorate the 200th birthday of the Staatsoper. Today it’s easy to find and acquire relics of this type in different auction houses and antique stores like eBay.]
After that, normal life returned to the Opera, with the usual programming of operas and concerts and its constant use by the Nazi leaders. The Staatsoper was still a reference between European culture, despite the prohibition of Jewish authors and their exile from Germany.
[This picture, published in September 1942 by ‘Das Reich’, shows the opera ‘Salome’ written by Richard Strauss, with Austrian soprano Maria Cebotari as Salome and Julius Pölzer as ‘Tetrarch’ being played at the Berlin Staatsoper.]
But war reached the Opera again. The Staatsoper was slightly damaged in the second half of 1943, during the British Bomber Command attacks made in late summer and fall of that year in which the adjacent St Hedwig cathedral at Bebelplatz was severely damaged too. With American bombs falling on Unter den Linden and Staatsbibliothek in May 1944, Dr Goebbels, as Gauleiter of Berlin, closed down the Opera again in August in the name of the Totaler Krieg (“Total War”) policy. Last performance was on August 31, with ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, directed by Johannes Schüler. The Staatskapelle continued performing symphonic and opera concerts. On November 24, 1944, an attack by several British RAFMosquito bombers hit the facade of the State Opera (57 Mosquitoes took off with orders to bomb Berlin that night, they bomb on dead reckoning due to bad weather), the cloakroom and the cash desk have been destroyed and the entrance hall damaged.
The rebuilt Opera house had just 26 months when the building was finally destroyed on February 3, 1945 hit again by bombs during the massive daylight raid made by US Eighth Air Force. That Saturday the government district of Berlin was pounded and smashed to rubble by American bombs dropped by 937 four-engined bombers which unloaded 2,500 tons of bombs. The Americans lost 23 bombers.
Some bombs fell on Unter den Linden and three of them hit the theatre, engulfing in flames not just the roof and the auditorium but also the foundation walls. The portico and the Apollo hall including the internals of the years 1941/42 remained more or less intact.
[A Boeing B-17 US heavy-bomber leaving contrails over the burning Berlin on 3 February 1945. The American official record states that the bombers were sent to hit the Tempelhof marshalling yards.]
[This is a detail of a PR image taken on March 15th by a F-5 Lightning to assets damage done on the city centre after the two big ‘area’ bombing raids made by US Eighth Air Force aircraft. Note the huge damage taken by the Staatsoper and the roofless condition of both the Neue Wache (gutted by fire) north of the Opera and the St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale (already destroyed in March 1943) at Bebelplatz.]
[The ruins of the Berlin Oper as seen in July 1945 by William Vandivert, an American photojournalist sent to the defeated capital. Note rubble on the foreground and the Prussian statues’ brick cover case at left.]
That last great bombing, and the subsequent Battle of Berlin with its bloodied street fighting with Soviet troops left the centre of the capital in a dilapidated and ruined state, with the bad damaged Staatsoper being finally taken by Red Army’s 416th and 295th Rifle Divisions after heavy fighting block by block moving west along Unter den Linden on May 1st, 1945, with the iconic Opera building included in the destroyed set of war prizes get by Stalin as conqueror and final executor of the Third Reich.
[Two views of a German 15 cm FH18 howitzer gun at Bebelplatz next to the Staatsoper, left behind by the defeated garrison after the battle with the Red Army.]
[This blurred but interesting image of the shrapnel- and bullet riddle Staatsoper in 1946 was recently sold at an Ebay auction. Notice that the building windows and main gate were walled in with bricks to protect it from the battle.]
8th Air Force Historical Society. Eighth Air Force Operations History - 3 February 1945 <http://8thafhs.com/missions.php>
Aster, Misha. (2017). Staatsoper: Die bewegte Geschichte der Berliner Lindenoper im 20. Jahrhundert. Siedler Verlag.
Einhard, Luther. (2012).Oper in Berlin – Heiß umkämpft und stets unter Feuer. Pro Business.
Freydank, Ruth. (1988). Theater in Berlin: von den Anfängen bis 1945. Berlin.
Friedrich, Jörg. (2002). Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945. Propylaen Verlag, Zweigniederlassung der Ullstein.
Kellerhoff Sven F. (2011). Berlin im Krieg: Eine Generation erinnert sich. BASTEI LÜBBE.
Meffert, Erich. (1944). Das Haus der Staatsoper und seine neue Gestaltung. Dargebracht von der Generalintendanz der Preussischen Staatstheater. Generalintendanz der Preussischen Staatstheater. Leipzig, Max Beck Verlag.
Moorhouse, Roger (2011). Berlin at war. Life and death in Hitler’s capital, 1939-45. Vintage Books.
Schmitz, Franz. Kleine Baugeschichte der Staatsoper Unter den Linden. STAATSOPERUNTERDENLINDEN <https://www.staatsoper-berlin.de>
On that night, Wednesday, RAFBomber Command launched an operation against ‘the Big City’. The mixed attacking force comprised 80 bombers - 36 Wellingtons, 24 Hampdens, 17 Whitleys and 3 of the new Short Stirling heavy bomber. This was the first raid on Berlin to feature the big four-engined british bomber.
