My grandad was enslaved labourer in Hamburg docs deported from Poland. He witnessed bombing of Hamburg luckaly from far distance. After allies arrived he was unloading British ships. He miraculously returned to Poland but on the way he witnessed pictures and scene's he would never forget. Sea of bodies in ditches, thousands of German uniforms dumped by the roads. Destruction and torture left by Russians (Soviets).
My father survived this one. He was 4 years old at the time. He remembers hiding in the chicken coops at his grandparent's and his grandfather going back into the house to grab his golden watch. He ended up getting hit by shrapnel in his lower arm doing that. Since they also lived close to the zoo Hagenbeck's Tierpark he even recalls zoo animals running free after the bombings including bisons that had also been injured. In the end they got transported out of Hamburg into territories that nowadays belong to Poland.
I recently discovered that my grandfather who died in 1941 in London was killed during a German air raid & quite frankly I have no sympathy whatsoever for German citizens who suffered the same fate.
wen jeuckst das dein großvater gestorben ist? du engländer haben uns den krieg erklärt und unsere städte bombardiert und 1943 sind in hamburg nur zivilisten gestorben. Heil Deutschland
The bombing of civilians in cities is always terrible, no matter the justification attached to it😭. But thanks for a year filled with your videos, they have all been fantastic, especially the on site ones. I m hoping that 2023 comes with more blessings and travel for you Stefan 😎. Greeting to you had your family 😇
Oh, I'm sorry, some civilians are more equal than others? Some deserve to be tortured, starved to death, experimented on, and so on, but god forbid you touch the people that benefit from that shit. They got what they deserved. More cities should have been bombed. Talk to a holocaust survivor if you think otherwise.
@@marmalade9104 if you read my comment I said it’s always terrible, meaning be it London, Hamburg, Kyiv, Guernica. Imagine having children and trying to protect and comfort them in that hell😢
@@mammuchan8923 Hitler said, ''The individual has no value, it's the survival of the state, that matter's.'' Stalin had a equal distain for life, saying ''I've got more bullet's than Hitler has troops''. Between them, they callously wasted millions of lives, needlessly. The Allies weren't Angels, but there was no evidence for deliberate, mass murder.
Those civilians produce food, equipment and ammunition for armed forces. They supply recruits to those forces, everything those armed services use is civilian produced. Why therefore is targetting civilians so immoral ? As for Area Bombing, in 1977 it is deemed unlawful. However, for the British between 1940 and 1944 the only weapon they had was Bomber Command. To do nothing in those years, against the main enemy would go a long way to losing the war. Losing the war would be the greater immorality. The Allies did not lose the war. As Harris said, Bombing had not been tried as a method of winning the war. In the last year of the war Allied Strategic Bombers became ever more capable. A large raid could deliver more explosive than all the V-weapons in total. I will suggest that persons wearing rose-tinted spectacles are divorced from reality in 2023. A few voices in the West objected to the morality of bombing. Even more did not. When I asked my 90 year old Mother (East End London) whether she had any morality issues with Bombing Germany, she replied "Not in the slightest". I suspect she had seen the East End on fire and British dead in the streets.
My grandpa’s parents were in the resistance in Utrecht, hiding people who had to work in Germany. When the war turned bad for Germany younger and younger people were forced to work in their factories, so my grandpa, only around 16 years old i believe, had to go to Hamburg to work. He didn’t want, his parents were in the resistance, so he could easily hide for the Germans. But he knew if he would be hiding, the Germans would go look for him in his parents home, and then they would find the other hiding man, so his family would get in trouble. So to save that man and his family, he decided to go. He was brought to Hamburg where he endured allied bombing. After every raid he had to clear the streets from bodies, some were only a pile of ash, burnt to death. I don’t know how he managed to survive, but he could return home before the end of the war. Because of resistance spreading newspapers, his mother saw that the Allies were bombing Hamburg. She got mentally ill, panic attacks and she just could not function normal anymore. Her doctor somehow managed to find the right cure: having my grandpa reunited with her. One nephew, who had stayed in Germany till the end, once told my uncle that the British were the worst soldiers of all. He had seen that a few British soldiers killed a POW by biting through his throat. War is horrifying, not because of the weapons used, but because of humans transforming into beasts. Because if humans would hold their anger and nerves, if people wouldn’t let themselves being influenced, no shot would be fired. It’s tragic that it had to come to this world-wide trauma.
The firestorm also resulted from the tactic of first removing the roofs with conventional bombs in order to drop phosphorus bombs. Human torches ran through the streets, tried to save themselves in the water of the canals, but that didn't help with phosphorus. The Royal Air Force flew their missions at night and the Americans bombed the city during the day. There were a total of 5 night raids and two daytime raids.
About 5-6 years ago I met a German lady at a Taco Bell, she approached me because I was wearing a panzers shirt. We started talking and she was a Hamburg survivor, she was 11 years old. She said she saw and heard people burning to death in the streets. We had a good conversation, I think she appreciated meeting someone that was objective about Germany and WWII.
My former German neighbour came from Hamburg and she told me similar stories, 30 cm could mean the difference between life or death in a blast, losing friends. Having to walk out of the shelter seeing the children, men and women who weren't able te reach the shelter in time, and the use of phosphorus, jumping in water doesn't help against it, because it keeps burning...
Read the book Hellstorm it’s brutal what happened to the citizens of Hamburg! As well as Dresden, Frankfurt etc. Churchill and Roosevelt are every bit the war criminals. The victors write the history there is no doubt.
As an English man, I was initially astounded that the German populace considered theRAF to be air terrorists but having discovered more, I began to understand a little why they genuinely believed this so. For many Germans who remained in ignorance of events in the east th Ey considered I a was crime.
Most people today know very little about the horrendous WW2 fire-bombing of Hamburg, which was called "the Hiroshima of Europe". Many thousands of people were burned to death. It's incredible that any buildings were left standing. Yet the whole world knows what happened in Hamburg just over 15 years later, which has made Hamburg far more famous around the world than the enormous death and destruction of WW2. In 1960 a rock and roll group from Liverpool, England named the Beatles, came to play at the Indra Club on Grosse Freiheit Street in the Red Light District. This is such an incredibly ironic contrast that It is defies belief.
What an absolute tragedy this was. My girlfriends grandmother lived in Hamburg during the raids. She was seperated from her parents and had to take care of her disabled sister, both children. She couldn't get into a bunker and had to wait in front of the door until it was over.. absolutely horrible. I'm amazed how germany turned out to be when so many children were heavily traumatized during these times.
You live in a fantasy world. What about what the Germans did to millions of children, handicapped people and the Jews? An American soldier enter a camp and inside a room he saw thousands and thousands of babies and children shoes. I hope you get it. Yes, those German bastards were torturing and gassing children.
@@mirquellasantos2716 Why do you think EVERY German participated in the Holocaust?? It's people like you, who blame entire populations for the crimes of a few, who have always been the greatest problem.
@@Heineken1712 No. This is the result of their crimes. 6 millions Jews were murdered by the Germans, 90 percent of European Jews. So 90 percent of Germans should have met the same fate. Among the murdered was most of my family. An eye for an eye!
@@Heineken1712 Moreover don't try the gambit of women and children. The women cheered the Nazis and partook in the loot taken from the victims. As to the children, given what the Germans did to millions of Jewish, Polish, Russian, Czech, French children etc. who cares about German children?
My opa who passed away three years ago lived through the Bombing of Hamburg. He was 15 and lost his mom and dad, survived with his 4 younger brothers and sisters. He raised them going forward. The horror stories he started to talk about as he was up there in age. Unimaginable
Best wishes Stefan for a Happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! Many thanks for the excellent history lessons presented in 2022 and years past. Your content is truly appreciated.
My Opa had just become a U.S. citizen and was able to get to Germany relatively quickly when the war was over. He told me, that the British confiscated as much footage as they could of the graphic pictures taken by the German fire departments and others. They did not want the world to see what they had done. This is why you will mostly see only buildings destroyed and few of the horrific scenes of bodies and the injured. But when you see pictures of the allies, there is no shortage of pictures of the dead and injured. This is part of propaganda to lessen empathy for the average German. Thank you Stefan. The ignorance and indifference to this has been bothering me since I was a kid in the 1960s.
@chen661 Britain and France stood by their guarantee of Poland's border and declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. But what did they really do for Poland? They declared war on Germany but what about the Soviet Invasion on Sept. 17th, 1939? Both the British and French governments had a small contingent of troops in Warsaw with the aim of helping Poland evacuate its gold reserves should Warsaw be threatened. Was this gold owed to the British and French for the reckless Treaty of Versailles? The British did not assist Poland by land or sea but RAF Bomber Command flew several missions against German targets. A number of these air raids were directed at Kriegsmarine (German Navy) warships in German ports to prevent their use in the Battle of the Atlantic. With the front lines static between September 1939 and May 1940, a period known as the "Phoney War" set in, with little fighting on land or in the air. The Battle of the Heligoland Bight[6][7] was the first "named" air battle of the Second World War, which began the longest air campaign of the war, the Defense of the Reich. The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was a formal military alliance that was signed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany on July 12, 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. That is two years later!!! Some 13.5 million Polish citizens who fell under the military occupation were made Soviet subjects following show elections conducted by the NKVD secret police in an atmosphere of terror,[12][13][14] the results of which were used to legitimize the use of force. A Soviet campaign of political murders and other forms of repression, targeting Polish figures of authority such as military officers, police and priests, began with a wave of arrests and summary executions.[Note 5][15][16] The Soviet NKVD sent hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Poland to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.[Note 6] Russia is still a problem to say the least. Putin thinks he can chum-up to the Chinese. By 2040, the Chinese border will be next to Finland.
