Around 75 air raids by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force destroyed Frankfurt's Old Town between June 1940 and March 1945. Over 26,000 bombs were dropped. The attacks killed 5559 people, including residents, prisoners of war and forced laborers. Almost all important cultural monuments as well as the entire medieval old and new town with over 1800 half-timbered houses were burned during the March attacks in 1944. The combination of explosive and incendiary bombs resulted in a firestorm. First they blew up the roofs of the houses, then they used the incendiary bombs to reach combustible parts of the houses. Through burst windows, more air reached the fire, allowing it to spread rapidly. A suction developed which made it impossible to extinguish or control the fire. By the end of the war in 1945, the population of Frankfurt had fallen from over 553,000 (1939) to 230,000.
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Aerial view of the Cathedral and the surrounding
Old Town of Frankfurt in 1944
public domain (www.wikipedia.de) |
By the end of 1942, 67 Frankfurters had died in air raids and only a few buildings had been destroyed. In 1943 and especially in 1944 the air raids increased in strength and frequency. On March 22nd 1944, the devastating large-scale attack on Frankfurt's Old Town followed, erasing the historic heart of Frankfurt.
Other cities were also affected, such as Cologne, Lübeck, Rostock and Essen. The "Dehousing Paper" adopted by the British cabinet in May 1942 declared the destruction of eight million houses and 60 million apartments in German industrial cities a strategic goal. An attempt was made to weaken the morale and stamina of the population.
During the entire war a total of 14,017 tons of bombs were dropped on Frankfurt, a total of 5559 people died and 90,000 apartments burned down.
Niklas
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