Some sources indicates this attack was a British retaliation ordered by Churchill after the Nazis bombed and destroyed Belgrade the week before, the most devastating attack in the history of the Serbian capital. However, a British government declaration of 8 April (Boog H, Krebs G and Vogel D, 2006. p 367) had made it clear that the British were not conducting reprisal attacks and that German cities would continue to be attacked even if the Luftwaffe no longer bombed Britain. To accept the reprisal campaign would have deprived the British of the only way of hitting back Germany bombs.
Half of the bombing force reached the Nazi-capital and attacked under nearly full moon conditions before midnight. Bombing pattern was poor and flak was light. Incendiaries bombs fell on Unter den Linden and Mitte, and hit famous buildings like the State Opera (Staatsoper Berlin), Bebelplatz and the Humboldt-Universität and Staatsbibliothek. The Altes Palais’ roof, next to the Opera, was hit by 9 incendiary bombs too.
The raid lasted fifteen minutes and five aircraft failed to return.
[Crowd of Berliners at Unter den Linden during the winter of 1940, this photograph was taken from the main entrance of the Opera House, months before British bombers raided the zone hitting the theatre. At center is clearly visible the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great, with the Staatsbibliothek building behind. Brandenburger Tor is barely visible in the background. The image seems to be taken during a parade or a celebration, due to the overwhelming mass of people in the streets and the absence of traffic. Notice the accumulated snow at left. Fear of air bombings is still far for Berliners…]
Nazi-authorities summed up the damage in a official report shortly thereafter: 90 homes and 10 public buildings had been destroyed or severely damaged, as well as several factories railway facilities, two churches and a hospital and two barracks. 6 people died. RAF flyers were accused by Nazi-propaganda of attacking deliberately such cultural buildings of an European city.
[Fire-fighting after a bomb hit on the Opera den Linden.]
British losses included the only Short Stirling bomber that was able to reach the city, the other two aborted the mission. N6011 ‘MG-?’ of No 7 Squadron RAF was shot down by Oberfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Scherfling flying a Bf 110 night fighter of NJG1 at 23.35 hrs and crashed near Lingen, in Lower Saxony some 300 miles short of the target Berlin. This was the first Stirling lost to enemy action.
There was only one survivor between Fl/Lt. Victor Fernley Baker Pike’s crew, Sgt Charles MacDonald (POW). The six crew members killed were initially buried at the Lingen New Cemetery and reburied after the war in the Reichswald War Cemetery in 1947.
[The image depicts one of the first Stirlings of No 7 Sqn taking off from RAF Oakington in 1941. Note large size RAF fin flash on tail. The raid was a total disaster for the squadron, with one returned early due to a propeller fault (N6009) an other (N6005) being damaged by a night fighter and bombed Emden, plus the one shot down by Scherfling.]
[Oberfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Scherfling, from Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, the German pilot who shot down the Stirling bomber that night. It was his second air victory of a total of 33 during the war. He would be shot down and killed in a Bf 110 G-4 by a British Mosquito night fighter on 20/21 July 1944.]
[Two views of the chopped fin of T2739, an 99 Sqn Wellington bomber that returned from Berlin in this state after a run in with a night fighter during this sortie. Her squadron mates, Wellingtons R3199 and R1440, were not so lucky, being shot down on that night by German defences.]
[Hauptmann Egon Agtha, from Sprengkommando im Luftgau III Berlin, posing for the camera with an unexploded British bomb at Emilienstraße/Ecke Beyrodtstraße in Marienfelde district the following day, April 10th. 20 people were evacuated.]
On the very next day after the RAF attack, British Empire newspapers reported the raid all around the world from London to Sydney, with great emphasis in the destruction of the Staatsoper at Unter den Linden. ”(…) Firemen reported that the State Opera House is a complete loss.” The raid lasted 15 minutes over the capital, and damage was less than severe but international press correspondents reported great destruction and large fires without regards that non military targets had been hit: “(…) High explosives and incendiaries were dropped on residential areas, and public buildings and two hospitals were hit”. This is highly remarkable, because until mid-1942 British War Cabinet didn’t shifted it’s policy to the moral bombing, but hit back hard to revenge London’s Blitz was a priority for British people in the Darkest Hour.
[On 12 April this report of the raid appeared in The Argus newspaper at Melbourne, Australia.]
[This original film-footage filmed on 10 April 1941 recorded the consequences of the previous night raid by British RAF bombers over Berlin Mitte. We can see the destroyed roof of the Haus der Schweiz at Friedrichstraße, and the Feuerwehr extinguishing the last fires from the enemy’s bombs at the Opernhaus as well as columns of smoke in adjacent streets.]
[Video credit: Worldfilmheritage.]
After the attack, an infuriated Hitler confronts Göring, chief of Luftwaffe, about lack of defenses against RAF bombing campaign, so in revenge for the destruction of the Staatsoper Göring ordered two huge raids against London to demonstrate the Führer his air force could indeed flatten the capital. On April 16th, 1940, the Luftwaffe attacked with 681 bombers (886 tonnes of bombs) with the west of London suffered the most in this bombing, Chelsea and West End, and even St. Paul’s cathedral was hit. This raid was so heavy that it became known to Londoners as ‘The Wednesday’.
Three nights later the Germans back with 712 aircraft (1,026 tonnes), the largest raid of the 1941 Blitz campaign and nearly the end of this first phase. Some sources indicates total casualties are roughly 2,300 killed and 3,000 seriously wounded between the two attacks. London firefighters lost 13 men, the most so far during the war.
[Londoners walking single file across rubble with water pails after a German air raid. April 1941.]
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