@chen661 It is true that the U.K. bombed first but not terror bombing. The total of terror bombing by the end of the war was not mostly done by the German Luftwaffe. At the beginning of the war, the German military did most of the terror bombing. The British did the first bombing on German soil. The British did not assist Poland by land or sea but RAF Bomber Command flew several missions against German targets. This is different than terror bombing. If you have other information about dates and events please share them at least with me. Stefan does an excellent job. I'm sure if he is mistaken, he would have the courage to admit to this and correct it. But you need to put in the work and the time in addition to any common sense. Perhaps technically the attack on Poland was a Blitzkrieg and not a technical terror bombing. But this is 6 and one half dozen of the other. In other words, it is the same thing.
@chen661 If 900,000 people were evacuated, how could 180,000 been injured and almost 40,000 be dead? It was a city of 1 million unless I am mistaken, 900,000 evacuated + 180,000 injured + 40,000 dead = 1,120,000 people. Something is very wrong with the death toll, evacuation numbers and the injured. Or the population was well over 1 million or they were not able to give accurate numbers because of the people that were incinerated and the inability to find and identify corpses. It was such a chaotic hell that the manpower and ability to count was limited.
The German population of the era supported a leader who started a war which led to the deaths of tens of millions worldwide. Please tell me why we should be focused on 40,000 Germans who were bombed, and not on 6 million systematically killed in the camps these Germans were running?
@@porkyfedwell The bombing was a crime against humanity. Germans are human as was everyone else. The use of the atomic bombs were not necessary. They just wanted live targets to test on. The Japanese were in the process of surrendering. Did Henry Kissinger actually say: "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy"? Essentially, yes. This quote comes from a book called "The Final Days," by Woodward & Bernstein (the Washington Post reporters who cracked the Watergate case). "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used" are Kissinger's words; "as pawns for foreign policy" is a paraphrase. Kissinger made this comment in 1973 in front of Alexander Haig, then newly appointed White House chief of staff. Read "Masters of War".
Thanks, that was quite interesting! What you showed of hamburg was mainly downtown but the parts that were destroyed the most were the districts east of the lake alster where mostly working class people lived in quite crowded areas. The English mainly aimed to diminish Hamburgs workforce... As it is always easier to replace buildings rather than laborers. It hits the enemy harder to kill civilians than infrastructure... Tragically. I live on such ground in hamburg. Imagining living on the soil of the horror that happened in the blaze of 43 is kind of spooky and feels unreal. Architectural wise, There are old photographs of how it used to be - such a pity they didn't rebuild it. But the need for housing was desperate - so the main architecture around here is very simple low cost 50ies apartment buildings all in brick red... Some districts were not even rebuilt at all for residents, because there were simply no more buildings left, so they decided to use them as commercial areas... But even here you'd have to search for buildings that are pre ww2... There are very very few... For miles...
May I ask where in Hamburg? I was there a while ago and remember seeing a lot of old buildings like the Town Hall (really impressive!) in the downtown area and in Altona/Blankenese, but exclusively new buildings in Borgfelde and Hammerbrook; Hammerbrook had mostly industrial buildings and my travel partner did not feel comfortable there at night. The round brick tower building at Berliner Tor looked old though, if you know which building I am referring to. I have seen old pictures of some of the streets we were at in Borgfelde and Hammerbrook like Hammerbrookstraße and Ausschläger Weg and they looked so much more beautiful then than they do today, with mainly modern buildings. It truly is a terrible loss, but it's even more painful to think about the civilian loss. It's a stark reminder that war is not black and white; World War 2 tends to be painted up as such, but learning about things like this makes you realize that the best way to fight a war is to end it, preferably prevent it, without bloodshed and animosity. I hope today's ongoing wars will come to such conclusions. On a lighter note, Hamburg is a really lovely city and a big contributing factor is the canals, rivers and lakes, and the fact how green it is. I would love to visit again someday. Cheers!
@@Bj-yf3im hi I live in the area of Blnakenese. And yes Blankenese did got bombed BUT as you might have realised they are very rich there so rebuilding it was not that hard. If you want to see remains of the bombing: On the Sülldorfer Friedhof (Cementary) is a crater left from a allied bomb. Sülldorf is directly above Blankenese and got hit by accident sometimes. The Tower is a remain from a castle and yes Hammerbrook now is very comercial but it also was back then, it was just a diffrent building style. Infact Hamburg is only rich because those Areas were comercial. I do feel very sorry for you friend who didnt feel save. Sadly more and more people feel that way but i can assure you, that Downtown- Hamburg is very save. just dont visit Ostdorfer Born and BIllstedt at night it is a diffrent world there. I hope you canfind the time to visit Hamburg again, there are a lot of nice places that are hiddin from the usual tourist. My tipp is the Hamburger Nord westen, with the areas of Sülldorf and Rissen they naighbour a nice forrest called the klövensteen.
@@germanv1ncecuhbutnotrly14 I see! That explains why many of the houses in Blankenese did look like they were built in an old style, but built at least post-1945. Thank you for the suggestion, I only managed to explore the eastern part of Hamburg, the downtown area and Blankenese, but will definitely check out the northwestern sections on my next visit ☺️
I remember the arguments I had with my late mother (German) who lived through the war and always cursed the allies for all the bombing deaths. I take a more balanced view, especially in the case of Hamburg. The authorities knew that the city was vulnerable, they knew it was only a matter of time for a massive bombing raid, also they knew that their air defence was no match for allied bombers. And yet, they chose not to evacuate the city of civilians. BTW, "debris" is pronounced with a silent "s" as in "debri".
Greetings from Hamburg. A good documentation with serious numbers and recognizable facts. Good investigation with local pictures! This video is a really good one! Keep doing it and thanx a lot!
To be specific, the first bombing raid on a civilian target was carried out by the twenty-nine Junkers Ju-87B Stuka dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 76, commanded by Captain Walter Sigel of the Luftwaffe. The air raid took place at 05:40 on 1 September 1939 (though some sources put the time at an hour earlier). The target was the town of Wieluń in Poland: specifically, the hospital in the center of the town was the primary aim point. The German aircraft dropped a total of 141 bombs on the hospital and surrounding buildings, killing 32 patients and staff. When the hospital caught fire, the German aircraft also machine-gunned the people trying to flee the blaze. There was no opposition to the attack; Wieluń was undefended. All 29 aircraft returned to base safely. At least three more bombing attacks were carried out on Wieluń during the course of the day; two more in the morning and one in the afternoon. In total, 46 tons of bombs were dropped on the town in that single day, damaging or destroying over 70% of its buildings. Civilian casualties are not known with precision: there were 127 confirmed and identified dead, but the total number of deaths is likely to have been many times higher than that.
Hi Janice, thank you for your informative comment. I was born in St Petersburg , then Leningrad. The beautiful city was bombarded by Germans for 3 years non stop.
@@valerytaubin8728 And yet the germans (well, some of them) still have the audacity to cry about bombings of Berlin, Kiel, Dresden, Hamburg etc... in war that they had started
@aviation cat Frampol with a population of 4,000, was bombed by the German Luftwaffe as a practice run for future missions. It is estimated that 90% of the town was completely destroyed - only two streets remained untouched, including some houses on the outskirts. Frampol was destroyed by the bombers of Luftwaffe’s 8th Air Corps, under General Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen. According to Polish historians Pawel Puzio and Ryszard Jasinski no units of the Polish army were stationed in Frampol and the town did not have any military facilities.
I believe the Air war in the immediate aftermath of the battle of Kursk helped in the bombing of Hamburg, the Luftwaffe after the Air Battle of Kuban was involved in a huge battle of Kursk and had to put a huge effort in saving Model's Army around Orel, meant they were disproportionately deployed on the Eastern Front making the German Ruhr vulnerable in June-July 1943. From August 1943 the Luftwaffe was redeployed in Germany with Americans even having stop daylight bombings in October 1943 But on the Eastern Front, the Luftwaffe could not help the Wehrmacht- Heer when the Red Army began its Advance into Belgorod, Kharkiv , Smolensk and Eastern Ukraine. Thats what happens when the Luftwaffe had to fight on soo many fronts
Do you know "The Aftermath" by Rhidian Brook? The bombing of Hamburg is a vital element to the book's story (although the story plays during the Winter of Hunger of Germany, 1946-1947) and it's just one of the best books I've ever read. Besides, would you (or have you done) a video about Stalin's war plans? Say Hitler never rose to power or never aligned himself with the Soviet Union in 1939, did Stalin have plans of his own? Very curious to find out more about that. Wishing you a very happy New Year, a healthy 2023 and I look forward to your further videos about the Dutch East Indies :-)
Had a granduncle, who was a firewarden in Wales, he saw Swansea burn, I was in Coventry, paid my respects in the Cathedral memorial, saw fragments of stained glass in situ. War is heck, wherever you are.
My mother was a toddler in hamburg when it was bombed, her family had to walk for days as their house was completely destroyed, they permanently relocated in Celle. They all survived though so counted themselves very lucky.
My mother was born in 1943 in Hambourg, and they had to quit with only one suitcase the all family to be evacuated in the lanscape. When they could come come back, the house of my mother and her family was intact, at Rohrigstrasse. But theire aunt came back and she found her neighbourghood completely destroyed and evryone killed. She had only one case with her wich was rapidly stollen. The all other family was killed in these few days of bombing. My mother does not remember as she was a newborn baby but her mother and family had to live then without electricity, no gaz, no current water at all and had to "invited" other people wich had no more home arround. This was absolutly terrible. My grand father was killed as he was a german soldier ont the east front in poland.
@@AtlasAugustus england gave what it was given..no sympathy here for germans in that respect...did the german people weep when the uk and other european nations were being heavily bombed..morality doesn't come into it..the germans wanted total war and got it with interest.
I lost my family when the RAF attacked my hometown on december 1944. I was 9 months old. My Question: My familiy wasn´t Nazis. Why should they pay for the Nazy-Crimes? Please answer me!!!! Have you also lost your familiy? Was you also a war orphan? Please answer me. God will listen to you!
I think you'll find there were also plenty of innocent people killed in Guernica, Warsaw, Rotterdam, Coventry and London. Not to mention the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the Nazis represented Germany at that time and so German cities were legitimate targets. Are any wars conducted with men on the ground killing only those responsible?
To some commentors: War crime is war crime. Yes the Germans started it and killed more civilians deliberately. But as every army in every time, also the allied armies committed war crimes. In opposite of Germany, which did a quite fundamental review of its crimes during the Nazi reign in the 60s til now, other countries don't want to think of their crimes. As far as I know, the atrocities committed by the United Kingdom by building their Empire, are barly adressed. The same goes to the US, where a lot of people still don't know what it meant to be a slave or what systematic racism people lived through to the 60s. The key in our days is, not to shy away from the atrocities our ancesters committed, but to face them, to learn from them to not repead them. I had an interesting conversation with an representative of the Russian embasy in Berlin 2 or 3 years back about Stalin and his crimes. He stated not to know, that Stalin was responsible for the death of millions Russians and didn't want to beleive me...
War is hell and total war comes with a cost. No, an Air Force alone can not win a war. However you can not deny the affect of the bombing campaigns over Germany and Japan. Destroying factories and enemy aircraft meant air superiority.
It’s difficult or rather impossible to put myself in the German and British position during WW2 but bombing civilian targets and therefore killing civilians, destroying buildings and culture just as a strategy to win a war is always wrong. Abusing the weakness of civilians which make easy targets is disgusting
War is always sad. But you reap what you sow in this life and that was particularly the case with Germany and particulaly major city populations. Germany did the same in Guernica, Spain. In Warsaw and other Polish cities. In Stalingrad and other Russian Cities. Think of what they did to Jews throughout Europe. The German population overwhelmingly supported Hitler and the Nazis whilst they were carrying all before them and winning.. So to try and claim that carpet bombing of German Cities was in some way evil is to totally ignore what they had been doing for years. Unfortunately it was war. War is evil. But if you start one there is every likely hood it will come back to bite you. You only have to look at the Russia "Special Operation" in Ukraine which is almost certainly going to end badly for them
...MAYBE THE GERMANS SHOULD HAVE CONSIDERED THE CONSEQUENCES BEFORE THEY STARTED THAT GODDAM WAR IN EUROPE!!! AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED- 1- ALL THAT THE GERMANS GOT WAS A GODDAM GOOD TASTE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE, AND 2- THE GERMANS DIDN'T SUFFER NEARLY ENOUGH FOR ALL OF THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION THAT THEY INFLICTED ON THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!
I live in Hamburg and its sad to see how there are virtually no historical buildings Here, and when they did rebuild it they didnt give it as much attention to detail as they maybe should have, its mostly bland buildings. Many buildings here have a sign saying "zerstört und aufgebaut" (destroyed and built) with a year telling you a bit of the story
Hi Stefan! Do you know the city I was born is called Novo Hamburgo (Neu Hamburg), in south Brazil? The first german settlers came in 1824 and found a settlement called back then Hamburgerberg. Happy New Year for you an your family. 🎆 Obrigado! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ 🍀 🇧🇷 🇩🇪
@@Heineken1712 Yes. In blumenau happens the biggest Oktoberfest outside Germany. Nearby Blumenau, there is Pomerode, founded by Pomeranians in 1861 and is considered the "most typically erman of all german towns of southern Brazil". Actually, I live 622 km south from there. My ancestors were hunsrückers. Thank you, DethnDecay!
Stefan, the story of the bombing of Wieluń is not entirely reliable. The truth is that the bombing of Wieluń was the beginning of the Second World War, because it occurred half an hour earlier than the shelling of Westerplatte. There was one raid of bombing and these 46 tons of bombs did not destroy the city like that. The bombing only destroyed the buildings in the very center of the city around the church, where the westernmost Polish command center was located in the basement of the church (60 km from the border with Germany). The city was mainly destroyed by 3-hour artillery fire from guns located on the slope of a hill in Kepno, 50 km from Wieluń.
The question is whether terror bombing (by either side) really accomplished anything of value, as opposed to focusing on industry. It seems the only thing terror bombing accomplishes is creating a stronger resolve to resist the enemy, through hatred and propaganda material. Anyway, take it easy, and I want my ding dong. Have a Happy New Year.
That is what the allied learned during WWII. The psychologic aim of the plan was a failure and beside, the bombings of German cities killed quite a number of slaves working in the German factories.
My mother was German and our family come from Hamburg. She could never bring herself to talk of the bombing. After the war she married my father a British soldier. Ironically I served for 15 years in the R.A.F.
It is good that Hamburg was re-built after the war and still a beautiful city. Unlike some others which became drab or characterless, such as Belgrade, Tokyo (yes,it was like an oriental Venice before the war), Coventry etc.
It why I skipped Germany on my European trip. I wanted historical buildings to see not replicas. Could you imagine the Roman Colosseum being bombed to the ground and replaced . Would you want to see a replica that looked alot like it? When you put your hand on the wall of the Colosseum, you know a Roman citizen at a gladiator fight may have touched the same spot.
Reminds me of Goebbles’ speech he gave just few months prior to this bombing, he asked “wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?” and the German masses shouted enthusiastically: “jaaaaa!!!!”. Be careful what you wish for- they say..
My Mother, Opa und Oma spent that night up to their necks in the Binnen Alster by my Opa's Garten. My mum, 16 years old at the time said it was the most frightening night of her life.
In the ukrainien-war vs Russia, they say the bombing of ukrainien-city’s by russia is a warcrime. But what of the bombing of German-city’s by the allied? These bombing had no military target, but to kill mass of german civilians.
sorry, no, its not the same. technology today means military targets can be pinpointed and hit with "smart weapons". they don't even need send aircrew - they send drones - over enemy airspace... The 1940's RAF could only area bomb and then at night to avoid heavy losses to fighters. some 55k RAF Bomber Command personnel were KIA in ww2 .. thats heavier than the total killed of USMC in the Pacific theatre. the US bombed by day from 1943, but their accuracy was actually no better than RAF night-bombing. despite claims of "dropping bombs into apple barrels" with Norden sights. they even bombed Switzerland..
Heute wissen wir das das bombardieren der Bevölkerung wirklich nichts bringt und kontraproduktiv ist…..diese Geschichtsstunde hat Putin anscheinend verschlafen…..aber die Zivilbevölkerung hat erlebt was Krieg bedeutet,was nach dem ersten Weltkrieg in Deutschland nicht unbedingt der Fall war ….
I bought, a few years ago, a Rolleiflex camera that was from the war years. In the outside of viewing hood has beautiful handwriting in silver ink with name of owner and Hamburg and some other words ( hard to read). The camera is in unused condition and I wonder if it is a survivor of the horrific bombings and amazing it survived so well.
Informative and interesting introducing video about royal airforce bombarding of Hamburg city during WW2 & how firestorms were created by bombarding special components for that atrocious purposes in my mind, it was officially terrorists dealt against German innocent & humbled people's exactly 💯 similar to Nazism bombarding of other cities during WW2 ( both sides committed inhumanity - terrorists dealt) ...Happy new years...good luck and best wishes for you Sir Stefan...I appreciate your hard work...thanks for sharing
It might help to remember England did not want that war. The United States did not want to enter that war. Russia did nothing to provoke being attacked.
Hamburg suffered a similar firestorm in 1842, which may have been a template for operation Gomorrha. Actually the Saint Nicholas church shown in the clip was destryed back then and then rebuilt in gothic revival style being destroyed again 101 years later.
WOW just brilliant to see some of the current artifacts and buildings remaining as Historical sign posts. Do NOT repeat~ Happy New YEAR Have some Dutch fun tonight!!!!! FREE in 23'
Dresden was more cruel because it was never bombed during the war because it was of little military value. Also the war was almost over with Russia closing in on Berlin, so bombing cities no longer mattered. It is said Dresden was bombed to show Russia the Allies bombing might , because Dresden was agree to be in Russia controlled Germany at the end of the war.
Dresden was a target of pretty significant military value, it was a massive communications and production hub with well over a hundred factories actively supporting the war effort, as well as a pretty significant railway hub. It also housed the Albertstadt, a military installation capable of supporting twenty thousand troops.
@@DominionSorcerer It was so important that they never bombed Dresden throughout the war until the last two months of the war? They bombed every other Germany city for years.
@@Crashed131963 yes. The importance of Dresden actually grew throughout the war, especially in 1945, because the city's nature as a transportation hub meant it was a major regrouping area for German soldiers on the Eastern Front.
@@DominionSorcerer The Eastern front was in chaos when Dresden was bombed Bombing Dresden or not was not delaying the Russias from entering Berlin by a single day.
Adolf proposed on 03/31/1936 that incendiary bombs be prohibited and that no bombs of any kind should be dropped on open towns outside the range of medium heavy artillery. The later Allied Powers in foresight of their strategic/bombardment of Germany rejected that proposal.
Bombing was the only way Britain could take the war to Germany after the British army was routed at Dunkirk leaving virtually every thing behind as they escaped capture by the armada of small boats, the RAF learned a great deal about bombing towns & cities from the Luftwaffe when they destroyed Coventry the Luftwaffe had used a very precise ratio of bombs to incendiaries to ensure that fires spread very quickly. The Germans even introduced a new word for the total destruction of a city they called it Coventrated, my mother was on fire watch duty the night Coventry was bombed she was on the roof of a store in the centre of Shrewsbury which is 70 miles from Coventry & she told me that even though Shrewsbury was blacked out the light from the burning city of Coventry made it possible to read a newspaper.
I ponder these bombings of Germany by my country quite a bit, and yet I struggle to give a shit about the carnage and destruction caused. Nazi Germany blitzed British cities at the start of the war… we built up our capacity and returned the favour. If ever a country ever deserved it, it was Nazi Germany. If as a society you allow your country to turn into such a state, then the consequences will be catastrophic. I’m proud of what Germany has become today though.
Yo stefan a video idea : The black KNIL soldiers. In the second half of the 19th century the dutch recruited several hundred soldiers from the gold coast ( Ghana ) and used them in the wars in the East Indies. These people where called Orang Blanda Itam
Civilians innocent? What are soldiers guilty of that civilians are not? Hate that term "innocents" civilians. Civilians are the lucky ones who don't have to fight and afforded protection by law, while the soldiers are the ones fighting for the civilians liberty?
@@alastair9446The soldiers are guilty of fighting and count as participants in a war. The Innocent Civilians are innocent because they did not participate. And soldiers dont fight for thier Cililians liberty, they fight for thier safty. And now my question what are civilians guilty of? Being a Woman, a child, a old person or being disabeld? Civilians are the people that have to get protected. And what does your comment want to show, that civilians are on the same level as Solidiers and there for can be killed like a Solidier? Or that Solidiers are not guilty of taking part of one of the worst things that can happen in our Sociaty?
Just a 30-something Brit on holiday, currently sat in a Hamburg apartment, hoping to never have to deal with this bullshit in my lifetime. Super interesting seeing the differing opinions.
This would be a good discussion point in a/your classroom. Was this humanitarian acceptable? It did not much for the outcome of the war, production peaked at the end of '44 and '45.
The US and UK bombing campaigns diverted 75-80% of the 88mm artillery pieces produced and who knows how much of the ammunition. Think of all the Soviet tanks not destroyed because of this diversion!
Very well done. Thanks for the reference to the Luftwaffe's original ''Practice Blitz' on Guernica in 1937,, which was totally defenceless and had no warning defence or shelter's. 1,400 died, and over 3000 injured. It was a gesture to Franco, in the hope that Spain would join the Axis with Germany and Italy. It failed. I like quoting, ' Sir Arthur Bomber Harris'. ''WAR IS HELL, BUT THE MAIN THING IS, THAT YOU WIN, YOU BLOODYWELL WIN, THEN TO HELL WITH IT''.
I am nearly 72 amd as a kid we would go to London to see my fathers friends, i still remember the broken bombed out buildings, The Germans got a dose of their own medicine , tough ! i should have an older brother he was killed in a german raid on London , i do not pity Hamburg or Dresden it was war and do under others as they would do unto you. I have been fortunate enough to know several Bomber crews and they all said the same, we dropped bombs on the bastards. GOOD !
Except that many Germans didn't agree with the nazi regime but had no choice than to suffer it. Beside many prisoners working as slaves in the factories have been killed too.
@@Christmas-dg5xc In the point of view of many people living before WWII, it was perfectly correct to target enemy civilians, as it was deemed perfectly correct for civilians to take arms and target enemy soldiers. Watch the movie "The Patriot", the guy even enroll his son as a child soldier. Why did they need to create the Red Cross flag and brassard to protect the civilian surgeons and nurses from being killed on the battlefield if civilians weren't targeted? How many indigenous civilians have been killed by Custer in the Far West, how many all over Asia and Africa? How many Boers in South Africa, etc. etc. It is the scale and the industrial killing method of the nazi that shocked the western world and triggered awareness that led to forbid the killing of civilians under all circumstance (except colateral damage). Some decades before, the genocide of the Armenian didn't get many condamnations because they were killed by gun and starvation. Less impresive than Buchenwald.
@@patriciabrenner9216 Nothing beats a simple worldview. When you know who the bad guy is, the day has structure. However, your words lack compassion, empathy and humanity. This is the same misanthropic attitude as the perpetrators of the Third Reich had.
First out War is Hell on Earth. Innocent civilians are killed in these chaotic conflicts. Bombing Raids are catastrophic and everything eventually burns in horrible fires. Dresden, Germany was literally bombed into a firestorm of rubble and ashes, thousands of civilians died that night. There is still no clear military reason why Dresden was so heavily bombed but just to kill civilians. Now Hamburg was the Heart of German Industry and munitions manufacturing, shipping industry and warehousing industry. Also, it had a large population of industry workers. The goal was to kill them all and cripple the German manufacturing and War efforts of machinery and supplies. Mannheim was bombed to piles of bricks because it was the City of Aviation/ Airplane manufacturing and housed Germany's best Engineers and designers. You could stand in Eastern Mannhrim and see all the way to the Rhein River in the West. I have the photographs to prove it and my father who was a U.S. Army Third Division Combat 10th Engineer soldier took the pictures in 1944. He talked with German civilians and they told him that the bombing raids were frightening evsry night. Germans out in the small tiwns outside of Dresden told him they could see the fires of Dresden in flames for 50 miles away. It lit up the sky like an eerie Sunrise but at night. At least 40,000 civilians died in Dresden at the hands of the U.S. Army Air Corp. and at the hands of the Royal British Air Force bomber squadrons. Senseless destruction and loss of German civilian lives on residential homes and properties, apartments etc. War crimes no doubt according to the Geneva Convention of War Rules and Articles. But, these atrocities were never prosecuted at the War Crimes Trubunal in Nuremberg Germany or at the Hague in the Netherlands. Scary scenario right. War Crimes are crimes against Humanity no matter who commits them. The Allies got away with atrocities also. German women were raped, civilians beaten and mistreated, tortured etc. You see War is Hell for all involved. All is fair in love and War! No rules apply! Total chaos and destruction! What horrific atrocities went unfounded and were committed on both the Allied and Axis sides. Everybody suffers and all Nations involved lose precious human lives
Learn about the Bombing of Dresden (1945):
th-cam.com/video/tRG5zu3SqvE/w-d-xo.html
Any interest of making an episode about the first time berlin was bombed? It was by a french bomber.
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@@mordok7987 Mark Felton did a good job on that.
😡Did the Germans start the war..!? DID THE GERMANS START THE WAR..!? *DID THE GERMANS START THE WAR..!?* 😡
Growing up Black in Nazi Germany - Esther Anumu Fordham
My grandad was enslaved labourer in Hamburg docs deported from Poland. He witnessed bombing of Hamburg luckaly from far distance. After allies arrived he was unloading British ships. He miraculously returned to Poland but on the way he witnessed pictures and scene's he would never forget. Sea of bodies in ditches, thousands of German uniforms dumped by the roads. Destruction and torture left by Russians (Soviets).
And people wonder why so many Germans fought to the last man
My father survived this one. He was 4 years old at the time. He remembers hiding in the chicken coops at his grandparent's and his grandfather going back into the house to grab his golden watch. He ended up getting hit by shrapnel in his lower arm doing that. Since they also lived close to the zoo Hagenbeck's Tierpark he even recalls zoo animals running free after the bombings including bisons that had also been injured. In the end they got transported out of Hamburg into territories that nowadays belong to Poland.
I recently discovered that my grandfather who died in 1941 in London was killed during a German air raid & quite frankly I have no sympathy whatsoever for German citizens who suffered the same fate.
I can understand.
@@HistoryHustle dann hast du keine ahnung von geschichte
wen jeuckst das dein großvater gestorben ist? du engländer haben uns den krieg erklärt und unsere städte bombardiert und 1943 sind in hamburg nur zivilisten gestorben. Heil Deutschland
The bombing of civilians in cities is always terrible, no matter the justification attached to it😭.
But thanks for a year filled with your videos, they have all been fantastic, especially the on site ones.
I m hoping that 2023 comes with more blessings and travel for you Stefan 😎. Greeting to you had your family 😇
Oh, I'm sorry, some civilians are more equal than others? Some deserve to be tortured, starved to death, experimented on, and so on, but god forbid you touch the people that benefit from that shit. They got what they deserved. More cities should have been bombed. Talk to a holocaust survivor if you think otherwise.
@@marmalade9104 if you read my comment I said it’s always terrible, meaning be it London, Hamburg, Kyiv, Guernica. Imagine having children and trying to protect and comfort them in that hell😢
Thanks for your reply and happy 2023 🎇
@@mammuchan8923 Hitler said, ''The individual has no value, it's the survival of the state, that matter's.'' Stalin had a equal distain for life, saying ''I've got more bullet's than Hitler has troops''. Between them, they callously wasted millions of lives, needlessly. The Allies weren't Angels, but there was no evidence for deliberate, mass murder.
Those civilians produce food, equipment and ammunition for armed forces. They supply recruits to those forces, everything those armed services use is civilian produced. Why therefore is targetting civilians so immoral ?
As for Area Bombing, in 1977 it is deemed unlawful. However, for the British between 1940 and 1944 the only weapon they had was Bomber Command. To do nothing in those years, against the main enemy would go a long way to losing the war. Losing the war would be the greater immorality. The Allies did not lose the war. As Harris said, Bombing had not been tried as a method of winning the war. In the last year of the war Allied Strategic Bombers became ever more capable. A large raid could deliver more explosive than all the V-weapons in total. I will suggest that persons wearing rose-tinted spectacles are divorced from reality in 2023.
A few voices in the West objected to the morality of bombing. Even more did not. When I asked my 90 year old Mother (East End London) whether she had any morality issues with Bombing Germany, she replied "Not in the slightest". I suspect she had seen the East End on fire and British dead in the streets.
My grandpa’s parents were in the resistance in Utrecht, hiding people who had to work in Germany. When the war turned bad for Germany younger and younger people were forced to work in their factories, so my grandpa, only around 16 years old i believe, had to go to Hamburg to work. He didn’t want, his parents were in the resistance, so he could easily hide for the Germans. But he knew if he would be hiding, the Germans would go look for him in his parents home, and then they would find the other hiding man, so his family would get in trouble. So to save that man and his family, he decided to go. He was brought to Hamburg where he endured allied bombing. After every raid he had to clear the streets from bodies, some were only a pile of ash, burnt to death. I don’t know how he managed to survive, but he could return home before the end of the war. Because of resistance spreading newspapers, his mother saw that the Allies were bombing Hamburg. She got mentally ill, panic attacks and she just could not function normal anymore. Her doctor somehow managed to find the right cure: having my grandpa reunited with her. One nephew, who had stayed in Germany till the end, once told my uncle that the British were the worst soldiers of all. He had seen that a few British soldiers killed a POW by biting through his throat. War is horrifying, not because of the weapons used, but because of humans transforming into beasts. Because if humans would hold their anger and nerves, if people wouldn’t let themselves being influenced, no shot would be fired. It’s tragic that it had to come to this world-wide trauma.
Amazing post, thanks for this info.
Jesus...
الارهاب البريطاني لا مبرر له
The firestorm also resulted from the tactic of first removing the roofs with conventional bombs in order to drop phosphorus bombs. Human torches ran through the streets, tried to save themselves in the water of the canals, but that didn't help with phosphorus. The Royal Air Force flew their missions at night and the Americans bombed the city during the day. There were a total of 5 night raids and two daytime raids.
Very brutal times yes.
@@HistoryHustle Murder civilians. Yours will be murdered.
@@patriciabrenner9216 In your next life you are assured of good karma.
It was also a tactic to draw in the fire services who then received the HE explosives a tactic used by Germany.
London May 10th 1941
About 5-6 years ago I met a German lady at a Taco Bell, she approached me because I was wearing a panzers shirt. We started talking and she was a Hamburg survivor, she was 11 years old. She said she saw and heard people burning to death in the streets. We had a good conversation, I think she appreciated meeting someone that was objective about Germany and WWII.
Thanks for sharing.
My former German neighbour came from Hamburg and she told me similar stories, 30 cm could mean the difference between life or death in a blast, losing friends. Having to walk out of the shelter seeing the children, men and women who weren't able te reach the shelter in time, and the use of phosphorus, jumping in water doesn't help against it, because it keeps burning...
Read the book Hellstorm it’s brutal what happened to the citizens of Hamburg! As well as Dresden, Frankfurt etc. Churchill and Roosevelt are every bit the war criminals. The victors write the history there is no doubt.
How can you be objective with murderers. This is what the Germans were then.
Hitler lover
As an English man, I was initially astounded that the German populace considered theRAF to be air terrorists but having discovered more, I began to understand a little why they genuinely believed this so. For many Germans who remained in ignorance of events in the east th
Ey considered I a was crime.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for another fantastic video Stefan! Have a happy, safe and prosperous new year!
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Most people today know very little about the horrendous WW2 fire-bombing of Hamburg, which was called "the Hiroshima of Europe". Many thousands of people were burned to death. It's incredible that any buildings were left standing. Yet the whole world knows what happened in Hamburg just over 15 years later, which has made Hamburg far more famous around the world than the enormous death and destruction of WW2. In 1960 a rock and roll group from Liverpool, England named the Beatles, came to play at the Indra Club on Grosse Freiheit Street in the Red Light District. This is such an incredibly ironic contrast that It is defies belief.
Happy New Year, Stefan. Thank you for the video of WW2. How sad that so many civilians perished in Hamburg due to the incendiary bombings.
Oh, America and Britain liked to burn citizens alive, they did same thing in Japan.
Thanks for your reply George. Best wishes.
What an absolute tragedy this was. My girlfriends grandmother lived in Hamburg during the raids. She was seperated from her parents and had to take care of her disabled sister, both children. She couldn't get into a bunker and had to wait in front of the door until it was over.. absolutely horrible. I'm amazed how germany turned out to be when so many children were heavily traumatized during these times.
You live in a fantasy world. What about what the Germans did to millions of children, handicapped people and the Jews? An American soldier enter a camp and inside a room he saw thousands and thousands of babies and children shoes. I hope you get it. Yes, those German bastards were torturing and gassing children.
@@mirquellasantos2716 Why do you think EVERY German participated in the Holocaust?? It's people like you, who blame entire populations for the crimes of a few, who have always been the greatest problem.
@@patriciabrenner9216 your Statement is just as extreme as the Nazis. You say a whole country lost the right to life. That is crazy.
@@Heineken1712 No. This is the result of their crimes.
6 millions Jews were murdered by the Germans, 90 percent of European Jews. So 90 percent of Germans should have met the same fate.
Among the murdered was most of my family.
An eye for an eye!
@@Heineken1712 Moreover don't try the gambit of women and children. The women cheered the Nazis and partook in the loot taken from the victims. As to the children, given what the Germans did to millions of Jewish, Polish, Russian, Czech, French children etc. who cares about German children?
Beste wensen Stefan. Op naar een (Hopelijk) vreedzaam 2023!
Best wishes Stefan. Hopefully to a peaceful 2023.
Many thanks. Best wishes to you also 🎇👍
Happy New Years Stefan 🍻 thank you for sharing your deep knowledge of European history❤
Hi Jesse, as always thanks for your words and support the last year. All the best for 2023!
A prime example of man's inhumanity to man. Great video!
Thanks for watching.
happy new year bro
Many thanks Carl. You too!
Beste wensen Stefan en een voorspoedig 2023.
Thanks Marc 🎇👍
Best wishes as well. Thanks for your support.
My opa who passed away three years ago lived through the Bombing of Hamburg. He was 15 and lost his mom and dad, survived with his 4 younger brothers and sisters. He raised them going forward. The horror stories he started to talk about as he was up there in age. Unimaginable
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the great content, Happy New Year!
Many thanks for your reply. Best wishes for 2023 🎇
Best wishes Stefan for a Happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! Many thanks for the excellent history lessons presented in 2022 and years past. Your content is truly appreciated.
My Opa had just become a U.S. citizen and was able to get to Germany relatively quickly when the war was over. He told me, that the British confiscated as much footage as they could of the graphic pictures taken by the German fire departments and others. They did not want the world to see what they had done. This is why you will mostly see only buildings destroyed and few of the horrific scenes of bodies and the injured. But when you see pictures of the allies, there is no shortage of pictures of the dead and injured. This is part of propaganda to lessen empathy for the average German. Thank you Stefan. The ignorance and indifference to this has been bothering me since I was a kid in the 1960s.
@chen661 Britain and France stood by their guarantee of Poland's border and declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939.
But what did they really do for Poland?
They declared war on Germany but what about the Soviet Invasion on Sept. 17th, 1939? Both the British and French governments had a small contingent of troops in Warsaw with the aim of helping Poland evacuate its gold reserves should Warsaw be threatened. Was this gold owed to the British and French for the reckless Treaty of Versailles?
The British did not assist Poland by land or sea but RAF Bomber Command flew several missions against German targets. A number of these air raids were directed at Kriegsmarine (German Navy) warships in German ports to prevent their use in the Battle of the Atlantic. With the front lines static between September 1939 and May 1940, a period known as the "Phoney War" set in, with little fighting on land or in the air. The Battle of the Heligoland Bight[6][7] was the first "named" air battle of the Second World War, which began the longest air campaign of the war, the Defense of the Reich.
The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was a formal military alliance that was signed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany on July 12, 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. That is two years later!!!
Some 13.5 million Polish citizens who fell under the military occupation were made Soviet subjects following show elections conducted by the NKVD secret police in an atmosphere of terror,[12][13][14] the results of which were used to legitimize the use of force. A Soviet campaign of political murders and other forms of repression, targeting Polish figures of authority such as military officers, police and priests, began with a wave of arrests and summary executions.[Note 5][15][16] The Soviet NKVD sent hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Poland to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.[Note 6]
Russia is still a problem to say the least. Putin thinks he can chum-up to the Chinese. By 2040, the Chinese border will be next to Finland.
@chen661 It is true that the U.K. bombed first but not terror bombing. The total of terror bombing by the end of the war was not mostly done by the German Luftwaffe. At the beginning of the war, the German military did most of the terror bombing. The British did the first bombing on German soil. The British did not assist Poland by land or sea but RAF Bomber Command flew several missions against German targets. This is different than terror bombing. If you have other information about dates and events please share them at least with me. Stefan does an excellent job. I'm sure if he is mistaken, he would have the courage to admit to this and correct it. But you need to put in the work and the time in addition to any common sense. Perhaps technically the attack on Poland was a Blitzkrieg and not a technical terror bombing. But this is 6 and one half dozen of the other. In other words, it is the same thing.
@chen661 If 900,000 people were evacuated, how could 180,000 been injured and almost 40,000 be dead? It was a city of 1 million unless I am mistaken, 900,000 evacuated + 180,000 injured + 40,000 dead = 1,120,000 people. Something is very wrong with the death toll, evacuation numbers and the injured. Or the population was well over 1 million or they were not able to give accurate numbers because of the people that were incinerated and the inability to find and identify corpses. It was such a chaotic hell that the manpower and ability to count was limited.
The German population of the era supported a leader who started a war which led to the deaths of tens of millions worldwide. Please tell me why we should be focused on 40,000 Germans who were bombed, and not on 6 million systematically killed in the camps these Germans were running?
@@porkyfedwell The bombing was a crime against humanity. Germans are human as was everyone else. The use of the atomic bombs were not necessary. They just wanted live targets to test on. The Japanese were in the process of surrendering.
Did Henry Kissinger actually say: "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy"? Essentially, yes. This quote comes from a book called "The Final Days," by Woodward & Bernstein (the Washington Post reporters who cracked the Watergate case). "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used" are Kissinger's words; "as pawns for foreign policy" is a paraphrase.
Kissinger made this comment in 1973 in front of Alexander Haig, then newly appointed White House chief of staff.
Read "Masters of War".
Another excellent video Stefan. Have a Happy New Year and thanks for all the great videos. Until next year, cheers from Tennessee.
Many thanks. Happy 2023 🎇
Thanks, that was quite interesting! What you showed of hamburg was mainly downtown but the parts that were destroyed the most were the districts east of the lake alster where mostly working class people lived in quite crowded areas. The English mainly aimed to diminish Hamburgs workforce... As it is always easier to replace buildings rather than laborers. It hits the enemy harder to kill civilians than infrastructure... Tragically. I live on such ground in hamburg. Imagining living on the soil of the horror that happened in the blaze of 43 is kind of spooky and feels unreal. Architectural wise, There are old photographs of how it used to be - such a pity they didn't rebuild it. But the need for housing was desperate - so the main architecture around here is very simple low cost 50ies apartment buildings all in brick red... Some districts were not even rebuilt at all for residents, because there were simply no more buildings left, so they decided to use them as commercial areas... But even here you'd have to search for buildings that are pre ww2... There are very very few... For miles...
Imagine living and dying in Aushwitz. This is why the criminal Germans got exactly what they deserved.
May I ask where in Hamburg? I was there a while ago and remember seeing a lot of old buildings like the Town Hall (really impressive!) in the downtown area and in Altona/Blankenese, but exclusively new buildings in Borgfelde and Hammerbrook; Hammerbrook had mostly industrial buildings and my travel partner did not feel comfortable there at night. The round brick tower building at Berliner Tor looked old though, if you know which building I am referring to.
I have seen old pictures of some of the streets we were at in Borgfelde and Hammerbrook like Hammerbrookstraße and Ausschläger Weg and they looked so much more beautiful then than they do today, with mainly modern buildings. It truly is a terrible loss, but it's even more painful to think about the civilian loss. It's a stark reminder that war is not black and white; World War 2 tends to be painted up as such, but learning about things like this makes you realize that the best way to fight a war is to end it, preferably prevent it, without bloodshed and animosity. I hope today's ongoing wars will come to such conclusions.
On a lighter note, Hamburg is a really lovely city and a big contributing factor is the canals, rivers and lakes, and the fact how green it is. I would love to visit again someday.
Cheers!
@@Bj-yf3im hi I live in the area of Blnakenese. And yes Blankenese did got bombed BUT as you might have realised they are very rich there so rebuilding it was not that hard. If you want to see remains of the bombing: On the Sülldorfer Friedhof (Cementary) is a crater left from a allied bomb. Sülldorf is directly above Blankenese and got hit by accident sometimes. The Tower is a remain from a castle and yes Hammerbrook now is very comercial but it also was back then, it was just a diffrent building style. Infact Hamburg is only rich because those Areas were comercial.
I do feel very sorry for you friend who didnt feel save. Sadly more and more people feel that way but i can assure you, that Downtown- Hamburg is very save. just dont visit Ostdorfer Born and BIllstedt at night it is a diffrent world there.
I hope you canfind the time to visit Hamburg again, there are a lot of nice places that are hiddin from the usual tourist. My tipp is the Hamburger Nord westen, with the areas of Sülldorf and Rissen they naighbour a nice forrest called the klövensteen.
@@germanv1ncecuhbutnotrly14 I see! That explains why many of the houses in Blankenese did look like they were built in an old style, but built at least post-1945.
Thank you for the suggestion, I only managed to explore the eastern part of Hamburg, the downtown area and Blankenese, but will definitely check out the northwestern sections on my next visit ☺️
@@Bj-yf3im did you visit the treppen virtel?
I remember the arguments I had with my late mother (German) who lived through the war and always cursed the allies for all the bombing deaths. I take a more balanced view, especially in the case of Hamburg. The authorities knew that the city was vulnerable, they knew it was only a matter of time for a massive bombing raid, also they knew that their air defence was no match for allied bombers. And yet, they chose not to evacuate the city of civilians.
BTW, "debris" is pronounced with a silent "s" as in "debri".
Even in new year this Legend Posts. Catch a Break man!
🫡
HAPPY NEW YEAR, A LOT OF GREAT HEALTH in the Coming Year 2023
Many thanks Anna. Wish you all the best as well.
Thanks!
Many thanks Jesse. Best wishes for 2023 🎇👍
Greetings from Hamburg. A good documentation with serious numbers and recognizable facts. Good investigation with local pictures! This video is a really good one! Keep doing it and thanx a lot!
Thanks for your response.
A good introduction to a complex subject.
Thanks for watching!
Great video and keep up the good work. 💯💯💯
Thanks Bill!
My mother went thru this and I'm sorry mom in heaven. I didn't appreciate what you went thru
To be specific, the first bombing raid on a civilian target was carried out by the twenty-nine Junkers Ju-87B Stuka dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 76, commanded by Captain Walter Sigel of the Luftwaffe.
The air raid took place at 05:40 on 1 September 1939 (though some sources put the time at an hour earlier). The target was the town of Wieluń in Poland: specifically, the hospital in the center of the town was the primary aim point. The German aircraft dropped a total of 141 bombs on the hospital and surrounding buildings, killing 32 patients and staff. When the hospital caught fire, the German aircraft also machine-gunned the people trying to flee the blaze.
There was no opposition to the attack; Wieluń was undefended. All 29 aircraft returned to base safely.
At least three more bombing attacks were carried out on Wieluń during the course of the day; two more in the morning and one in the afternoon. In total, 46 tons of bombs were dropped on the town in that single day, damaging or destroying over 70% of its buildings. Civilian casualties are not known with precision: there were 127 confirmed and identified dead, but the total number of deaths is likely to have been many times higher than that.
Hi Janice, thank you for your informative comment. I was born in St Petersburg , then Leningrad. The beautiful city was bombarded by Germans for 3 years non stop.
@@valerytaubin8728 And yet the germans (well, some of them) still have the audacity to cry about bombings of Berlin, Kiel, Dresden, Hamburg etc... in war that they had started
@aviation cat Frampol with a population of 4,000, was bombed by the German Luftwaffe as a practice run for future missions. It is estimated that 90% of the town was completely destroyed - only two streets remained untouched, including some houses on the outskirts. Frampol was destroyed by the bombers of Luftwaffe’s 8th Air Corps, under General Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen. According to Polish historians Pawel Puzio and Ryszard Jasinski no units of the Polish army were stationed in Frampol and the town did not have any military facilities.
Spanish civil war
I believe the Air war in the immediate aftermath of the battle of Kursk helped in the bombing of Hamburg, the Luftwaffe after the Air Battle of Kuban was involved in a huge battle of Kursk and had to put a huge effort in saving Model's Army around Orel, meant they were disproportionately deployed on the Eastern Front making the German Ruhr vulnerable in June-July 1943.
From August 1943 the Luftwaffe was redeployed in Germany with Americans even having stop daylight bombings in October 1943 But on the Eastern Front, the Luftwaffe could not help the Wehrmacht- Heer when the Red Army began its Advance into Belgorod, Kharkiv , Smolensk and Eastern Ukraine.
Thats what happens when the Luftwaffe had to fight on soo many fronts
Happy New Year Stefan! Interesting feature as always.....
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Happy new year Stefan ❤🇨🇦
Thank you James, best wishes!
Do you know "The Aftermath" by Rhidian Brook? The bombing of Hamburg is a vital element to the book's story (although the story plays during the Winter of Hunger of Germany, 1946-1947) and it's just one of the best books I've ever read. Besides, would you (or have you done) a video about Stalin's war plans? Say Hitler never rose to power or never aligned himself with the Soviet Union in 1939, did Stalin have plans of his own? Very curious to find out more about that.
Wishing you a very happy New Year, a healthy 2023 and I look forward to your further videos about the Dutch East Indies :-)
Thanks for replying and best wishes.
Had a granduncle, who was a firewarden in Wales, he saw Swansea burn, I was in Coventry, paid my respects in the Cathedral memorial, saw fragments of stained glass in situ. War is heck, wherever you are.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you
👍
My mother was a toddler in hamburg when it was bombed, her family had to walk for days as their house was completely destroyed, they permanently relocated in Celle. They all survived though so counted themselves very lucky.
Thanks for sharing.
A pity. And remember the bombing of Warsaw. Action reaction.
My mother was born in 1943 in Hambourg, and they had to quit with only one suitcase the all family to be evacuated in the lanscape. When they could come come back, the house of my mother and her family was intact, at Rohrigstrasse. But theire aunt came back and she found her neighbourghood completely destroyed and evryone killed. She had only one case with her wich was rapidly stollen. The all other family was killed in these few days of bombing. My mother does not remember as she was a newborn baby but her mother and family had to live then without electricity, no gaz, no current water at all and had to "invited" other people wich had no more home arround. This was absolutly terrible. My grand father was killed as he was a german soldier ont the east front in poland.
This makes the bombing of Rotterdam or London look like a picnic
One 1000 four engine bomber raid dropped more bombs on a German city then London seen in the entire war.
@@Crashed131963 yet everyone weeps about England this and that. What a joke right?
In Rotterdam also a fire storm occurred but far less deadly.
@@AtlasAugustus england gave what it was given..no sympathy here for germans in that respect...did the german people weep when the uk and other european nations were being heavily bombed..morality doesn't come into it..the germans wanted total war and got it with interest.
@@HistoryHustle ... since Rotterdam was a much smaller city.....
Unfortunately the Nazis had to be tought a lesson. The people of Hamburg paid the price
That's where it came down to.
@@HistoryHustle The German people cheered the Nazis. They were accomplices. So you can say criminals paid for their crimes.
I lost my family when the RAF attacked my hometown on december 1944. I was 9 months old. My Question: My familiy wasn´t Nazis. Why should they pay for the Nazy-Crimes? Please answer me!!!! Have you also lost your familiy? Was you also a war orphan? Please answer me. God will listen to you!
I think you'll find there were also plenty of innocent people killed in Guernica, Warsaw, Rotterdam, Coventry and London. Not to mention the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the Nazis represented Germany at that time and so German cities were legitimate targets. Are any wars conducted with men on the ground killing only those responsible?
@@phil7132 The blame for all the mischief are not just those who commit it, but also those who don´t prevent it (Erich Kästner)
To some commentors: War crime is war crime. Yes the Germans started it and killed more civilians deliberately. But as every army in every time, also the allied armies committed war crimes. In opposite of Germany, which did a quite fundamental review of its crimes during the Nazi reign in the 60s til now, other countries don't want to think of their crimes. As far as I know, the atrocities committed by the United Kingdom by building their Empire, are barly adressed. The same goes to the US, where a lot of people still don't know what it meant to be a slave or what systematic racism people lived through to the 60s. The key in our days is, not to shy away from the atrocities our ancesters committed, but to face them, to learn from them to not repead them.
I had an interesting conversation with an representative of the Russian embasy in Berlin 2 or 3 years back about Stalin and his crimes. He stated not to know, that Stalin was responsible for the death of millions Russians and didn't want to beleive me...
Happy new year 👍
🎇👍
War is hell and total war comes with a cost. No, an Air Force alone can not win a war. However you can not deny the affect of the bombing campaigns over Germany and Japan. Destroying factories and enemy aircraft meant air superiority.
It’s difficult or rather impossible to put myself in the German and British position during WW2 but bombing civilian targets and therefore killing civilians, destroying buildings and culture just as a strategy to win a war is always wrong. Abusing the weakness of civilians which make easy targets is disgusting
War isn't like a game of dominoes down the pub, winning is everything.
Would you rather the Nazis won?.
The Nazi killed millions of people. War is cruel but at times necessary.
War is always sad. But you reap what you sow in this life and that was particularly the case with Germany and particulaly major city populations. Germany did the same in Guernica, Spain. In Warsaw and other Polish cities. In Stalingrad and other Russian Cities. Think of what they did to Jews throughout Europe. The German population overwhelmingly supported Hitler and the Nazis whilst they were carrying all before them and winning.. So to try and claim that carpet bombing of German Cities was in some way evil is to totally ignore what they had been doing for years. Unfortunately it was war. War is evil. But if you start one there is every likely hood it will come back to bite you. You only have to look at the Russia "Special Operation" in Ukraine which is almost certainly going to end badly for them
...MAYBE THE GERMANS SHOULD HAVE CONSIDERED THE CONSEQUENCES BEFORE THEY STARTED THAT GODDAM WAR IN EUROPE!!!
AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED- 1- ALL THAT THE GERMANS GOT WAS A GODDAM GOOD TASTE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE, AND 2- THE GERMANS DIDN'T SUFFER NEARLY ENOUGH FOR ALL OF THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION THAT THEY INFLICTED ON THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!
@@anthonyyoung9580...YOU SUMMED IT UP PRETTY WELL-!!!
War is Hell.
No sense in trying to refine it .
I understand.
I live in Hamburg and its sad to see how there are virtually no historical buildings Here, and when they did rebuild it they didnt give it as much attention to detail as they maybe should have, its mostly bland buildings. Many buildings here have a sign saying "zerstört und aufgebaut" (destroyed and built) with a year telling you a bit of the story
I agree It looks so fake and boring like it's a 90's video game..Repeated patterns.
You should visit Coventry. Equally shit.
Shouldn't have started the war.
The perils of being a strategic port with munitions factories and vital transportation links during a 'total' war..
Hi Stefan! Do you know the city I was born is called Novo Hamburgo (Neu Hamburg), in south Brazil? The first german settlers came in 1824 and found a settlement called back then Hamburgerberg. Happy New Year for you an your family. 🎆 Obrigado! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ 🍀 🇧🇷 🇩🇪
Didnt know. I interesting to learn. Thanks and best wishes for 2023 🎇
I read about it. Also there is a place called Blumenau, right? Lots of people there have german names.
@@Heineken1712 Yes. In blumenau happens the biggest Oktoberfest outside Germany. Nearby Blumenau, there is Pomerode, founded by Pomeranians in 1861 and is considered the "most typically erman of all german towns of southern Brazil".
Actually, I live 622 km south from there. My ancestors were hunsrückers. Thank you, DethnDecay!
@@marcoskehl I would love to visit these places some day.
Stefan, the story of the bombing of Wieluń is not entirely reliable. The truth is that the bombing of Wieluń was the beginning of the Second World War, because it occurred half an hour earlier than the shelling of Westerplatte. There was one raid of bombing and these 46 tons of bombs did not destroy the city like that. The bombing only destroyed the buildings in the very center of the city around the church, where the westernmost Polish command center was located in the basement of the church (60 km from the border with Germany). The city was mainly destroyed by 3-hour artillery fire from guns located on the slope of a hill in Kepno, 50 km from Wieluń.
Hope to cover more on this topic in the future.
De beste wensen voor 2023!
Bedankt Erik. Van hetzelfde.
The question is whether terror bombing (by either side) really accomplished anything of value, as opposed to focusing on industry. It seems the only thing terror bombing accomplishes is creating a stronger resolve to resist the enemy, through hatred and propaganda material. Anyway, take it easy, and I want my ding dong. Have a Happy New Year.
That is what the allied learned during WWII. The psychologic aim of the plan was a failure and beside, the bombings of German cities killed quite a number of slaves working in the German factories.
That’s sad. I’m in Hamburg now. Business trip. Rip.
Nice city for a visit.
Terrific history and very educational too.
RS. Canada
Thanks Richard.
My mother was German and our family come from Hamburg. She could never bring herself to talk of the bombing. After the war she married my father a British soldier. Ironically I served for 15 years in the R.A.F.
Thanks for sharing.
It is good that Hamburg was re-built after the war and still a beautiful city. Unlike some others which became drab or characterless, such as Belgrade, Tokyo (yes,it was like an oriental Venice before the war), Coventry etc.
You forget Rotterdam, that was mostly ruined AFTER the war, since the authorities weren't interested in a restoration
It why I skipped Germany on my European trip. I wanted historical buildings to see not replicas.
Could you imagine the Roman Colosseum being bombed to the ground and replaced . Would you want to see a replica that looked alot like it?
When you put your hand on the wall of the Colosseum, you know a Roman citizen at a gladiator fight may have touched the same spot.
2:12 where is this?
Reminds me of Goebbles’ speech he gave just few months prior to this bombing, he asked “wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?” and the German masses shouted enthusiastically: “jaaaaa!!!!”. Be careful what you wish for- they say..
My Mother, Opa und Oma spent that night up to their necks in the Binnen Alster by my Opa's Garten. My mum, 16 years old at the time said it was the most frightening night of her life.
I can understand. Thanks for sharing.
Who initiated the invasions, the camps, the endless slaughter?
Please watch the video.
Germans
There may have been people, who, did not die immediately, but, were injured and died from the injuries, some, years after the bombardments.
Yes, for sure.
In the ukrainien-war vs Russia, they say the bombing of ukrainien-city’s by russia is a warcrime.
But what of the bombing of German-city’s by the allied?
These bombing had no military target, but to kill mass of german civilians.
I understand. Still topic of debate today.
The aggressor makes the rules. If the Germans didn't start bombing civilians, I doubt the Allies would have.
sorry, no, its not the same. technology today means military targets can be pinpointed and hit with "smart weapons". they don't even need send aircrew - they send drones - over enemy airspace... The 1940's RAF could only area bomb and then at night to avoid heavy losses to fighters. some 55k RAF Bomber Command personnel were KIA in ww2 .. thats heavier than the total killed of USMC in the Pacific theatre. the US bombed by day from 1943, but their accuracy was actually no better than RAF night-bombing. despite claims of "dropping bombs into apple barrels" with Norden sights. they even bombed Switzerland..
Heute wissen wir das das bombardieren der Bevölkerung wirklich nichts bringt und kontraproduktiv ist…..diese Geschichtsstunde hat Putin anscheinend verschlafen…..aber die Zivilbevölkerung hat erlebt was Krieg bedeutet,was nach dem ersten Weltkrieg in Deutschland nicht unbedingt der Fall war ….
It is wrong too. See ww2 war against humanity series.
Danke
👍
I bought, a few years ago, a Rolleiflex camera that was from the war years. In the outside of viewing hood has beautiful handwriting in silver ink with name of owner and Hamburg and some other words ( hard to read). The camera is in unused condition and I wonder if it is a survivor of the horrific bombings and amazing it survived so well.
"I mean to set a fire, deep in the belly of the beast. I mean to burn out its ugly black heart".........Bomber Harris
I can imagine he said that.
He certainly said it.
Crime against Humanity no diff. than Nazi's
Happy New Year Stefan.Keep them coming.
🎇👍
How many people of Hamburg raised their right hand of alliance to Hitler
Not sure. It used to be a fairly left wing city. Also today.
Informative and interesting introducing video about royal airforce bombarding of Hamburg city during WW2 & how firestorms were created by bombarding special components for that atrocious purposes in my mind, it was officially terrorists dealt against German innocent & humbled people's exactly 💯 similar to Nazism bombarding of other cities during WW2 ( both sides committed inhumanity - terrorists dealt) ...Happy new years...good luck and best wishes for you Sir Stefan...I appreciate your hard work...thanks for sharing
Germany Shouldn't have started the war in the first place..!
@@woodenseagull1899 Wait, so EVERY person in Germany -- including children and babies -- started and supported the war? Who knew.
@@woodenseagull1899 And Allies should have not taken so much land from Germany at the end of ww1. Go play the blame game some where else.
It might help to remember England did not want that war. The United States did not want to enter that war. Russia did nothing to provoke being attacked.
True. What is your point?
There is more than just 1943. My oma was pulled out of basement of a bombed building while in labour with my mother in July, 1944.
Thanks for sharing
Sickening.
It was brutal yes.
Hamburg suffered a similar firestorm in 1842, which may have been a template for operation Gomorrha. Actually the Saint Nicholas church shown in the clip was destryed back then and then rebuilt in gothic revival style being destroyed again 101 years later.
Didnt know this. Thanks for sharing.
I am speechless..
Brutal times.
@@HistoryHustle I have read at least 10 books about the WWII and I am always shocked by the brutality of our allied forces. Anyway..
WOW just brilliant to see some of the current artifacts and buildings remaining as Historical sign posts. Do NOT repeat~
Happy New YEAR
Have some Dutch fun tonight!!!!!
FREE in 23'
Dresden was more cruel because it was never bombed during the war because it was of little military value.
Also the war was almost over with Russia closing in on Berlin, so bombing cities no longer mattered.
It is said Dresden was bombed to show Russia the Allies bombing might , because Dresden was agree to be in Russia controlled Germany at the end of the war.
Dresden was a target of pretty significant military value, it was a massive communications and production hub with well over a hundred factories actively supporting the war effort, as well as a pretty significant railway hub. It also housed the Albertstadt, a military installation capable of supporting twenty thousand troops.
@@DominionSorcerer It was so important that they never bombed Dresden throughout the war until the last two months of the war?
They bombed every other Germany city for years.
@@Crashed131963 yes. The importance of Dresden actually grew throughout the war, especially in 1945, because the city's nature as a transportation hub meant it was a major regrouping area for German soldiers on the Eastern Front.
@@DominionSorcerer The Eastern front was in chaos when Dresden was bombed Bombing Dresden or not was not delaying the Russias from entering Berlin by a single day.
no that is a n*zi myth promoted by Joesph Goebells himself.
Adolf proposed on 03/31/1936 that incendiary bombs be prohibited and that no bombs of any kind should be dropped on open towns outside the range of medium heavy artillery.
The later Allied Powers in foresight of their strategic/bombardment of Germany rejected that proposal.
Bombing was the only way Britain could take the war to Germany after the British army was routed at Dunkirk leaving virtually every thing behind as they escaped capture by the armada of small boats, the RAF learned a great deal about bombing towns & cities from the Luftwaffe when they destroyed Coventry the Luftwaffe had used a very precise ratio of bombs to incendiaries to ensure that fires spread very quickly. The Germans even introduced a new word for the total destruction of a city they called it Coventrated, my mother was on fire watch duty the night Coventry was bombed she was on the roof of a store in the centre of Shrewsbury which is 70 miles from Coventry & she told me that even though Shrewsbury was blacked out the light from the burning city of Coventry made it possible to read a newspaper.
I ponder these bombings of Germany by my country quite a bit, and yet I struggle to give a shit about the carnage and destruction caused. Nazi Germany blitzed British cities at the start of the war… we built up our capacity and returned the favour. If ever a country ever deserved it, it was Nazi Germany. If as a society you allow your country to turn into such a state, then the consequences will be catastrophic. I’m proud of what Germany has become today though.
Very well said Craig. Those who so the wind…..
@@anthonyeaton5153 This was what bomber Harris said...
Yo stefan a video idea : The black KNIL soldiers. In the second half of the 19th century the dutch recruited several hundred soldiers from the gold coast ( Ghana ) and used them in the wars in the East Indies. These people where called Orang Blanda Itam
Yes, mention them in my KNIL video.
Germany truly did reap what it sowed. The great tragedy is the innocent civilians caught in the middle of the " politics by other means"
Indeed.
Civilians innocent? What are soldiers guilty of that civilians are not? Hate that term "innocents" civilians. Civilians are the lucky ones who don't have to fight and afforded protection by law, while the soldiers are the ones fighting for the civilians liberty?
@@alastair9446
Politically incorrect
but CORRECT post
@@alastair9446The soldiers are guilty of fighting and count as participants in a war. The Innocent Civilians are innocent because they did not participate. And soldiers dont fight for thier Cililians liberty, they fight for thier safty. And now my question what are civilians guilty of? Being a Woman, a child, a old person or being disabeld? Civilians are the people that have to get protected. And what does your comment want to show, that civilians are on the same level as Solidiers and there for can be killed like a Solidier? Or that Solidiers are not guilty of taking part of one of the worst things that can happen in our Sociaty?
Just a 30-something Brit on holiday, currently sat in a Hamburg apartment, hoping to never have to deal with this bullshit in my lifetime.
Super interesting seeing the differing opinions.
This would be a good discussion point in a/your classroom. Was this humanitarian acceptable? It did not much for the outcome of the war, production peaked at the end of '44 and '45.
It could have been higher in 44 and 45.
the song" i don't want to set the world on fire" by the ink spots reminds me of operation Gomorrah
I can understand.
I'm still waiting for this being called a war crime.
Ok.
Keep waiting buddy.
@@anthonyeaton5153
How is this not a war crime
@@anthonyeaton5153 And why do you think you could address me with "buddy"?
My mother And her family grew up in Berlin. She was 13 when the war started, 19 when it ended.
Thanks for sharing.
The Sword of Damocles now hung over the German people.
That aside, Happy New Year.
🎇👍
Germany bombed London and other places in Britain from 1914 to 18
And Liege, in August 1914, plus the shelling of the east coast towns.
True.
The US and UK bombing campaigns diverted 75-80% of the 88mm artillery pieces produced and who knows how much of the ammunition. Think of all the Soviet tanks not destroyed because of this diversion!
Steve I’m glad you mentioned those artillery pieces. That aspect of the bombing campaign is rarely mentioned but itv hastened the end of the war.
Very well done. Thanks for the reference to the Luftwaffe's original ''Practice Blitz' on Guernica in 1937,, which was totally defenceless and had no warning defence or shelter's. 1,400 died, and over 3000 injured. It was a gesture to Franco, in the hope that Spain would join the Axis with Germany and Italy. It failed.
I like quoting, ' Sir Arthur Bomber Harris'. ''WAR IS HELL, BUT THE MAIN THING IS, THAT YOU WIN, YOU BLOODYWELL WIN, THEN TO HELL WITH IT''.
Thanks for your response.
I am nearly 72 amd as a kid we would go to London to see my fathers friends, i still remember the broken bombed out buildings, The Germans got a dose of their own medicine , tough ! i should have an older brother he was killed in a german raid on London , i do not pity Hamburg or Dresden it was war and do under others as they would do unto you. I have been fortunate enough to know several Bomber crews and they all said the same, we dropped bombs on the bastards. GOOD !
Except that many Germans didn't agree with the nazi regime but had no choice than to suffer it. Beside many prisoners working as slaves in the factories have been killed too.
How would you like your Hamburg? Well done!
Lol.
After bombing Guernica, Rotterdam, Warsaw and London they got a bit back with interest. So unfair
Do notice the Germans bombed many cities in the USSR with at least half a million deaths.
Shucks, and I'd thought it was a universal wrong, to target civilians. I guess there's always something to learn.
It became universally wrong only after (and because of) WWII.
@@BangFarang1 "Became?" Was what Germany did perhaps not wrong until later, in hindsight, also? How does this work?
@@Christmas-dg5xc In the point of view of many people living before WWII, it was perfectly correct to target enemy civilians, as it was deemed perfectly correct for civilians to take arms and target enemy soldiers.
Watch the movie "The Patriot", the guy even enroll his son as a child soldier.
Why did they need to create the Red Cross flag and brassard to protect the civilian surgeons and nurses from being killed on the battlefield if civilians weren't targeted?
How many indigenous civilians have been killed by Custer in the Far West, how many all over Asia and Africa?
How many Boers in South Africa, etc. etc.
It is the scale and the industrial killing method of the nazi that shocked the western world and triggered awareness that led to forbid the killing of civilians under all circumstance (except colateral damage). Some decades before, the genocide of the Armenian didn't get many condamnations because they were killed by gun and starvation. Less impresive than Buchenwald.
Sorry not sorry
Ok.
@@HistoryHustle I wonder why you cannot understand the perspective of the victims. The Germans were a monstruous murderous people then.
@@patriciabrenner9216 Nothing beats a simple worldview. When you know who the bad guy is, the day has structure. However, your words lack compassion, empathy and humanity. This is the same misanthropic attitude as the perpetrators of the Third Reich had.
First out War is Hell on Earth. Innocent civilians are killed in these chaotic conflicts. Bombing Raids are catastrophic and everything eventually burns in horrible fires. Dresden, Germany was literally bombed into a firestorm of rubble and ashes, thousands of civilians died that night. There is still no clear military reason why Dresden was so heavily bombed but just to kill civilians. Now Hamburg was the Heart of German Industry and munitions manufacturing, shipping industry and warehousing industry. Also, it had a large population of industry workers. The goal was to kill them all and cripple the German manufacturing and War efforts of machinery and supplies. Mannheim was bombed to piles of bricks because it was the City of Aviation/ Airplane manufacturing and housed Germany's best Engineers and designers. You could stand in Eastern Mannhrim and see all the way to the Rhein River in the West. I have the photographs to prove it and my father who was a U.S. Army Third Division Combat 10th Engineer soldier took the pictures in 1944. He talked with German civilians and they told him that the bombing raids were frightening evsry night. Germans out in the small tiwns outside of Dresden told him they could see the fires of Dresden in flames for 50 miles away. It lit up the sky like an eerie Sunrise but at night. At least 40,000 civilians died in Dresden at the hands of the U.S. Army Air Corp. and at the hands of the Royal British Air Force bomber squadrons. Senseless destruction and loss of German civilian lives on residential homes and properties, apartments etc. War crimes no doubt according to the Geneva Convention of War Rules and Articles. But, these atrocities were never prosecuted at the War Crimes Trubunal in Nuremberg Germany or at the Hague in the Netherlands. Scary scenario right. War Crimes are crimes against Humanity no matter who commits them. The Allies got away with atrocities also. German women were raped, civilians beaten and mistreated, tortured etc. You see War is Hell for all involved. All is fair in love and War! No rules apply! Total chaos and destruction! What horrific atrocities went unfounded and were committed on both the Allied and Axis sides. Everybody suffers and all Nations involved lose precious human lives
Sorry more Germans didn't die. A people of criminals. Sorry any German soldier survived. They should all have been hanged.
The Gerrmans were ALL criminals. So this is only justice.
Hamburg was also a potential nuclear target if the war in Europe had lasted longer...
"potential nuclear target" I could never figure out why people hate being called baby killers, when they directly advocate for it.
@gumdeo: I ve heard that too.
I believe hamburg was revenge for Coventry
Could very well be yes.
Oh I thought Coventry was revenge for the RAF bombing Berlin ...